St. Cloud State University

 

 

 

 

þ     The TQE evaluation plan was approved by the St. Cloud State University Institutional Review Board on 8-19-04.

 

þ     Each member of the current steering committee has been contacted and asked if they would like to continue to serve on this committee. Committee members have also been asked to respond with the times that work best for meetings in order to improve attendance and participation. The group will meet again on the 14^th of October.

 

þ     The TQE web site is on-line and a graduate assistant has been hired to focus on updating and enhancing the web site. The site can be accessed at www.stcloudstate.edu/coe/tqe.

 

þ     The position description that was developed last fall for the TQE Building Contacts has been modified to better reflect the current program initiatives. Revised position descriptions will be brought to the steering committee and other key players prior to implementation.

 

þ     TQE personnel worked with other representatives from the College of Education, College of Fine Arts and College of Science and Engineering to revise the Teacher Candidate assessments used throughout the college. The new forms are being piloted by the co-teaching pairs.

 

þ     Business partner, Media X, has begun to develop on-line capability for the completion of teacher candidate assessments designed over the summer.

 

 

Co-Teaching

 

þ     Two courses are currently being co-taught at St. Cloud State University during the fall semester. Applications for Spring semester have also been returned and the co-teaching team is reviewing potential co-teaching opportunities.

 

þ     A parent information video has been developed by our business partners at DMR. This video is available to building principals and classroom teachers to help them explain the co-teaching model of student teaching.

 

þ     A parent brochure was developed and was sent home, along with a parental consent, to every student in a co-taught classroom. 

 

þ     Two long-call substitute teachers were hired to provide additional planning time (1 hour per week) to all participating co-teaching pairs. One substitute will focus on elementary buildings and the other will focus on secondary buildings.

 

þ     Co-teaching workshops continued to be offered for any cooperating teacher (Preschool – Grade 12) that is interested in using this model with their teacher candidate. Sessions were held on August 19 and August 24. An additional 39 cooperating teachers were in-serviced on these dates. The next co-teaching session for cooperating teachers will be held in January, 2005.

 

þ     A co-teaching workshop was also held for university supervisors who will be working with co-teaching pairs. One session was offered on August 25, 2004. Participant feedback was received from 19 supervisors. A second session is scheduled for October 20, 2004.

 

þ     A co-teaching workshop was held on August 26, 2004 for teacher candidates interested in co-teaching with a cooperating teacher during their student teaching experience. 45 students attended. A second session for teacher candidates is set for October 4, 2004.

 

þ     61 co-teaching pairs (cooperating teacher/teacher candidate) have been matched for the fall semester.

 

þ     Meetings were held with all building principals who have co-teaching occurring in their school this semester. Discussions included general information about the co-teaching initiatives, specific information about data collection related to co-teaching and opportunities to address issues and/or concerns.

 

þ     TQE personnel made individual contact with the cooperating teachers participating in co-teaching prior to the Fall open houses to provide written information and brochures to send home with students and to answer any additional questions that they might have had.

 

þ     Secondary teacher candidates began their student teaching in early September. On September 21 the secondary co-teaching pairs (teacher candidate and cooperating teacher) attended a half-day session focusing on communication styles, co-planning and collaboration. Fourteen people (7 pairs) attended the session. Elementary teacher candidates will begin their student teaching in November. Given the large number of elementary co-teaching pairs, four sessions have been scheduled to provide the same information: Nov. 9 or Nov. 10 – choice of morning or afternoon either day.

 

þ     Data collection has begun for P-12 students in co-teaching classrooms. Classrooms were selected at random, using a table of random numbers, for participation in the data collection. Of the 19 participating P-3 classrooms, 7 were selected; of the 14 participating 4-6 classrooms, 5 were selected; of the 5 participating 7-8 sections, 1 was selected; and of the 30 possible 9-12 sections, 10 were selected. In addition to the 22 randomly selected classrooms, 10 comparison classrooms were selected. To date, demographic data has been collected on 670 students.

 

þ     The Woodcock-Johnson III – Research Edition is being given to students at the beginning and end of the academic year to determine the impact of co-teaching on student achievement. 5 short-call substitutes joined the 2 full-time TQE substitute teachers in administering the assessments. Training was provided to the assessment team on September 24 by Dr. John Hoover. Assessments are taking place between September 27 and October 6, 2004.

 

þ     Meetings have been scheduled with the superintendent, administrative leadership team and/or teachers in Sartell, Sauk Rapids, Rocori and Big Lake school districts, to explore opportunities to collaborate on Teacher Quality Enhancement initiatives.

 

Professional Development

 

þ     The Professional Development Consortium met for the second time on September 22, 2004. This group includes teacher and administrative representatives from five area school districts. The first priority of the professional development consortium is to develop a needs assessment that would be given to professional staff in each of the five districts. The group will also be working to develop a catalog of regional opportunities for professional development, to optimize knowledge of and access to a wide variety of educational topics. The next meeting is scheduled for October 27, 2004.

 

þ     A professional learning community (PLC) will begin meeting to study best practice in professional development. The PLC will include two teachers from each of five districts, along with university faculty from a variety of departments involved in teacher preparation. The first PLC meeting is scheduled for October 26.

 

þ     Gary Anfenson has been hired to work with the professional development initiative in Dr. Hasslen’s absence. Mr. Anfenson is a recently retired public school teacher, with experience coordinating partnership activities with the university.

 

 

Mentoring

 

þ     A literature review has been completed to determine “best practices” in mentoring. The leadership team is reviewing the data and revising the original TQE Leader and Building Contact position descriptions. This is an area that continues to evolve, and one in which more attention will be focused in the coming quarter.