Enhancing Teacher Effectiveness Symposium
August 2006
The August 4th NYCC Enhancing Teacher Effectiveness symposium brought together teacher educators from Institutions of Higher Education (IHEs) across New York State with representatives from the New York State Department of Education (NYSED) and local education agencies. Participants joined to expand their knowledge of Scientifically Based Research in Reading (SBRR) and explore ways to enhance teacher education. The Lally School of Education at the College of Saint Rose hosted the event, which launched the NYCC's IHE/Teacher Quality initiative.
This symposium, the first of several planned NYCC events, gave IHE faculty who prepare K-12 teachers a forum to discuss SBRR and how to teach it to future educators. Language and literacy experts Dr. Catherine Snow and Dr. Shari Butler spoke with participants about SBRR and incorporating it into teacher education programs. The symposium was also an opportunity to brainstorm future opportunities for collaboration, both among and between IHE faculty, state personnel, and district personnel.
New York Commissioner of Education Sets the Tone for the Day
We are not teaching all to read, and therefore we're not teaching all to be citizens in a free society...The need is urgent, and the work is mighty.
- Commissioner Richard P. Mills
Margaret Kirwin, Dean of the Lally School, welcomed the more than ninety participants. Following Dean Kirwin's welcome, Larry Hirsch, director of the NYCC, introduced New York State Commissioner of Education Richard P. Mills. Commissioner Mills discussed the importance of the participants' work in preparing highly qualified teachers—and thus ensuring that every child in New York State has access to a good teacher. He began by describing his observation of a gifted new educator teaching her students to read, telling the IHE faculty in the audience, "She was giving them the keys to literacy …your great contribution is to prepare thousands of young men and young women who can do that reliably in the very beginning." The Commissioner also discussed the inequitable distribution of highly qualified teachers in New York as well as the gaps in achievement between U.S. and international students, concluding by telling participants, "It is desperately important that you succeed in what you are doing."
Keynote Address: "Knowledge to Support the Teaching of Reading"
Teachers are the final common pathway to improvement, so we need to think about what kind of preparation they need to do a good job.
- Dr. Catherine Snow
Following Commissioner Mills, Dr. Catherine Snow of Harvard University, co-author of Knowledge to Support the Teaching of Reading: Preparing Teachers for a Changing World, delivered a keynote address. She described the research base for literacy instruction, and also discussed the challenges of teaching literacy effectively in elementary and secondary schools and of preparing teachers to do so. Dr. Snow concluded by offering strategies that schools of education can employ to foster lifelong professional growth for teachers, pointing out, "If this is going to work, we need to think about teacher development having staged points. There should be multiple opportunities for career development, career enhancement."
Incorporating SBRR into Teacher Education Programs
The meat of today is about knowledge-sharing, about building communities...we've got to continue learning and reflecting on our knowledge.
- Dr. Shari Butler
In the afternoon, Dr. Shari L. Butler, Director of the Central Regional Reading First Technical Assistance Center at RMC Research in Austin, TX, spoke with IHE faculty about the Higher Education Collaborative (HEC), a network that joins teacher educators in Texas to share resources for improving the instruction of future teachers of literacy. Dr. Butler also facilitated small group discussions on the inclusion of SBRR in course syllabi and how faculty could support one another's practice. The IHE faculty concluded the day's activities by brainstorming how the NYCC could promote a network to support the continuous learning about SBRR and collaboration among IHE faculty. In a separate session, Dr. Snow led a discussion among the attendees from NYSED and local education agencies about best practices in professional development for teachers of reading.
Working Towards Collaboration, Communication, and Improved Teacher Effectiveness
Moving forward, the NYCC will work with faculty from IHEs and NYSED staff to:
- Create a network of teacher educators to continue the conversations begun during this initial symposium and collaborate on ways to further incorporate SBR in reading (SBRR) into their teacher preparation programs;
- Consult with developers of teacher educator networks used in other states to strengthen teacher preparation programs with scientifically based research in reading (SBRR);
- Engage leaders of New York IHEs in a dialogue with NYSED representatives about incorporating SBRR into teacher preparation curricula;
- Sponsor a new symposium in the spring of 2007 based on literacy topics and other identified faculty needs.
NYCC director Larry Hirsch summed up the day's events: "This was a wonderful opportunity for faculty to talk about the challenges of preparing teachers to teach early literacy, and to reflect on their own practices. It was the first step in an on-going process that will hopefully lead to long-term collaboration by institutions across the state."