National Network for Educational Renewal
Conference 2000
September 21 — 24, 2000
Portland Maine
Title: A Symposium: The Challenge of Meeting National Standards with
University and Public School CollaborationBy: Finegan, C., Helms, R., Bernhardt, Cole, D., G., Gaston, N., Hansell, S., Mathies. B., O'Connor, R., Ruchito, D., and Tomlin, J.
Contact information:
Presenter Name: _ Dr. Colleen Finegan Tel. 937-775-4582
Institution/Address Wright State University 323 Allyn Hall
City/State/ZIP Dayton, Ohio 45435 E-mail_cafinegan@aol.com
Presenter Name Dr. Ronald Helms Tel. 937-775-3276
Institution/Address Wright State University 351 Allyn Hall
City/State/ZIP Dayton, OH 45435 Email__ronald.helms@wright.edu
Presenter Name Dr. Gregory Bernhardt_ Tel. 937-775-2822
Professional Title Dean, College of Education and Human Services
Institution/Address Dean's Office 2nd Floor — Millett Hall
City/State/ZIP Dayton, Oh 45435 E-mail gregory.bernhardt@wright.edu
Presenter Name Dr. Donna Cole Tel. 937-775-3088
Institution/Address Wright State University 320 Millett Hall
City/State/ZIP Dayton, OH 45435 E-mail_donna.cole@wright.edu
Presenter Name Dr. Norma Gaston Tel. 9737-775-3088
Institution/Address Dayton City Schools
Presenter Name Dr. Steve Hansell Tel. 937-775-3088
Institution/Address Wright State University 320 Millett Hall
City/State/ZIP Dayton, OH 45435 E-mail_steve.hansell@wright.edu
Presenter Name Dr. Bonnie Mathies Tel. 9737-775-3088
Institution/Address Wright State University 320 Millett Hall
City/State/ZIP Dayton, OH 45435 Email bonnie.mathies@wright.edu
Presenter Name Dr. Richele O'Connor__ Tel. _937-775-3266__
Institution/Address Wright State University 374 Millett Hall
City/State/ZIP Dayton, OH 45435 E-mail_richele.oconnor@wright.edu___
Presenter Name Debbie Ruchito Tel
Institution/Address Fairborn City Schools
Presenter Name Dr. James Tomlin Tel. 937-775-4951
Institution/Address Wright State University 370 Millett Hall
City/State/ZIP Dayton, OH 45435 Email_james.tomlin@wright.edu___
This is a symposium describing four of the many collaborative initiatives between Wright State University and local Professional Development Schools:
1. Technology as Educational Reform (Finegan, C., Helms, R., Bernhardt, G., and Mathies, B.)
The technological age is alive and well, yet many students enter the workforce unprepared. Many of today’s public school teachers do not consider themselves competent in the area of technology. This trend will continue as two million teachers retire and new educators take their places, unless incoming teachers become technologically competent before entering the teaching force. Higher education accrediting organizations, learned societies and state departments of education now require that all teacher preparation programs emphasize the infusion of technology into the K-12 curricula. This proposal documents a program to prepare pre-service teachers while updating in-service teacher’s skills as a collaborative comprehensive effort. This session will present a collaborative comprehensive model of instruction in technology and telecommunications between Wright State University and local partnership schools to prepare early childhood educators for the 21 st century. The program is designed to provide pre-service and in-service teachers the opportunity to work in Learning Community Teams to update their computer and telecommunication skills and apply these skills in designing multi-media presentation in their classrooms to enhance learning.
2. Reform in Science Education (Tomlin, J. & Ruchito, D.)
The College of Science and Mathematics and the College of Education and Human Services are collaborating to better educate preservice and inservice science and math teachers through innovative programs. For example, a summer workshop, entitled, The Science Mentor Professional Development Institute was held. This institute was designed to allow the inservice teachers from the local partnership sites to experience first-hand the new "standards based" content courses in science. This experience should enable cooperating teachers to become more effective mentors for our teacher interns. Some qualitative and quantitative indicators of effectiveness will be addressed.
3. Reform in Literacy Education (O’Conner, R., Hansell, S. and Gaston, N.)
A concern was expressed by one of Wright State University's partnership schools that pre-service teachers need instruction in literacy development earlier in the teacher education program than was typically provided.
The presenters, an elementary school principal and two university professors, will discuss two examples of their efforts to collaborate during the past school year. The principal was the driving force in restructuring both the content and the timing for the preservice teachers' first course in literacy instruction. Secondly, in response to the school's plea for help with children's reading problems, the university professor virtually adopted a classroom of fourth graders guided the tutoring of these fourth graders who became tutorial subjects of the preservice teachers. The presenters will elaborate on the changed curriculum and the interactions, which occurred as a result of the tutoring sessions.
4. Comprehensive Educational Reform: PK-12, (Finegan, C., Helms, R., Cole, D. Hansell, S., O'Connor, R., & Tomlin, J.)
This session presents a collaborative comprehensive model of instruction in Early Childhood, Middle Childhood and Adolescent/Young Adult Education at Wright State University in which the university and the and local partnership schools work together to design programs which will better prepare educators to teach students of all ages the skills needed to teach effectively in the 21 st century.
Early Childhood Licensure
The Division for Early Childhood of the Council for Exceptional Children (DEC/CEC) and the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) have developed comprehensive personnel standards related to the preparation of Early Childhood Educators that maintain that they must possess the knowledge, skills and dispositions for working with young children with special learning and developmental needs and their families. These personnel standards support the practice of inclusion, the provision of services for young children with special needs in general, and early childhood programs and other community-based settings in which typically developing young children are also served.
Middle Childhood Licensure
The National Middle Childhood Level Association (NMSA), the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD) and the Carnegie Council on Adolescent Development have strong recommendations regarding the education of young adolescents in the middle years of their education. They recommend that Middle Childhood Educators be age-appropriately trained, as they experience maturation and unique growth needs which must be addressed in the school setting. NMSA also states that developmentally appropriate middle schools promote programs that actively assist young people in formulating the moral principles upon which they may ground their lives. ASCD suggests that in middle childhood education, schools utilize the teacher-advisor format, which provides transitions and articulates activities, uses interdisciplinary teaching and activities and continually expose teachers to teaching strategies appropriate to adolescent students.
Adolescent/Young Adult Childhood Licensure
The knowledge base pertinent to adolescent teacher preparation at the adolescent / young adult level can be found in documents specific to each field of study. For example, the National Council of the Social Studies (NCSS) developed social studies teachers’ preparation guidelines, Science guidelines by. The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the National Research Council's National Science Education Standards (NSES), Math guidelines are proposed by the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics NCTM and Language Arts guidelines by the National Council of the Teachers of Language Arts (NCTLA)