California school district and university collaborate
CALIFORNIA — A program to improve professional development for teachers, student teachers and college professors in education is being developed through the cooperative efforts of the California Area School District and California University of Pennsylvania.
Kevin Koury, Cal U’s Dean of the College of Education and Human Services, addressed the school board Thursday outlining the plans for a pilot program involving the university and the school district to improve professional development for the district teachers and for Cal U professors and education students. Koury said that in the past, professional development has focused almost entirely on teachers passing National Board certifications showing that they are specialists in their field.
Koury said the Professional Development School model being worked on will benefit current and future teachers, as well as students in the school district. The goal is to design a program that has measurable results that can be duplicated in other school districts, Koury said.
“Hopefully by the end of this experience we will have a set of materials, a set of evaluation instruments and ideas about different programs we can initiate with school districts based on what we’ve developed here,” Koury said.
At present, the program includes co-teaching, with classroom teachers and student teachers working side by side in the classroom; reflective practitioner, which involves student teachers showcasing their skills at the university as well as using reflective journaling and other techniques to improve their teaching; and a grant-funded program for current teachers to pursue national board certification.
Additional elements under discussion include a teacher in residence program which would place a university professor in the field teaching and public school teachers in university classrooms sharing their experience. There may also be future options for student teachers to explore areas of student service such as counseling, speech and language therapy and school psychology.
Koury said the model was presented at a national convention last week and was well-received because of its comprehensive approach to professional development.
“Hopefully, the project will be supportive of the school district here and the university as well,” Koury said.
In other matters, the board met in executive session to discuss negotiations with the California Area Education Association and with the Service Employees International Union. The teachers’ contract expired at the end of last school year and the contract with t eh custodians and cafeteria workers expires at the end of the current school year.