ASU boosts its year-long student teachers in AZ schools by 400 percent

In response to the repeated lackluster performance of Arizona’s pre-K-12 schools in national rankings, Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College at Arizona State University made a commitment. Three years ago, the college pledged to help change that paradigm by infusing state school districts with more teachers better prepared to enter a classroom. Key to its effort has been a year-long pre-K-8 student teacher residency for ASU education majors called iTeachAZ.

Since then, Teachers College has scaled up by 400 percent the number of iTeachAZ student teachers it places in Arizona’s pre-K-8 schools – from only 200 in fall 2010 to 1,000 aspiring teachers completing the 2012-13 academic year. At the same time, the college expanded its number of partner school districts statewide from seven to 35.

The ASU college rolled out iTeachAZ after more than a decade of assessing its professional development programs and making changes to intensify student experiences in the classroom, explained Mari Koerner, dean of the Teachers College. The college’s strong partnerships with Arizona school districts allowed it to scale up the program quickly to accommodate the number of seniors poised to begin the year-long residency.        

iTeachAZ also has caught the nation’s attention. In the past year, universities and state delegations from Iowa, Washington, Wisconsin, Illinois, Tennessee, South Dakota, California and others have met with ASU educators and observed iTeachAZ future teachers in action. The acute interest is prompting Teachers College to host an iTeachAZ Conference, Sept. 25-27, 2013, in Phoenix. Information is available at http://education.asu.edu/iteachaz2013. 

“We believe we share responsibility for Arizona’s schools,” said Koerner. “On the one hand, our faculty research contributes to ASU’s Research I status. On the other, we are hands-on innovators immersed in partner pre-K-8 schools with the express goal of helping all children reach their potential. iTeachAZ combines the best of both, equipping future teachers with the best research and best practices available and then placing them in Arizona classrooms for an entire school year.

“The scope of iTeachAZ is unprecedented, and it’s working.”

That Teachers College is graduating better prepared educators was borne out in a recent Arizona Department of Education report. When asked to evaluate beginning teachers on several core teaching skills, nearly 1,200 Arizona principals surveyed rated ASU’s Teachers College graduates above the state average on every indicator. More than 80 percent of the college’s individual graduates met or exceeded expectations for new teachers on all indicators.

Arizona received a grade of C- for its K-12 school performance compared to C+ for the U.S. average, according to Education Week’s 2013 “Quality Counts” report. Arizona also ranked 43rd out of 51 states evaluated (including Washington, D.C.) and 42nd the year before that. The annual report grades states by tracking six major education indicators: chance for success; transitions and alignment; school finance; K-12 achievement; standards, assessments and accountability; and teaching profession.

Principal Janet Tobias said having iTeachAZ teacher candidates for a full year at Kyrene de la Paloma Elementary School in Chandler benefits her students. With both ASU students and their mentor teachers in Paloma classrooms, it means more educators are on hand to meet the diversity of student needs.

“iTeachAZ brings young professionals into our schools who are passionate and dedicated to education,” she explained. “When you pair a teacher candidate and a mentor teacher, they become each other’s sounding boards. They become co-teachers and learn from each other as they move around the classroom to help students at different levels.

“We see a big impact from iTeachAZ at our school because it helps boost student achievement.”

Most states require a minimum of 10-14 weeks of student teaching, according to the National Association of State Directors of Teacher Education and Certification. ASU’s iTeachAZ program requires a full year of student teaching, more than double the national average.

Dubbed the “senior-year residency,” iTeachAZ graduates teachers who match the effectiveness of second-year teachers. That makes them sought-after hiring prospects; in fact, 100 percent of Arizona school principals surveyed by Sanford Inspire Program in January 2013 said they would hire an iTeachAZ graduate again.

“When I have teacher candidates here for an entire year, I know their work ethic,” Tobias explained. “They’ve been at staff meetings and we’ve looked at student data together. We’ve interacted informally during playground duty and in the teacher’s lounge.

“So when I’m hiring a new teacher, I’m much more comfortable hiring a teacher candidate from the iTeachAZ program – and I did that last year.”

Recent ASU Teachers College graduate and ex-Marine Ray Urquieta of Phoenix chose to pursue a teaching career after serving 20 years in the Marine Corps. He spent the past year working with Paloma third graders as an iTeachAZ teacher candidate and was recently hired to teach fifth grade at Kyrene de las Brisas in the same district. From setting up the classroom to attending Parents Night and teaching his own lesson plans, Urquieta said iTeachAZ takes the uncertainty out of the first year of teaching.

“Being able to take the classroom from July, before the kids arrive, to the very last day, we know what to expect when we’re on our own,” Urquieta explained. “And since we also meet on site for our ASU classes, we can take what we learn in class and start practicing those methods the very next day. It’s the most invaluable experience we could have.”

On a Tuesday morning, the value of “clinically embedded coursework” was on full display in a classroom where ASU future teachers from throughout the Kyrene District were helping Paloma fifth graders simulate the eight phases of the moon using Oreo cookies. ASU’s iTeachAZ Site Coordinator Cindy Ballantyne had just instructed the education majors about choosing activities and materials that support lesson objectives and engage students.

“We can teach a concept to our iTeachAZ teacher candidates, and they can walk down the hall to a fifth grade classroom, interact with those students, then come back to our ASU class and reflect on how to use that concept in their own classrooms,” she said. “It offers them an authentic learning experience.”

Ballantyne added that teacher candidates undergo four performance assessments during the year based on the same TAP: The System for Teacher and Student Advancement rubrics used by most school districts. Their TAP scores also are tied to their ASU grade for student teaching. Additionally, Ballantyne trains mentor teachers and works in tandem with all of her iTeachAZ principals to pair ASU students and mentors: “They do a really good job of explaining different personality types and academic strengths so I can match them up.”

According to Tobias, as parents become more familiar with ASU’s iTeachAZ presence at Paloma, they are asking on the school’s Parent Environment Form that their students be placed in an iTeachAZ classroom the following year.

“This year, it was my delight to come across lots of parents requesting that their children be in a classroom that has a teacher candidate from the ASU program,” she said. “That to me spoke very loudly that it’s out there in the community, that parents want their children to be included, and I was very proud of that.”

The school principal added that the “cool” college students wearing their ASU garb and backpacks who are studying to be teachers and interacting with her students on a daily basis energize the Paloma campus and serve as important role models for her kids.

“For some kids, college might not seem attainable,” Tobias explained. “They might not be hearing at home that it’s something you can do. But when they’ve worked with teacher candidates all year, and they actually see them taking ASU classes and they are there at the end for their graduation ceremony at our school – it has an enormous impact.

“The pride my students feel is so immeasurable, I can’t put words to it. But I see it on their faces every year.”