October 28, 2001

Training Gains Make Better Kentucky Teachers

By Holly Holland

Source: Special to The Courier-Journal

As a middle school English teacher and writing consultant in Rockcastle County, Susan Coffey spent most of the last decade helping students prepare for Kentucky's annual assessments, which include portfolios of their essays and timed writing tests. But only recently, thanks to the ongoing training she received through the Eastern Kentucky Writing Project, has Coffey understood how to make the state's requirements meaningful and challenging for students.

Last school year, for example, instead of asking students to write something that the teachers alone would read, Coffey and her colleagues at Rockcastle Middle School encouraged the children to influence the entire community. After discovering in science class that Rockcastle is located 60 miles from a major earthquake fault line, the students decided to publish a resource guide describing the risks and needed preparations. They contacted insurance companies to find out about earthquake policies, collected data they incorporated into charts and graphs, interviewed school district officials to discuss safety and evacuation plans, visited hospitals to talk about emergency procedures, and folded all of the research into a 400-page illustrated guide that they distributed to the community.

''We got quality writing, which will help for assessment purposes,'' Coffey said. ''But most importantly, we opened the children's minds and opened their opportunities to make a difference in the world. They have seen that writing is a valuable tool . . . it gives children a purpose for learning.''

The impact on student achievement from this initiative and others has been dramatic. Although nearly 60 percent of its students come from poor families, Rockcastle Middle achieved the 13th highest combined writing score among Kentucky middle schools in the 1999-2000 biennium - a figure that was double the state average. Rockcastle also earned one of the state's highest scores in the middle school science category. In test results released a few weeks ago, Rockcastle Middle's writing scores again soared from 60.14 last year to 71.92, and the school's combined score for all subjects exceeded its biennial goal a year early. (All figures are based on a 100-point scale.)

These gains were not a stroke of luck, but the payoff from attending to what a new report claims are among ''the most effective professional development strategies'' found in Kentucky. The methods adopted by Rockcastle and other exemplary schools include a curriculum specialist or coach working with teachers in their classrooms; intensive training in a subject accompanied by follow-up support and observations; and teachers working together to develop new lessons, practice different methods of instruction, and evaluate their effectiveness.

In writing, for example, all Rockcastle teachers - not just language arts specialists - have been trained by Charles Whitaker, an English professor at Eastern Kentucky University and co-director of the Eastern Kentucky Writing Project. Whitaker follows up with the faculty on a regular basis, showing them how to help students write for an audience; encouraging teachers to write frequently themselves; and guiding them as they create topical writing assignments based on lessons in math, science, social studies, and language arts. Every staff member in the building, including administrators, also mentors four or five 7th graders throughout the year, coaching them as they polish their portfolio pieces.

''This is not a Band-Aid approach, but an effort to work with the entire writing curriculum,'' Whitaker said. ''That's the most important way to transform education.''

Whitaker's assessment is backed up not only by studies of professional development in Kentucky but on a national level as well. A recent report sponsored by the Partnership for Kentucky Schools, a coalition of business, government, and community leaders established in 1991 to promote public support and understanding of the Kentucky Education Reform Act, found that the Kentucky Writing Project was one of the few examples of effective and sustained professional development for teachers available in the state. The network of Kentucky Writing Project sites is an offshoot of the 27-year-old National Writing Project, based in Berkeley, Calif. Through the project, teachers learn how to improve their writing instruction by becoming better writers and reflecting on writing with colleagues. The project also involves university faculty and consists of a five-week summer institute plus ongoing support throughout the school year.

''What was particularly compelling about the writing project was that respondents reported classroom follow-up,'' observed the Partnership for Kentucky Schools' report, ''Mapping Professional Development Opportunities,'' which was conducted in 1999 and 2000 by a team of researchers led by Thomas B. Corcoran. ''With the exception of the writing project, most of the professional development (in Kentucky) was still being delivered in workshop formats, and few examples of coaching and jobembedded professional development were reported.''

Because studies show that teacher quality is one of the major predictors of student performance - if not the most important influence - efforts to improve teachers' effectiveness are gaining attention in Kentucky and the nation as a whole. Questions about what kind and how much teacher training leads to higher student achievement are no longer theoretical issues for academic conferences but routine discussions at legislative hearings, business roundtables, and school board and community meetings.

''Despite conventional wisdom that school inputs make little difference in student learning, a growing body of research suggests that schools can make a difference, and a substantial portion of that difference is attributable to teachers,'' concluded Linda Darling-Hammond, a Stanford University professor, in her 2000 report, ''Teacher Quality and Student Achievement: A Review of State Policy Evidence.'' After accounting for contributing factors such as student poverty, class size, and a school's financial resources, Darling-Hammond discovered that ''the relationship of teachers' qualifications to student achievement is even more pronounced.''

What we need to ask now in Kentucky is whether we are consistently providing the right supports to teachers to help them strengthen their subject knowledge and improve their ability to use different instructional strategies with different students. This is not about casting blame; it's a call for action. We have indisputable data from the Kentucky Association of School Councils and others that some schools and school districts have closed the achievement gap between children from poor and affluent families. Leaders in these schools have figured out how to coach teachers on an ongoing basis, using methods that result in higher student achievement. Yet, the majority of school districts are not following their lead.

''I believe that teachers and principals are working very hard to help children,'' said Carolyn Witt Jones, executive director of the Partnership for Kentucky Schools. ''The question is, is it the right work? I think the data shows it is not.''

Since the passage of the Kentucky Education Reform Act in 1990, the state has devoted more money, more time, and more assistance to strengthening teachers' skills than at any point in history. Unfortunately, research shows that some of that help has been misdirected.

In the first few years of Kentucky's school reforms, professional development was ''largely devoted to learning new procedures such as implementing the new assessment requirements'' or ''generic teaching practices such as cooperative learning,'' researchers concluded in the study, ''Mapping Professional Development Opportunities.'' In general neither the schools nor the school districts asked questions about a training program's ''quality or impact,'' and opted instead for what was available and convenient. Until 1996, both the state legislature and the Kentucky Department of Education reinforced those habits, considering curriculum development and staff training ''the responsibility of the schools.''

That has begun to change, in part, because state leaders realize that many teachers weren't sure how to improve their instruction and needed more time and support to practice better techniques. In the past few years, Kentucky educators have gained a ''broader and deeper understanding of professional development,'' researchers found in the recent study. That understanding has led to a restructuring of teacher training in some sectors. For example, to boost the performance of middle schools, whose average test scores have moved at a snail's pace, Kentucky legislators earmarked money for new content academies sponsored by the state Department of Education. These academies are designed to bring together groups of 25-40 teachers for three consecutive summers and provide follow-up training and networking opportunities during the school year. Although the content academies are not as intensive as the Kentucky Writing Project sessions, they are far more focused than the smorgasbord of short-term workshops that still dominate the offerings in many school districts.

''The reality is that Kentucky is trying to go from drive-by professional development, the one-shot sessions not integrated into content, so the one-week academy with some follow-up is a big step toward changing that,'' observed Joan Mazur, an associate professor at the University of Kentucky who is part of a research team studying the content academies for the Partnership for Kentucky Schools. ''Plus, the academies meet for three consecutive years. They take new people each year and start a new cycle. Our overall impression is that this approach is far better. Teachers are more enthusiastic and believe they are learning their content and things to do that will help kids succeed in the classroom.''

Kentucky schools also are taking advantage of federally funded projects such as the Appalachian Rural Systemic Initiative (ARSI), which trains and supports math and science teachers who then serve as resource specialists on an ongoing basis with other teachers in their schools and school districts. ARSI, which is funded by the National Science Foundation and based in Lexington, is working with schools in six states in the Appalachian region. More than half of the 66 qualifying high-poverty counties are in Kentucky.

Through an extensive review process, ARSI consultants will evaluate a school's math and science curriculum and instruction, then submit a report to the school, ''saying here's what we observed and here's where we think you might improve,'' said Steve Henderson, ARSI's director. ''It becomes a really customized report based on a set of standards, based on practice of what good instruction looks like.

''We found, for example, the lack of problem-solving in many math classes, a lack of inquiry in science classes. Many schools had no curriculum in place. They were using the (state's) core content, but they didn't lay out the sequence (of lessons) or the materials and how it would all be assessed. Sometimes the principals' support was lacking; they weren't spending time in classrooms. Communications with parents and communities was totally lacking. These are just some practical aspects of education that are not in place.''

Some school districts participating in the project have made huge strides, said Wimberly Royster, ARSI's principle investigator. He called Lincoln County ''one of our shining stars,'' evolving from no defined math and science curriculum several years ago to a fully implemented K12 curriculum that is now consistent across the county and backed by targeted staff training. ''They've really followed through on everything we've tried to do,'' he said. ''The principals down there have really been involved.''

An outside evaluation of ARSI's impact, released this spring, indicated that such efforts ''are beginning to influence classroom practice'' after five years. About 40 percent of the science and math lessons that researchers observed in participating schools ''are at the beginning stages of effective instruction. These were classrooms that were beginning to use cooperative learning, beginning to have student-centered instruction, and perhaps beginning to use a curriculum move in line with standardsbased practices. Eleven percent of the teaching we saw displayed 'exemplary instruction'; these teachers were doing wonderful lessons and were well supported by ARSI.''

In Rockcastle County, district instructional supervisor Shelby Reynolds said through ARSI's support teachers have received science kits that guide them and their students through sophisticated investigations and data collection ''instead of just the old demonstration where the teacher does it all.'' Teachers also are using more technology in math classes and setting higher expectations for students.

''We're finding a lot more of our professional development is more ongoing. The specificity is getting so much greater,'' he said. ''It causes teachers to really look at how their students are performing or not performing and to look at their instructional resources and strategies. It's looking at that student work and analyzing that to determine what you really need to do to improve to make those students perform at higher levels.''

For Susan Coffey, evidence of the changes surrounds her at Rockcastle Middle School. From the resources and training provided by ARSI to the coaching and collaboration gained from the Eastern Kentucky Writing project to the continuing support from school and district leaders, teachers have become much more empowered and effective.

''There's been a support system all the way through,'' she said, which filters down to the students. ''Being aware of community connections and giving authentic purposes to writing has made me more attuned to the fact that my students have to buy into their learning. It means not just going into my classroom and saying, 'Boys and girls, we're going to write a narrative today because you have a portfolio piece due,' '' but letting them walk away ''with something that goes beyond the walls of the classroom.''

Reprinted with the permission of Holly Holland and the Louisville Courier-Journal.
Copyright 2001 Holly Holland.