Mary Diez's presentation from the February 24 Education Policy Breakfast at NYU's Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development

1. Developing Teacher Quality and
Effectiveness in New Teachers
MARY E. DIEZ, PH.D.
DEAN, SCHOOL OF EDUCATION
ALVERNO COLLEGE

2. Assumptions
 A vision of teaching guides descriptions of quality
practice
 Teacher quality and effectiveness builds
developmentally over the professional life span
 Effectiveness is best measured using multiple
sources of data

3. How clear are we on the vision of teaching
and teacher quality?
 Black box story
 Institution with excellent results on standardized test scores of
the students of their graduates
 Explanation: Success comes from
 admitting students after they’ve completed the content major
 having a 5 year program
 teachers graduating with a master’s degree

4. How clear are we on the vision of teaching
and teacher quality?
 Alverno story
 Institution consistently identified as producing strong teachers
who persist in the profession (85% still teaching after 5 years, a
great percentage in urban schools) and have a positive impact
on learners and school cultures
 Studies: Zeichner for NCTAF, US D.O.E., Levine, Edutopia
 Explanation: Success comes from
 being clear about outcomes (grounded in the work of teaching)
 using performance assessments that come ever closer to the
performance of the outcomes
 implementing a pedagogically developmental curriculum
 using feedback and self assessment across the program

5. A vision of teaching guides descriptions
of quality practice
 What are expectations for
high quality, effective
beginning practice?
 InTASC Standards 2011
 Changes from 1992
standards
 Four categories of standards
 The Learner and Learning
 Content and Application of
Content
 Instructional Practice
 Professional Responsibility

6. Sample standards
 The teacher understands how to connect concepts
and use differing perspectives to engage learners in
critical thinking, creativity, and collaborative
problem solving related to authentic local and global
issues.
 The teacher understands and uses multiple methods
of assessment to engage learners in their own
growth, to monitor learner progress, and to guide the
teacher’s and learner’s decision making.

7. How do we build for beginning teacher
quality and effectiveness?
 What are developmental paths for high quality,
effective beginning practice? (Change Magazine
article)
 Three metaphors for current teacher preparation
 Survivor
 Emphasis on dynamic personality traits/focus on practice,
 Armchair Tourist
 Emphasis on prior academic achievement/focus on theory
 Expeditionary Learning
 Emphasis on development—both academics and dispositions/
integrated approach to theory and practice

8. How do we build for ongoing development of
teacher quality and effectiveness?
 InTASC developmental rubrics to guide professional
development
 Following principles for good professional development
 Accompanied by suggestions for the kinds of experiences that
can help teachers develop across the professional lifespan
 Enhanced by videos of practice – classroom, teacher team
meeting, teacher reflection

9. And… And…
Using data from multiple The teacher uses and/or designs The teacher uses formative
types of assessments, the a variety of classroom formative classroom assessments to
teacher draws conclusions assessments, matching the maximize the development of
about student progress method with the type of knowledge, critical thinking, and
toward learning objectives learning objectives. S/he problem solving skills embedded in
and uses this analysis to provides students with multiple learning objectives.
inform instruction to meet ways to demonstrate
learner needs. performance using The teacher works individually and
contemporary tools and with colleagues to gather
S/he keeps digital and/or resources. additional data needed to better
other records to support understand what is affecting
his/her analysis and The teacher uses data to guide learner progress and to advocate
reporting of learner the design of differentiated for necessary change. S/he works
progress. learning experiences. with colleagues to analyze progress
against standards and expand the
The teacher participates in S/he works with colleagues to range of supports for students with
collegial conversations to analyze performance across varied instructional needs.
improve individual and groups of learners and engages
collective instructional in joint development of S/he joins with others to use
practice based on the strategies for improving assessment information to
assessment data. instruction and support. evaluate the effectiveness of
curriculum and instruction.

10. How do we build for ongoing development of
teacher quality and effectiveness?
 Lessons from the MET study
 If most teachers are not reaching the kind of teaching practice described by the
upper levels of the measures
 Two of Fullan’s ―Wrong Drivers‖
 Accountability–using test results and teacher appraisal to reward or punish
teachers and schools vs. capacity building
 Individual teacher and leadership quality—promoting individual vs. group
solutions
 Fullan’s Criteria for Effective Drivers
 Foster intrinsic motivation of teachers and students
 Engage educators and students in continuous improvement of instruction and
learning
 Inspire collective team work
 Affect all teachers and students

11. How do we best measure teacher quality
and effectiveness?
 For readiness to enter practice
 Current practice varies widely
 No clear best practice in measurement
 Teacher Performance Assessment Consortium Model
 Embedded signature assessments
 Teacher Performance Assessment
 Validity/reliability studies show strong evidence of
trustworthiness

12. How do we best measure teacher quality
and effectiveness?
 What combination for initial practice?
 Value added scores of students
 TPA
 Teacher observations, documentation, reflections
 Other data (InTASC suggestions): Observations or records of
team meetings, planning documents, samples of student work
 For advanced practice
 Value added scores of students
 National Board for Professional Teaching Standards
Assessments
 Teacher observations, documentation, reflections
 Other data (see InTASC suggestions)

13. Areas of controversy
 Selection as the primary determiner of quality:
Are good teachers born or developed?
 Current research
 Implications for policy and practice
 Appropriateness of measures of learning:
Do standardized tests tell the whole story?
 Implications for policy and practice
 Conceptualization of teaching as simple or complex:
what is quality teaching?
 Implications for policy regarding evaluation tools

14. Relook at central question
 How do we develop teacher quality and effectiveness in new
teachers?
 Who should teach and how best recruit them into teaching?
 What are expectations for high quality, effective beginning
practice?
 What are developmental paths to readiness for high quality,
effective beginning practice?
 What are supports for continuing development in teaching
quality?

15. Resources
 Diez, M.E., Athanasiou, N., & Pointer Mace, D. (2010). Expeditionary learning: The
Alverno College teacher education model. Change: The Magazine of Higher Learning,
November/December 2010, 18-24.
 Edutopia. (2007). Ten leading schools silence the critics: Innovative teacher prep.
www.edschools.org/teacher_report.htm
 Fullan, M. (2011) Choosing the wrong drivers for whole system reform. East Melbourne,
Victoria, Australia: Centre for Strategic Education.
 Gathering Feedback for Teaching (2011). MET Project Policy and Practice Brief. Bill and
Melinda Gates Foundation.
InTASC Model Core Teaching Standards: A Resource for State Dialogue. Washington, D.C. :
 Levine, A. (2006). Educating school teachers. Washington, D.C.: The Education Schools
Project.
 Zeichner, K. (2000). Ability-based teacher education: Elementary teacher education at Alverno
College. In L. Darling-Hammond (Ed.), Studies of excellence in teacher education:
Preparation in the undergraduate years. Washington, D.C.: American Association of Colleges
for Teacher Education and the National Commission on Teaching and America’s Future.