Longwood University News

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The Binding Force Between Two Colleges: Teacher Work Sample
During the 2003-2004 academic school year, the focus for our university is two-fold. Our NCATE accreditation Institutional Report states that by the year 2005 all candidates will complete a Teacher Work Sample (TWS) during their student teaching experience. We intend to meet that goal. And second, we will continue with the mentoring model that involves the Arts and Science faculty in working with our partnership (junior year) candidates as they plan how to teach the content of their chosen TWS topic. Both of these are a continuation of our work last year.

By 2005, Student Teachers Will Be Required to Complete a TWS
During the 2002-2003, the TWS committee began to plan how to make sure that all of our candidates completed a TWS during their student teaching. Until that time, only our candidates with an emphasis in elementary and/or middle school and our candidates in health and physical education completed a TWS. The methods courses for these three majors were changed to include the completion of a TWS. In other words, candidates were taught the seven processes and actually completed a TWS at either a partnership site or during a practicum experience. These three programs have a field-based experience before student teaching, in which they are able to work with children and are able to easily incorporate TWS within their curricula. Our secondary, and until last year, special education candidates do not have either type of experience.

At Longwood University we feel it is important for our candidates to be successful in completing a TWS during their student teaching. We also feel candidates need to have instruction and guidance in the seven processes of the Teacher Work Sample before they student teach. The questions that we wrestled with all last year were: 1) how were we to do this for our secondary and special education majors that did not have a partnership experience; and, 2) how were we to meet our goal of having all of our majors successfully complete a TWS during their student teaching. After numerous collaborative meetings, the committee decided that responsibility for integrating one or two of the seven processes would lie within particular courses. For instance, our classroom management course is now responsible for teaching the importance of examining the context of the classroom and community before planning instruction. An assignment has been designed that utilizes the TWS rubric for examining Contextual Factors. This will allow all of our majors to be introduced to each of the seven processes of TWS before student teaching. All of our candidates will thus be completing a TWS during their student teaching by 2005.

Arts and Science Faculty Become Involved in TWS
In Spring 2003 we piloted a new mentoring approach at Longwood University. Arts & Sciences faculty in our Departments of Math and Science were invited to mentor our elementary teacher candidates working on Teacher Work Sample (TWS) as part of their junior year Partnership Semester practicum. The candidates mostly received mentoring on content information for the “Design for Instruction” process of the TWS. Ten Arts & Sciences math or science faculty each mentored one or more candidates, and three of the faculty members made visits to the elementary classroom while the candidate was teaching. Through surveys at the end of the semester, we found that candidates benefited from receiving the additional content area mentoring. Candidates were able to improve lesson plans and eliminate content errors. Candidates also were able to borrow some teaching materials from mentors. Some Arts & Sciences faculty mentors also mentored candidates on content-related teaching strategies to make their students more successful in learning content knowledge. We received positive feedback from the mentors about their experience. We were able to pay a token stipend to mentors, but most reported other benefits. These included the satisfaction of helping the candidates engaged in useful discussions about best teaching practices and rewards from visiting an elementary classroom.

We are planning to expand this mentoring during the upcoming Fall 2003 semester. This semester all Arts & Sciences faculty members have been invited to participate as mentors. In addition, the faculty mentors will work with our candidates on content areas of three TWS components, “Learning Goals,” “Assessment Plan,” and “Design for Instruction.” We have attracted a considerably larger pool of mentors for this semester. We are again offering a small stipend, but hopefully the number of mentors has increased partly due to positive feedback from the mentors of the previous semester. We have attempted to put into place some improvements for this semester. Our Mentoring Coordinator, who is an Arts & Sciences faculty member, will work more closely with teacher candidates at their Partnership practicum school sites to provide a more direct liaison between candidate and mentor. An information session was held in August for interested Arts & Sciences faculty members. Information was provided about our Partnership Semester experience for elementary teacher candidates and about their Teacher Work Sample experience. Information was also provided on indirect coaching strategies for mentoring candidates, based on the present draft of the Renaissance Mentoring Manual. Finally, Longwood University has submitted a proposal for the upcoming AACTE Annual Meeting to describe our progress with mentoring teams in more detail.

Conclusion
TWS is thoroughly a part of the curriculum at Longwood University. It is embedded in courses, it is providing us with data for our NCATE report on how our candidates effect the learning of P-12 students. It includes not only our faculty from the College of Education and Human Services but is also now includes our faculty from the College of Arts and Sciences. TWS is truly one of the foundations from which our unit thrives. It has changed our teaching and cemented our faculty as well. Across campus we now have a common language and a common goal from which we all are seeing positive results.

For more information contact: Dr. Barbara J. Chesler bchesler@longwood.edu

Spring, 2003

Teacher Work Sample

Teacher Work Sample is quietly changing the face of teacher preparation at Longwood University. This initiative is leading the way in assessing our candidate performance and providing credible evidence in what our candidates should know and be able to do to be effective teachers. Since the inception of this project, Teacher Work Sample was first piloted with Liberal Studies/Elementary candidates during the semester of their “partnership” experience. Four partnership professors have been our guiding lights. By attending national meetings in St. Louis, and working in the trenches with their candidates, they have become our experts and have lead the charge in teacher preparation reform at our institution. For the past four years these individuals have conducted numerous on campus training sessions in order to bring on board the other professionals that work with our teacher candidates. Workshops have been held for Arts and Science faculty, student teacher supervisors, public school administrators and classroom teachers. Slowly, Teacher Work Sample is becoming a common term on our campus and is becoming ingrained in our programs.

Student Teaching

It has been our belief that candidates should learn the processes involved in writing a Teacher Work Sample before they enter student teaching. Therefore since the fall of 2000, our Liberal Studies/Elementary majors learn the seven processes and write a “TWS” during the semester they are placed at a partnership site. For most of our students this is done during their junior year. This fall we took the giant step and began to require Teacher Work Samples during the student teacher semester.

Like most institutions of higher education, our candidates have placements at two different sites. This fall we had ten candidates that had gone through the partnership. These individuals were required to complete two Teacher Work Samples, one at each site. A workshop was conducted for their classroom teachers and supervisors. Two partnership professors volunteered to mentor them when needed through email. The candidates were asked to write a full Teacher Work Sample at their first placement and a modified sample at their second placement. The modified consisted of using matrices in reporting data collected instead of narrative descriptions.

What were our results? All impacted student learning, ranking at the three or four level. But we found out other important information as well. Most of our student teacher supervisors felt comfortable enough to score and guide the processes when needed. We found that our candidates needed very little mentoring because they understood the processes. They had enough time to complete their first Teacher Work Sample but not enough time to complete the second. And, to our surprise, the candidates did not like the modified version because it was not the form they were used to completing.

Student impact data from the required pre-post assessments showed that these practicum students had a significant impact on the learning of their students (at the .0001 level), with an average gain from pre- to post-assessment of 32 points.

This semester we have 71 student teachers that have gone through the partnership and will be required to complete one full Teacher Work Sample during their first placement. The four partnership professors have agreed to mentor, through email, their former students. Stay tuned for the results!

Special Education

Special Education Programs piloted the Teacher Work Sample for the first time during the fall 2002 semester. To complete the TWS, nineteen Liberal Studies/Special Education Five-Year Program students participated in a formal Partnership with a local public school. Students completed coursework on the Longwood University campus in Reading and Language Arts for Students with LD/ED/MR on Tuesday and Thursday mornings and on Monday and Wednesday mornings the students and their instructor were in the Partnership School. The 19 students, all juniors, were assigned to five different special education classrooms in the school. Students were responsible for teacher "aiding", for making instructional materials and bulletin boards, and for assessing and tutoring a child in the assigned classroom in reading.

Due to the unique nature of the special education partnership, the variety of special education placements used, and legal mandates to implement goals and objectives according to the IEP, students in the Special Education Partnership completed a modified version of the Teacher Work Sample across the course of the semester. For example, students completed an informal reading assessment targeted to goals and objectives on the IEP for their assigned child, specified and taught directly to short term objectives identified through the assessment, collected data daily regarding their child’s progress, and conducted the informal reading assessment once again as a post-test. This process occurred across the course of a ten-week period. The special education partnership students were unable, however, to complete comparisons within a group and they taught specific reading skills rather than an instructional unit.

All five special education teachers and the assistant principal coordinating the partnership for her school participated in the Teacher Work Sample training offered by Longwood University and all contributed suggestions to modify the TWS to meet partnership goals. The participating teachers viewed the partnership and the TWS positively. Similarly, special education students believed that the TWS was worthwhile; however, they did not believe they had enough time in the school or with their assigned child. They also believed that the TWS took an inordinate amount of time away from other class work.

Secondary Education: English

We are also starting to move Teacher Work Sample into our secondary education programs. This semester, one of our secondary English professors piloted the Teacher Work Sample in his Secondary English Methods class. They were learning how to complete a Thematic 3-Week Unit plan; however, he only had one secondary teacher who was student teaching. She integrated it into her student teaching in a 9th grade class and had the forethought to try it with all sections that she was teaching rather than just a single class. Consequently, it took her much more time to analyze the data from her pre-post test scores and complete the final unit. She did an outstanding job and her TWS was taken to St. Louis where it received a 4 rating. We are pleased with her hard work and dedication.

Mentoring: Arts and Science Faculty

This semester, Spring 2003, we are expanding our mentoring support system for teacher candidates preparing TWS. In addition to the mentoring that candidates have already been receiving from College of Education faculty and classroom cooperating teachers, they will now receive additional content-related mentoring from College of Arts & Sciences faculty. For this semester, we are piloting the expansion of our mentoring system with our junior-level candidates in their "Partnership" field experience semester. We will add our student teachers later. For this semester, we are also limiting the project to Partnership candidates choosing TWS units in math or science. Content-related mentoring in other subject areas will follow later.

Our Team Mentoring Model will be based on forming teams of teacher candidate, cooperating teacher, Education faculty, and Arts & Sciences faculty. We are beginning by identifying our Arts & Science faculty in math or science who are interested in mentoring. We are providing small stipends to these faculty, to provide some compensation beyond the rewards of helping the candidates be successful. Once interested Arts & Science faculty are identified, mentoring teams will be created, matching faculty to the TWS unit topics selected by our Partnership candidates. Some of the Arts & Science faculty will mentor candidates on our campus, but we are encouraging faculty to visit the candidates at their Partnership school site and meet the candidate's classroom cooperating teacher. Arts & Sciences faculty will be mentoring candidates as they plan their teaching units, and also as they work on the Instructional Decision Making and Analysis of Student Learning components of their TWS. As well as mentoring individual candidates, interested Arts & Science faculty will all be invited to a TWS scoring party in April to learn more about the TWS process and become more involved in our growing "TWS community" on campus.

We will be using questionnaire surveys at the end of this semester to gain feedback from our candidates and mentors on how well the trial mentoring process has worked for them. Looking ahead to the coming summer, we have plans to organize a summer information workshop on effective approaches for mentoring candidates with the TWS. This workshop will be based on the Mentoring Manual written by the Renaissance Group.

Getting Out the Good News About Teacher Work Sample

Committed to spreading the news about teacher work sample, our faculty are taking advantage of various opportunities to describe Teacher Work Sample and to share the positive impact it is making upon our teacher preparation program. Individuals have presented at both state and national conferences even taking along candidates to present their perceptions and reflections.

Fall, 2002

Teacher Work Sample Training

Longwood has engaged in a systematic plan of regular teacher work sample training for mentor teachers, college professors, and supervisors of field experiences. Since the first year of the grant we have continued to add more local schools, more mentor teachers, and more university faculty trained in the process of teacher work sample. In January, the student teacher supervisors attended an extensive training session in scoring the teacher work sample. March, 2002 a workshop was conducted for Arts and Science faculty with the focus on ways in which they can support teacher candidates while they are in the process of compiling their teacher work samples. Special attention was directed toward ways in which they could use their subject matter expertise to offer more direct assistance to the teacher candidates as they prepare teacher work samples for actual classroom implementation. Continuing their interest and commitment to teacher work sample, three of our Arts and Science faculty attended the national training this July in Kansas City. Partnership professors extend renewal training for the classroom teachers. They meet throughout the semester at the local schools to discuss changes, make clarifications, and to answer questions about the role of the practitioner in assisting pre-service teachers with teacher work sample.

Expanding Teacher Work Sample

Teacher work sample has become a focal point during the junior year when our liberal studies candidates are placed at a partnership school. It is during this semester that candidates learn the process of preparing a teacher work sample. For the past three years, the partnership professors have been responsible for piloting teacher work sample and have taken a leadership role in conducting workshops in our local area in order to expand this project.

January 2002, began the process of extending teacher work sample into our student teacher experience as well as other programs. In September we brought together over 89 individuals in a workshop that included: student teacher supervisors; mentor teachers, principals and superintendents involved at our partnership schools and our student teacher sites; Longwood University faculty from Arts and Science, secondary education, physical education, and five of our partnership professors. This workshop was critical in expanding teacher work sample. It allowed discourse to take place between all those involved. Additional training was also conducted in scoring. As one professor stated, “Teacher work sample has assisted us in creating a team approach between all the individuals responsible for training our future teachers. We no longer are fragmented, working alone.”

Summer, 2002 eleven graduate candidates in our Literacy and Culture program used teacher work sample to link assessment and instruction to over forty-four struggling readers during a local summer school program. Since these were all veteran teachers with at least five years of experience, they piloted a modified version of teacher work sample to be later used with student teachers. Instead of writing a narrative for all teaching process, the necessary data needed for contextual factors, learning goals, assessment plan, and design for instruction were collected and reported using various matrices. Narrative writing was kept for the analysis of student learning and reflection and self-evaluation. Using the national rubrics completed scoring. These veteran teachers saw the value of designing curriculum based on contextual information and goal setting. One candidate wrote on a course evaluation sheet, “TWS was useful to help me organize my instruction much more effectively. I will definitely use this approach during the regular school year. I finally see how to plan instruction where I bring together the state standards, contextual information, and assessment in order for my children to gain in academic achievement. It really made me think about what I was doing, and all of my children showed improvement in such a short period of time!”

This fall we continue to add teacher work sample to our other majors by piloting the project in special education, secondary English and physical education. These three programs are introducing it in courses that either include a partnership experience or in student teaching. Arts and Science faculty are beginning to take on a more pivotal role in moving teacher work sample into secondary education.

This semester we are piloting teacher work sample with ten student teacher liberal studies majors. Candidates were selected who have participated in our partnership schools. These ten candidates have two placements. During their first placement they will write a complete teacher work sample. At their second placement, they will write the modified version piloted by the graduate students from last summer. Two partnership professors will coach the student teachers throughout the semester. Student teacher supervisors will do the scoring. This focus of our expansion into the student teacher semester is driven by the concept of developing a “habit of mind” and how to this may impact teacher quality.

Performance Assessment Using the Teacher Work Sample

Below is a first draft of an assessment plan that utilizes the Teacher Work Sample, the conceptual framework and the Longwood graduation requirements. This assessment plan is currently under discussion and revisions are likely.

Teachers as Reflective Leaders

All student teachers will score as Met Expectation on the Self-evaluation and Reflection indicator of the Teacher Work Sample
60% of principals will rate the leadership skills of Longwood Teacher Preparation graduates as Above Average or Superior on the Employer Survey
80% of alumni will rate their leadership skills as Above Average or Superior on the Alumni Survey
80% of alumni will rate their preparation in professionalism as Above Average or Superior on the Alumni Survey
80% of alumni will be in teaching five years after graduation
80% of student teachers will demonstrate a significant impact on learning in their pupils as demonstrated by pre-post assessments

Plan for Instruction

All student teachers will score as Met Expectation on the Contextual Factors, Learning Goals, and Design for Instruction indicators of the Teacher Work Sample
All student teachers will score as Met Expectation on the Contextual Factors, Learning Goals, and Design for Instruction indicators of the Student Teaching Rubric
70% of principals will rate the plans for instruction skills of Longwood Teacher Preparation graduates as Above Average or Superior on the Employer Survey
80% of alumni will rate their plans for instruction skills as Above Average or Superior on the Alumni Survey
80% of student teachers will demonstrate a significant impact on learning in their pupils as demonstrated by pre-post assessments

Implementation and Management of Instruction

All student teachers will score as Met Expectation on the Instructional Decision-Making indicator of the Teacher Work Sample
All student teachers will score as Met Expectation on the Implementation of Instruction indicator of the Student Teaching Rubric
70% of principals will rate the implementation of instruction skills of Longwood Teacher Preparation graduates as Above Average or Superior on the Employer Survey
80% of alumni will rate their implementation of instruction skills as Above Average or Superior on the Alumni Survey
80% of student teachers will demonstrate a significant impact on learning in their pupils as demonstrated by pre-post assessments

Evaluation and Assessment

All student teachers will score as Met Expectation on the Assessment Plan indicator of the Teacher Work Sample
All student teachers will score as Met Expectation on the Assessment Plan indicator of the Student Teaching Rubric
60% of principals will rate the assessment skills of Longwood Teacher Preparation graduates as Above Average or Superior on the Employer Survey
80% of alumni will rate their assessment skills as Above Average or Superior on the Alumni Survey
80% of student teachers will demonstrate a significant impact on learning in their pupils as demonstrated by pre-post assessments
Student teachers will score in the top 20% on Assessment of Student Learning on the EBI Benchmarking Survey

Knowledge of Subject

All students will pass the Praxis II Exam
All student teachers will score as Met Expectation on the Knowledge of Subject indicator of the Student Teaching Rubric
60% of principals will rate the knowledge of subject of Longwood Teacher Preparation graduates as Above Average or Superior on the Employer Survey
80% of alumni will rate their knowledge of subject as Above Average or Superior on the Alumni Survey

Classroom Management

80% of student teachers will score as Met Expectation on the Classroom Management indicator of the Student Teaching Rubric
50% of principals will rate the classroom management skills of Longwood Teacher Preparation graduates as Above Average or Superior on the Employer Survey
80% of alumni will rate their classroom management skills as Above Average or Superior on the Alumni Survey

Communication Skills

All students will pass the Praxis I Exam
80% of student teachers will score as Met Expectation on the Communication indicator of the Student Teaching Rubric
80% of teacher preparation students will pass the University Writing Competency Assessment
80% of teacher preparation students will pass the University Oral Communication Competency Assessment
70% of principals will rate the communication skills of Longwood Teacher Preparation graduates as Above Average or Superior on the Employer Survey
80% of alumni will rate their communication skills as Above Average or Superior on the Alumni Survey

Professional Responsibilities

All student teachers will score as Met Expectation on the Self-evaluation and Reflection indicator of the Teacher Work Sample
All student teachers will score as Met Expectation on the Professionalism indicator of the Student Teaching Rubric
70% of principals will rate the professional preparation of Longwood Teacher Preparation graduates as Above Average or Superior on the Employer Survey
80% of alumni will rate their professional preparation as Above Average or Superior on the Alumni Survey
Student teachers will score in the top 20% on Professional Preparation on the EBI Benchmarking Survey
All students will pass the SmartForce Computer Competency Exams

Spring, 2002

Longwood University has engaged in a systematic plan of regular teacher work sample training for mentor teachers, University professors, and supervisors of field experiences. We piloted teacher work samples with junior level preservice teachers at one partnership site during the first year of the grant. In the second year, two additional sites began teacher work samples and this academic year, the fourth site became involved. This semester we are also extending teacher work sample to the student teaching experience. Indeed, teacher work sample has become a field experience focal point; its value is widely recognized and appreciated. One of our preservice teachers expressed it well, "Teacher work sample has made me realize that my performance while teaching truly impacts the way students learn. From the post test results, the learning gains were positive. This makes me feel confident as a beginning teacher that I can bring about that kind of results."

Teacher Work Sample Training

During the past year, Longwood has held three training sessions (in March, August, and September) for new mentor teachers who are helping our partnership students develop teacher work samples. The August training was critical because we added a fourth partnership site for the 2001-2002 academic year and none of the teachers at that site had any previous training. Two additional sessions have been scheduled for the spring 2002 semester. In January, the student teacher supervisors will attend an extensive training session in scoring the teacher work samples. Another session is scheduled for February for our Arts and Sciences professors and for any partnership mentors who need additional training. The Arts and Sciences mentors have been included in previous sessions, but this time the focus will be more clearly upon ways in which they can support teacher candidates while they are in the process of compiling their work samples. Special attention will be directed toward ways in which they can use their subject matter expertise to offer more direct assistance to the preservice teachers as they prepare teacher work samples for actual classroom implementation. The partnership professors extend renewal training for the classroom teachers. They meet throughout the semester at the local schools to discuss changes, make clarifications, and to answer questions about the role of the practitioner in assisting preservice teachers with teacher work sample.

Participation in the St. Louis Workshops

Longwood has typically sent a large delegation to all of the Renaissance training sessions. Partnership professors and teacher work sample coordinators are regularly included at all such meetings. Last summer, two of the classroom teachers who work with our preservice candidates prepared teacher work sample themselves during the time they were working with a Longwood preservice teacher. The two practitioners then attended the June session in St. Louis to participate in the initial benchmarking efforts. We were quite pleased to have one of the teacher prepared work samples chosen as an upper level exemplar. Her experience and success in putting together a well-constructed sample has made her a good resource for assisting preservice teachers and for sharing at our local workshops.

Teacher Work Samples and Curricular Implications

In the fall semester of 2001, forty-one Longwood preservice teachers completed teacher work samples in their intermediate level practicum. Thirty of these samples were scored using the rubric (indicator met, partially met, or not met). As a result, we learned that the standards that needed the most attention are assessment and analysis of learning. The implications for curriculum improvement are evident. Already the assessment class that has traditionally been taught at the senior level has been moved to the sophomore year. Furthermore, two workshops are planned for this spring in which two of the partnership professors will demonstrate, offer guided practice, and individually assist preservice teachers with the charting and analysis of data. Other curricular revisions and changes include the involvement of our special education majors in using teacher work samples in their integrated field work instruction. Most recently, our student teaching assessments have also been revised to include teacher work sample as an integral component of the capstone experience.

Getting Out the Good News About Teacher Work Sample

Our faculty avail themselves of various opportunities to describe teacher work sample and to share the positive impact it is making upon our teacher preparation program. Last spring two of our professors presented information about how teacher work sample is being implemented in the partnership schools. These two individuals presented at both a national and a state level conference. Additionally, the school superintendents from our region meet at Longwood three times a year and they are regularly updated at these meetings about the success our preservice teachers and the public school students are experiencing as they are involved with teacher work sample. Furthermore, teacher work sample will be highlighted when one of our professors presents at a Partnership Conference this spring. Also, our associate dean will be one of the co-presenters at the AACTE Conference in New York.

Conclusion

Overall, the response to teacher work sample has been extremely positive. Professors, supervisors, mentors, and students have been openly enthusiastic about the process. As an NCATE accredited School of Education, Longwood purports to prepare teachers as reflective leaders. Without exception, all of those involved with teacher work sample agree that it has made them individually and collectively much more thoughtful about practice and the impact of instruction upon student achievement.

Contact: J. David Smith <davsmith@longwood.lwc.edu>

Fall, 2001

Refinement and Extension of Teacher Work Sample

At the meeting in St. Louis in January 2001, the TWS prompts were greatly clarified. Immediately following the meeting, a member of the Longwood faculty was given the responsibility for mentoring three student teachers and three practitioners through the TWS process. Simultaneously, professors in the three partnership schools continued to refine the TWS process with approximately forty-five junior level students, all of whom were required to complete a teacher work sample.

In the spring of 2001, Longwood added a third partnership site. The teachers and administrators from that school division, along with faculty from the School of Arts and Sciences were invited to participate in a Saturday workshop in early March. The central focus of the meeting was to help participants become familiar with the components of TWS, to clearly understand the prompts , and to gain confidence in the collaborative process that involves preservice teachers, classroom teachers, partnership professors, and arts and sciences professors.

In June of 2001, five professors and two classroom teachers attended the summer meeting in St. Louis. A work sample from each of the two practitioners who attended was taken to and shared at the St. Louis meeting. All of the Longwood participants considered the meeting to be an extremely productive one. Practice in using the rubric to actually score teacher work samples provided amazing insight into theTWS process. Consequently, Longwood has scheduled a workshop for mid-September in which using the rubric to assess teacher work samples is to be the primary goal. This workshop will involve Longwood faculty in Education and the Arts and Sciences along with student teacher supervisors and classroom teachers from the partnership schools.

With the opening of this academic year, Longwood has begun its fourth partnership school.
Preservice teachers at all four locations are now expected to complete teacher work samples.
Teachers from the newest site were included in the summer training and will continue to receive additional training throughout this year.

Future plans include having the Dean, three professors from Education, and a representative from Arts and Sciences attend the Renaissance meeting in Washington. Longwood also plans to be involved with the winter 2002 TWS meeting in St. Louis. Additionally, as students progress through the partnership schools where they have been deeply involved with TWS, Longwood plans to continue the process into their student teaching experience.

Teacher Work Sample Methodology Project

After attending the Iowa meeting in the fall of 1999, Longwood University decided to begin a “trial run” with teacher work sample methodology in our first partnership school. This preliminary run was done primarily to give one of our professors a sense of what to expect. We considered this experience to be important for him since he was scheduled to begin an official pilot of the program in the fall of 2000. After two team members from Longwood attended the Oregon meeting, we further refined our approach to teacher work sample methodology. Working through the ambiguities helped a great deal in terms of understanding the development process and in the preparation for our summer/fall workshops for teachers in the partnership schools and Longwood faculty. However, we must admit to feeling, especially after the Asheville meeting, that the prompts and assessment design seemed to still be moving targets. Nevertheless, we did conduct two summer workshops and one early fall workshop.

During July 2000, Longwood conducted workshops for teachers from two partnership schools plus faculty from the University. The entire Renaissance team was involved, as well as the faculty from education and arts and sciences. The first workshop covered in detail the teacher work sample methodology, its components, mentoring, and teacher accountability. Teachers and college faculty members were asked to volunteer to draft model work samples. One teacher and one professor constructed models.

A second workshop was conducted in August and dealt exclusively with assessment. In this meeting, education faculty, arts and science faculty, and supervisors of field experiences met together with teachers from the partnership schools. Working first as a large group and then in small groups, participants discussed various pre/post and formative strategies for evaluating student growth. Work toward development of some possible tools for charting pupil growth was initiated.

The third workshop was held in September of 2000 and was designed to acquaint the newest partnership teachers and faculty with teacher work sample methodology. The workshop basically followed the format used earlier in the summer. However, in this session three of the teacher candidates who were involved with the trial run from the spring of 2000 were participants. Their insight proved to be exceedingly helpful in thinking through the development process of teacher work sample methodology. In the fall of 2000, Longwood began its pilot program in the Prince Edward County Public School partnership.

Longwood’s next workshop is scheduled for this spring. Participants will be updated on the more definitive information received during the St. Louis workshop and will also devote considerable time to field integration and to the mentoring process. Again, faculty from education, arts and sciences, and faculty members from all three partnership schools will be included.

Presently, we are doing teacher work sample methodology in all of our partnership schools. In the fall of 2001, we will add a fourth site and pre-service teachers at that site will likewise begin the process. In the fall of 2001, we will also be able to carry a full-scale teacher work sample methodology process into student teaching for all of those teacher candidates who have previously been in one of the partnership programs.

Our partnership professors meet once a month and most of the meeting time is devoted to discussions of teacher work sample matters. The comment that is heard more frequently than any other is that teacher work sample methodology is causing our faculty to be much more reflective about how they themselves teach and about the teaching/learning process in general. Accountability for student growth has taken on new meaning for all of us.

Contact: Judy Johnson johnsonjr@longwood.edu

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