Revised Draft October 1, 2014
National Convening on Teacher Education and the Common Core
Problem of Practice Template
What is your problem of practice?
How can we leverage existing initiatives in Oregon to improve selection and support for
skilled Cooperating Teachers and increase engagement of education faculty in districts
who are effectively using the CCSS?
Why did you select this problem over all others? Why is the problem the most
important for your state to solve?
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Candidates need modeling of good practice in using the Common Core, both in
their university classes and in their clinical settings.
EPP1s are finding it difficult to place candidates in settings with teachers who are
conversant and skilled in using the CCSS.
Some EPP faculty do not engage regularly with schools and may be less likely to
model or prepare candidates for effectively using CCSS.
Teachers are overwhelmed with what is on their plate and good teachers don’t
want to let go of their classrooms to novice candidates.
Many of the state’s investments to support classroom practice around CCSS have
not included EPPs.
What context is important to know about this problem?
Based on 2013 legislation, the state has invested $45 million in initiatives focused on
educator quality that supports:
 Locally designed professional development on implementation of Common Core
 Implementation of new educator effectiveness systems
 Mentoring for new teachers and administrators
 Five partnership projects (13 districts, 6 EPPs, and 2 community colleges) to
improve recruitment/admissions, clinical practice, hiring, and
mentoring/induction.
 District Collaboration grants that support expanded career paths, effective
performance evaluations, relevant professional development, and new
compensation models.
 EPPs’ implementation of edTPA
 EPP professional development Summer Institute
 Development of a shared portal of resources—Oregon Educator Network
 Development of CCR classroom based assessments
Other contextual factor:
1
EPP = Educator Preparation Programs
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Revised Draft October 1, 2014
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There is considerable skepticism around SBAC (more testing and high stakes for
students and teachers) that is distracting from CCSS implementation.
What would be different if this problem were to be solved? How would solving this
problem improve the implementation of college and career ready standards in your
state? How would you measure it?
 The placement process would ensure that student teachers are consistently
placed with teachers who model effective use of the CCSS standards.
 There would be a sufficient pool of qualified and exemplary cooperating
teachers able to model effective use of the CCSS and who were willing to take
student teachers.
 University faculty would be consistently modeling and linking classroom
instruction to real examples of deeper learning based on the CCSS.
 More university faculty would be working with classroom teachers to study and
improve problems of practice related to teaching with the new standards
 The supply of new teachers ready for hire who are skilled in using the CCSS
would increase just as districts are starting to hire again.
 Teacher candidates, cooperating teachers, and faculty would all be contributing
to and using exemplars of practice through the Oregon Educator Network.
What steps has the state been taking, if any, to solve this problem? Why this
approach?
 A number of EPP and district partners are using a co-teaching model that may
increase teachers’ willingness to take student teachers.
 Oregon has just recently adopted an optional teacher leader licensure that could
be better leveraged to help recruit, identify and compensate cooperating
teachers.
 State program approval standards require EPPs to indicate how standards are
addressed in programs.
 All subject area tests that candidates take are already aligned with the CCSS.
 Ed Preparation and LAS Faculty and district partners attended a five day summer
institute that had a focus on CCSS pedagogy.
 A number of university faculty helped review the Common Core standards and
several institutions are doing research around CCSS pedagogy (OSU, Pacific and
PSU particularly).
 At least seven items on a new statewide Alumni and Employer Satisfaction
Survey being implemented for the first time this year reference candidates’
preparation for using new state standards.
What evidence does the state have that this approach has been effective?
In most cases, there is very little evidence to say how effective these approaches are
and many are in the earliest stages of development.
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Revised Draft October 1, 2014
Ineffective?
 Reports from EPPs indicate that more and more classroom teachers are reluctant
to take a student teacher.
 To date there has been minimal evidence that EPPs have been involved in PD for
Oregon’s schools to support use of CCSS.
 The TELL Survey which was recently administered shows that teachers do not
have sufficient non-instructional time or opportunities to collaborate with peers
to improve instructional practice.
What external partners, if any, has the state turned to for help in solving this
problem? Faculty, districts, associations, etc.
We have a Coalition that meets monthly to discuss issues regarding educator
effectiveness that includes representative from TSPC, ODE, EPPs, OEA, COSA,
Chalkboard, OEIB, PTA, OLN but this group has not specifically focused on this issue of
practice.
TeachOregon convenes partners involved in the five projects but the focus is not
specifically on CCSS implementation.
The Distinguished Educators Council convened by Chalkboard has recommended that
policymakers and school districts: “Provide for high-quality “cooperating” teachers in all
teacher preparation programs by ensuring appropriate training for this role, stipends
and reduced teaching responsibilities.”
ACTION PLAN
Action steps
Fall 2014
Win
Sum
Fall Rationale
Spr 2015
2015
2015
INCREASE CTs AVAILABLE TO MODEL AND COACH STUDENT TEACHERS’ IN EFFECTIVE
WAYS TO USE THE CCSS
1. Convene a
Team helps
OEIB, TSPC
Need to bring
stakeholder group to plan mtg
ODE,OACTE
attention to the
focus on selection,
Julie to pilot Chalkboard,
issue
preparation &
initial local
OCQTL
compensation of CTs meeting
host mtg.
(Discuss items 2-10)
ORATE too?
2. Summarize/share
OACTE to
Need to know
data on OACTE
share with
our baseline
alumni & employer
OCQTL,
surveys on
TSPC, BPST
preparedness to
teach with CCSS
3. Implement survey OEIB to
Compile
Need teacher’s
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Revised Draft October 1, 2014
drafted last year to
initiate
and share
perspective to
capture teachers’
results
inform policy
perspectives about
and practice
role and support for
CTs
4. Gather data on
Determine
Gather
Need baseline
who controls
who to do
data,
to inform policy
placement in
this. TSPC,
analyze,
and practice
districts, current best OACTE,
report
practices, and
Chalkboard,
compensation
COSA, OSPA?
models
5. Explore with OEA
Hilda to
Discussion &
how contract
broach with
research
language could also
Coleen
needed
include stipends for
CTs
6. Examine how
Hilda to
Discussion &
CLASS can be used to broach with
research
attract/compensate
Chalkboard
needed
more effective CTs
7. Examine how the
Hilda to
Discussion &
Mentor Program
broach with
research
could help increase
ODE
needed
CT pool
8. Explore impact of
Hilda to
Discussion &
a one course release calculate
research
for CTs
cost
needed
9. Identify pros/cons Ask
Discussion &
of clinical models
TeachOregon
research
appointing teachers
needed
as clinical
faculty/university
supervisors
10. Explore
Hilda to
Discussion &
pros/cons of not
explore with
research
using CTs student
ODE
needed
growth data as part
of evaluation when
they have a student
teacher
MAXIMIZING CO-TEACHING MODEL TO INCREASE COOPERATING TEACHER POOL FOR
STUDENT PLACEMENTS
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Revised Draft October 1, 2014
Determine how and
if co-teaching model
in TeachOregon
impacts teachers’
willingness to take
student teachers
More broadly share
co-teaching models
in Oregon with EPPs,
districts, and
prospective CTs
Develop plan for
scaling up use of coteaching model in
Oregon
EPP CCSS FACULTY
ENGAGEMENT
Report to OACTE on
lessons learned from
this mtg and share
Candice’s self
assessment and
video resources
Use Strategic
Investment teacher
prep funds to
support faculty
participation w/local
CCSS PLTs
Leverage work on
edTPA to engage EPP
faculty & school
partners to discuss
academic language
and effective
teaching practices
OTHER
Better align student
teacher forms with
Oregon Educator
Effectiveness
Framework
Determine how best
Julie/Scot
bring this
request to
TeachOregon
We don’t know
if this is the case
in Oregon. Need
research.
Chalkboard,
OACTE,
TSPC, OEIB
If this is
effective, then
needs to scale
up
All partners
Potential TSPC
policy
Julie/Scot
share at Fall
OACTE mtg
Share at
ORATE
Need to garner
interest/support
among EPPs for
this work
Hilda-Work
with Kim and
Markisha on
plan for
Spring PLTs
Faculty join
PLTs in
Spring
Immediate
action needed
to involve more
EPPs
Team works
with TSPC on
this
Team
works with
TSPC on
this
Raise this
Continue
with
this work
TeachOregon
OACTE
Discuss with
Discuss
Team
works
with
TSPC on
this
Discussion
needed
Continue
this
work
Might impact
teachers’
willingness to
serve as CTs
Need to
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Revised Draft October 1, 2014
to identify where
effective
implementation of
CCSS exists in
Oregon
ODE and
others
with ODE
and others
determine how
we know when
it exists
RELATED ITEMS ON OACTE ALUMNI AND EMPLOYER SATISFACTION SURVEY:
Create learning experiences that enable students to master the concepts
and methods of the discipline
Design activities that require students to understand and practice the
language of the discipline
Assist students in analyzing key concepts of the discipline from multiple
perspectives
Identify strategies that promote critical thinking and creativity
Plan relevant activities that require students to gather information, solve
problems and generate new ideas
Design and implement a variety of formative and summative assessments
that reflect state standards
Use specific common core standards to plan instruction
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