4.3 Transformation Initiative [maximum of three pages]
 Summarize activities and changes based on data on candidate performance and program quality that are related to the TI.
 Discuss plans for sustaining and enhancing progress on the TI in this area.
As indicted in 4.1, the following activities and changes related to our Transformation Imitative have taken place:
 Early field experiences in all initial programs in urban settings with specific reflection
 All candidates must have at least one field/clinical experience in a large urban, high poverty school.
 Embedded field experiences in large urban high poverty schools that provide faculty members the opportunity to model interacting with administrators, teachers, and students of different ethnicity, race, socioeconomic gender, exceptionalities, and language.
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Faculty modeling of pedagogy that has been demonstrated to be effective in large urban, high poverty school districts, and providing coursework and materials in courses.
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Implementation of a logic model to monitor changes and address the assessment of rigorous diversity proficiencies.
The key activities that will generate the data on candidate performance and program quality are integrated through the vertical alignment project. Specific notes, the logic model, and resources related to this effort are provided in Exhibit 4.4a.1 and 4.4.a.2.
The general outcome of the 4-year Vertical Alignment of a Teacher Education Program to develop a diversity repertoire is to prepare teachers to acknowledge, affirm, and practice culturally and individually responsive pedagogy. This project is grounded in our desire to teach our candidates to recognize what Milner (2010) refers to as an opportunity gap rather than an achievement gap. As a result of this project, teacher candidates will:
Recognize and respond to a diversity repertoire in their teaching and writing
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Recognize difference between intent and impact
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Develop a shared vision, motivation, knowledge, and community of practice
 Develop a vision of learning on a continuum (ex. accessing the environment) and avoiding labels (ex. disability as perception)
 Using students’ funds of knowledge to expand knowledge and skills
 See people first

As a direct object of this project teacher candidates will engage in consistent and critical activities to identify opportunity gaps and address them in the pedagogy across all four years of their coursework. The process measure is the development of a diversity repertoire, which will be monitored through both formative and summative assessments.
During spring 2012 we will collect our second set of baseline data for first and second year students. This baseline is statements generated through an open response to the prompt:
Discuss color-blindness v. self-examination - Paul Gorski says: Am I ignoring the existence of difference as a way to avoid addressing the difficult issues related to them? Is color-blindness possible? And, if so, is it desirable when it denies people what may be important dimensions of their identities?
These responses will be open coded by research associates during summer 2012. After faculty members review and confirm the categories, characteristics of various levels of understanding and multicultural responsiveness will be generated, with an emphasis on language. These language characteristics will be used to generate a rubric for written and oral language for candidate responses throughout their four years of educator preparation.
An additional effort is our current pilot of the detailed or focused dispositions assessment, which assists supervisors, mentor teachers, and candidates’ peers in identifying and developing measurable behaviors identified in the literature as consistent with effective teaching in large, urban, high poverty settings.
During these efforts, our current data collection from various stakeholders related to diversity proficiencies will be continued.