Partnership Annual Report 1999-2000
Professional Development Sites
The PDS sites have developed in partnership with schools, with formal agreements for planning and start up time, and then implementation.
a. St. Cloud Public School District 742. Talahi PDS
The efforts of the Talahi PDS grew from a long standing partnership between the College of Education, Teacher Development department and Talahi Elementary. In the winter of 1997, a joint grant project was submitted to the Mn Dept of Children, Families, and Learning to create a laboratory school (PDS) that would focus on the preparation of new teachers, improving the reading and life work skills of the children at both Talahi and Lincoln Elementary schools, and creating an on-going collaborative faculty development structure that would serve both District and SCSU faculty. The project received $600,000. These funds, and a later commitment of $200,000 from both District 742 and from the College of Education were used to fund activities of the Learning Connection Lab, from spring of 1998 until spring of 2000. The LCL evolved into the Talahi PDS beginning with the 1999-2000 year. During 1998-1999, 28 student interns were placed in the Talahi/Lincoln schools for a full year of site based experience while they completed their elementary education degrees. The project involved 11 district faculty and 6 SCSU faculty. More than 250 elementary students were impacted by the project.
During 1999-2000, the teachers and SCSU faculty focused on dissemination of the “lessons learned” from the LCL project as well as implementing the PDS organizational structure that would continue to be used after the extra funding was no longer available. 23 student interns were involved, 23 PDS faculty were involved at different levels with the interns and all of the school faculty were involved in professional development, and 6 SCSU faculty were assigned to the PDS activities. During both of these years, the project and developmental activities were under the direction of and Robin Hasslen, Child and Family Studies and Nancy Bacharach, Teacher Development, who served as Project Director and Project Coordinator respectively. In addition, Gayla Holmgren, Asst Superintendent of Special Project in School District 742, and Pamm Minden served as fiscal manager and fiscal director. Judy Rotto was the primary site coordinator for Talahi elementary.
For 2000-200l, the Talahi PDS will have 2 cohorts of teacher preparation students. The ITP (Integrated Teacher Preparation) project cohort will begin in August with 6 graduate early childhood students. Approximately 6-8 undergraduate elementary education students who need a focus in grades 4-6 will be placed at Talahi during spring semester.
b. North Branch Public School, Cambridge Community College, College of Education, SCSU
During the 1998-99 year, an agreement was formalized between North Branch Schools, Cambridge Community College, and the College of Education at SCSU to form a Teacher Preparation Partnership Project. There are 3 major efforts that are part of this partnership. 1. Beginning in the fall of 1999, North Branch Schools worked in partnership with SCSU to serve as a Teaching Center and to assist in providing on-site supervision of student teachers. (6 students) 2. North Branch and SCSU cooperatively planned strategies for moving the Teaching Center into a Professional Development Site. 3. Cambridge Community College and the College of Education at SCSU have agreed to the courses to be used in a full 4 year teacher preparation program which is offered on the North Branch campus that will meet all national accreditation and Board of Teaching standards. Students in this program are simultaneously enrolled at Cambridge Community College and SCSU for the first two years of the program. (28 students—full time) During the sophomore year, eligible students will be able to apply for admission to the SCSU teacher education program.
Beginning in the fall of 2000, the North Branch School has been designated as a PDS site. During 2000-2001, the primary activities will be to continue the preparation program, completing all Community College classes, completing exams necessary for entrance to teacher education at SCSU, finding placements and supervision for teacher center students, and to develop some individual plans for those students who want to complete licensure packages other than elementary education. (some coursework may be at North Branch, some may need to be on SCSU campus.) The Project has received $8,000 from the Cargill Corporation to support the module development.
Bev Kochmann, Teacher Development, and Pamm Minden, Director of Research were the COE faculty instrumental in developing this project. They work closely with Dona Yetter, site coordinator, Al Bass, Assistant Superintendent of North Branch schools, and Doug Allen, Associate Dean, Cambridge Campus. During 2000-2001, Virginia Pierce, Teacher Development will be serving as a site liaison with the continued participation of Bev Kochmann, Pamm Minden, Dona Yetter, Doug Allen, and with Rodney Reisenhouer replacing Al Bass.
c. Interdisciplinary (Graduate)Teacher Preparation project: Pilot Project Involving College of Education Child and Family Studies and Teacher Development Departments in collaboration with St. Cloud Public Schools. (Talahi PDS, and North Junior High.)
During the winter of 1999/2000, a two year proposal was submitted to the Minnesota State College and University System for the Curricular Reform competition. The first year of this project was funded at $32,963. The project proposed to develop a new option for preparing teachers that would draw from a pool of well qualified and experienced persons with completed bachelor’s degrees, but without education backgrounds. Up to 18 students would be selected to obtain their preparation in a specially designed cohort that would 1/2 time field based and 1/2 time integrated course based. At the end of 15 months (2 summers and 2 academic year semesters) cohort members who successfully complete the program will be eligible for both a master’s degree and for a Mn teaching license in either early childhood education (birth through grade 3) or a secondary teaching license in a disciplinary area. To be eligible for the program, applicants must have completed certain undergraduate general education courses, but need not have completed any education courses. This special program has a focus on diversity issues and parent involvement through special inquiry based course delivery. An interdisciplinary team of faculty will coordinate the instruction, field experiences, and delivery of the program. Project Directors are Nancy Bacharach and Paula Bradfield-Kreider, Teacher Development, and Robin Hasslen, Child and Family Studies. Other faculty with key involvement will be Jerry Wellik, Special Education, Niloufer Merchant, Family Counseling in the Dept of Ed Research, and Ming Chi Own, Child and Family Studies, and Ramón Serrano, Teacher Development. Additional faculty who will be supporting this project are from the Lindgren Child Care Center, the Talahi PDS, North Junior High Partnership, and Apollo High School.
d. St. Cloud Public School District 742: North Junior High Partnership/PDS .
During the 1999-2000 year, preliminary discussions concerning PDS site status were held with staff from both North and South Junior High Schools. During spring 2000, staff from North attended the PDS conference in South Carolina with the SCSU faculty and Talahi PDS faculty. Shortly after that time the school faculty and staff formalized an agreement to begin a formal partnership between North and SCSU for next year. During the initial year, the partnership will devote planning time to developing the organizational structure which will support the types of activities on which North has agreed to collaborate. North will serve as a field experience and internship site for 8 graduate students from the ITP project. Faculty development activities, teacher preparation support for non-ITP students, and research activities will be designed and piloted during this year. It is anticipated that the North Junior High partnership will have PDS status by the fall of 2001. Paula Bradfield-Kreider, Teacher Development and Jerry Wellik, Special Education are working with Pat Welter, the North Jr High Principal, and Julie Samuelson, the North Site Coordinator to develop the PDS.
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