September 2014 IDRA Newsletter: Teaching Quality

This month’s focus: Teaching Quality

September 2014 IDRA Newsletter

“Teaching quality is more than the teacher as a person. Specifically, teaching quality is based on strong content knowledge and effective pedagogy, quality decision-making in the classroom, self-efficacy, innovation, and capacity to teach diverse students, and is grounded in community and institutional support.” – Dr. María “Cuca” Robledo Montecel, IDRA President and CEO

Published 10 times a year, each edition explores issues facing U.S. education today and strategies to better serve every student. This newsletter is published in print and on the IDRA website, in addition to this eLetter format.

An Elementary School’s STEM Success Story – IDRA Technical Assistance Empowers Teachers with Strategies to Impact Student Learning

by Nilka Avilés, Ed.D., and Juanita C. García, Ph.D.

Picture fifth graders gathered around a table where teachers are modeling the effects of sand erosion by wind and water. They then plan a set of learning centers that they themselves will lead for fourth graders. This scene is Science Camp at Gus Guerra Elementary where fifth graders participated in an engaging series of learning centers to master science concepts.

IDRA’s South Central Collaborative for Equity has partnered with the school to engage in changing the campus culture to one that is child-centered, college going and highly engaged with parents and community. Every child, regardless of characteristics and identified needs, is challenged to reach high standards and is given requisite pedagogical, social, emotional and psychological supports.

The major goals are to increase the school’s effectiveness in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) and to increase academic language by particularly integrating the linguistic demands of the STEM areas into the curriculum. Through intensive language development and strengthened core content instructional programs designed to increase comprehensible input and acquisition of academic language among all student groups and across grade levels, the campus is succeeding in preparing primary grade students for upper elementary grades, middle school, high school and college. – Keep reading

Dual Language Means Two – Reflections and Guidance for Teaching in Two Languages

by Adela Solís, Ph.D.

With the new school year begun, Suzanne Irujo, now a seasoned teacher, reflects on her first year as a third and fourth grade bilingual teacher: “I worried about how I would learn to teach reading and math, but I didn’t worry about when to use English or Spanish in my classroom. Nobody else did, either. They just said, ‘Here’s your classroom, these are your students, go teach.’” (2004)

In schools that work for English language learners, where transitional bilingual education or dual language maintenance programs are in operation, the students’ primary language is central to the goal of teaching English and to meeting the primary language goal specific to the program. If these goals are to be met, teachers need to pay attention to how much time they devote to each language. Research has shown that when bilingual teachers don’t consciously monitor their language use, they tend to use much more English than they intend or thought they were using (Bruce, et al., 2000; IteachIlearn, 2004).

This results in the native language not being developed sufficiently to provide a solid base for transfer to English. It additionally undermines the core rationale of bilingual education: to strengthen and provide instruction in the stronger language as students are learning English. In this situation, subject matter knowledge will not progress since the students probably do not understand as much from English instruction as they would from primary language instruction. This situation has a negative effect on the learning of English and impacts the students’ education in general (NABE, 2014). – Keep reading

Court Rules Again – Texas School Funding Must Serve All Students Equitably

IDRA Statement on the Texas District Court Ruling on Texas School Finance System

The Texas District Court, Judge John Dietz presiding, ruled in August that the Texas school finance system violates the Texas Constitution. Judge Dietz ruled that the current funding system is “constitutionally inadequate, unsuitable and financially inefficient” (pg. 4).

“Once again, the court has affirmed what researchers, communities and educators have stated for years: the Texas system for funding public schools is inequitable, inadequate and unacceptable,” said Dr. María “Cuca” Robledo Montecel, IDRA President & CEO.

The Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF) represented a sub-group of low wealth school districts and parents in the case, and IDRA conducted several research studies of the Texas school finance system in conjunction with the case. IDRA research found that the system is inequitable and fails to provide adequate levels of funding for educating English language learners and low-income students. – Keep reading

IDRA Research for Teaching Quality

As students return to school, this spotlight focuses on our research on teaching quality and its impact on student learning and long-term academic success of students. IDRA has outlined four dimensions of teaching quality:

Instructional Leadership: Creating an environment accepting of and suitable for all students, where communication is key.

Instructional Focus: Acknowledging the diversity of students and committing to meeting their needs. The educational community procures the proper materials and ongoing professional development.
Safe and Orderly School Climate: Students and their families are treated with respect, the students feel safe in school, and they are afforded opportunities for leadership roles.
High Student Expectations: Students feel valued and are aware of the high expectations of them.

IDRA’s work in defining teacher quality emphasizes that this quality must also be accompanied by teaching quality in the context of a supportive school and community environment as exemplified in the Quality Schools Action Framework. Developed in 2005, the Quality Schools Action Framework™ is a change model for school reform that emphasizes that widespread, effective change can only happen when the many aspects of the system work together toward the success of all students. This requires valuing all learners no matter the color of their skin, wealth, religion, gender, national origin, language characteristics, or orientation.

IDRA moves beyond simply defining quality as credentials and includes teacher perspective, instructional strategies, and the surrounding organization of the school and community. Examples that highlight IDRA’s persistent work in building teaching quality and school capacity are online.

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