Professional standards support for curriculum mentors: report on the TDA funded ‘Professional Standards Support for Curriculum mentors’ at the University of Southampton

A revised framework of professional standards for teachers was published by the Training and Development Agency for Schools (TDA). These standards replaced existing teacher standards in September 2007 and form a clear, progressive framework of standards for teachers. The standards are statements of a teacher's professional attributes, knowledge and understanding, and skills. Importantly they clarify expectations at each career stage helping teachers identify how they need to develop professionally to progress in their careers.• the awards of Qualified Teacher Status (QTS) (Q)• teachers on the main scale (Core) (C)• teachers on the upper pay scale (Post Threshold Teachers) (P)• Excellent Teachers (E)• Advanced Skills Teachers (ASTs) (A)The Training and Development Agency for Schools (TDA) made funding available to help support initial teacher training (ITT) providers in meeting the revised qualified teacher status (QTS) standards which came into effect in September 2007. A Guidance to accompany the standards for Qualified Teacher Status (QTS) was also produced by the TDA<br/

Links between ICT advanced skills teachers and initial teacher training

This report and guidance materials were compiled for the Training and Development Agency for Schools (TDA)Research undertaken at one higher education institution located in West London, UK sought to explore links between ICT Avanced Skills Teachers (AST) and Initial Teacher Training (ITT). The main objective was to capture the perceptions and experiences of leading ASTs in ICT along with those of teacher educators and trainee teachers to identify ways in which collaborative and/or sustainable partnerships might be forged, which enable trainee teachers to gain exposure to cutting edge, best practice of ICT in primary and secondary schools

An Evaluation of the BBC News School Report Project in Initial Teacher Education for the Training and Development Agency (TDA) 2010

Executive summary Overall, the project greatly enhanced trainees’ experiences of initial teacher education, in terms of collecting robust evidence for particular standards and enhancing employability. The project provided opportunities for accelerated professional development of trainees in terms of enhancing leadership and enabled trainees to be graded 1 in Ofsted criteria. The evaluation indicated the following: • Taking part in the project offers new models of partnership in terms of consortia and rhythms of placement. • The project resulted in enhancement of trainees’ subject knowledge and technical skills, providing evidence for standard Q14. • The project exposed trainees to working in cross-curricular and extracurricular contexts, providing evidence for standards Q17 and Q23. • Trainees engagement in the project led to greater independence of learning (and concomitant personalisation) than in other forms of coursework due to their ownership of tasks. This provided evidence for standard Q31. • The professional profile of trainees was enhanced, as was that of the school. The former led to increased perception of employability. • Trainees were given more freedoms, encouraged to take risks and to engage with authentic tasks. This provided evidence for standards Q8, Q10 and Q30. • The project led to richer reflections on practice than other teaching the trainees had undertaken. • The project accelerated the trainees’ confidence and professional development as evidenced for standard Q7 and led to different relationships between trainees and other school staff

Trainee teachers’ engagement in a cross-curricular news project: impact on professional identity

On 7th September at BERA, the above ITTE members presented the findings from their ITTE evaluation project, funded by the TDA into the impact of the BBC News School Report project on trainee teachers. In short, the project found that the professional identity of trainee teachers, is, in part, defined by their relationship to those who mentor and tutor them. As teachers in training they are in a role with less power than those who are responsible for their training, support and development. The ITTE evaluation focused on the impact of trainee teachers’ engagement in the BBC News School Report project and how this helped to form their professional identity. This was examined through the roles taken by trainee teachers in the project while on placement in schools, the activities they were consequently engaged in and the types of evidence generated for their assessment against the Standards for Qualified Teachers in England. The evaluation of the project for Training and Development Agency for Schools (TDA), the government agency responsible for teacher training in England, involved the following instruments of data collection - surveys, focus groups and written reports. Respondents included trainee teachers themselves, their tutors as representatives of teacher education providers and their mentors as representatives of schools in which they were placed. The methodological approach was interpretative and phenomenological with qualitative and quantitative data being analysed for emergent themes. The paper presented at BERA focused on one of the themes found, that of the impact on the professional identity of trainee teachers exposed to taking up leadership roles. The research showed that their professional identity is enhanced through their being in a leading role in respect of curriculum and working with other staff. Their self perception of role was modified to one in which they saw themselves, and were seen, as equals to qualified staff rather than subservient or dependent on them. Furthermore, engagement in such projects led them to collecting richer, more holistic evidence for meeting the Standards as they took greater ownership for this process, situating it in their leading role in the project. Their identity became defined less by the articulation of Standards and by their relationship to others and more by their own notions of professionalism. A new more equal power relationship developed as they took on responsibility for the project

An Assessment of Performance Measures in the Transportation Development Act

"This report examines the performance measures requirements in California’s Transportation Development Act (TDA) of 1971. The TDA is an important source of funding for the state’s public transit agencies, representing approximately 18 percent of their total (2018) revenue between the TDA’s two funds (LTF and STA). Since the TDA’s passage in 1971, the transit operating environment in California has changed, in some cases dramatically. The state has nearly doubled in population (20.4 million in 1971 to 39.8 million in 2019), traffic has worsened considerably, climate change is now a central public policy focus, and many places around the state are investing heavily in making public transit a viable alternative to driving. Our research examined the TDA’s performance requirements and their effects on the state’s transit operators. We also considered alternative approaches to both transit finance and performance requirements, by studying transit funding programs in 13 other states that invest significant amounts of funding in transit. In brief, we find that the TDA’s use of performance measurements to allocate funding is unusual. The states we studied do not for the most part make funding contingent on performance, thereby avoiding the unproductive and difficult-to-implement “death penalty” (Taylor, 1995) of withholding subsidies for a much-needed public service. In several of the cases analyzed, by contrast, states guarantee specific levels or amounts of funding for transit service.To examine how the TDA’s performance measures are working, we conducted a survey of California transit professionals at agencies and at Regional Transportation Planning Agencies (RTPAs). That California’s aspirations for transit have evolved over the years is reflected in the frequent loopholes and exemptions the legislature has added to the TDA to give struggling operators more latitude to receive funding in order to meet multiple goals and objectives while staying in compliance with a single cost-effectiveness goal. The extent and frequency with which these exemptions have occurred suggests that the larger aims for public transit, and indeed the goals for the TDA program itself, have evolved, and need to be re-thought holistically, rather than incrementally.Accordingly we offer six recommendations concerning transit performance assessment in the TDA.

Training bursary : funding manual for academic year 2009/2010

The bursary is a financial aid awarded to eligible trainees on eligible postgraduate TDA funded initial teacher training (ITT) courses (including additional experience), eligible subject knowledge enhancement (SKE) courses, and designated undergraduate courses, in order to assist with their living costs during training

Preparing potential teachers for the transition from employment to teacher training: an evaluative case study of a Maths Enhancement Course

In response to a UK government drive to improve maths teaching in schools, the South West London Maths Enhancement Course (MEC) has been set up though collaboration between three Higher Education institutions (HEIs) to provide an efficient route for non maths graduates in employment to upgrade their subject knowledge and give a smooth transition into teacher training (PGCE). An evaluation of the scheme, measured against Teacher Development Agency (TDA) objectives and success criteria agreed by university staff, involved thematic analysis of focus group discussions and interviews with students and staff during both the MEC and PGCE courses. This has revealed a high level of satisfaction and success related to a number of underlying issues, particularly around student recruitment, curriculum design, peer support and staff collaboration. The model offers an example of practice transferable to a range of programmes aimed at supporting students in the transition between levels and institutions