Supporting the Teachers Who Support Our Students

1. Supporting the Teachers Who Support Our Students Patricia A. Popp, Ph.D. The College of William and Mary pxpoppp@wm.edu National Center for Homeless Education July 11, 2013

2. A quick review

3. The Big Three • Access • Attendance • Success

4. He who is tested gets taught

5. Government Performance & Results ActGPRA Goals • Increase percentage of hcy included in state math and reading assessments • Increase percentage of hcy included and meeting or exceeding proficiency levels

6. Percent Proficient

7. “The quality of an education system cannot exceed the quality of its teachers” 2007 McKinsey Report

8. What can state coordinators do? What does this have to do with us?

9. Levels of Support • Commitment to advocacy at all levels • National and State Conversations • Supporting effective local practices

10. Commitment to Advocacy • Respecting content knowledge and pedagogy • Challenging the old adages, • “Those that can’t, teach.” • “I’m just a teacher.” • Challenging the status quo

11. National and State Conversations • Revisiting our GPRA measures • Attendance • Discipline • Dropout • On-time Graduation • Let’s discuss…

12. Poll: Which would be relatively easy to add to your state data collection? (check all that apply) • Attendance • Discipline • Dropout • On-time Graduation • Other?

13. State and National Conversations • Race to the Top States • ESEA Flexibility Waivers • Priority and focus schools • Rate of homelessness and student mobility? • Is identification of homeless reasonable given the poverty level? • Have teachers been provided resources to better reach our students? • The challenging conversation: Equity: comparing our teachers working with students in poverty to those in affluent communities • Let’s discuss…

14. State and National Conversations • Teacher evaluation • What are the standards for evaluating teachers in your state? • Which are highly related to qualities of effective teachers for HHM students? • What metrics are used to document student growth? • Value-added or student growth percentiles • Student achievement goal setting • Curriculum-based measures • What happens when teachers have large number of students that are not captured by the broadly-used assessment measures? What happens to those students? • Let’s discuss…

15. State and National Conversations • Teacher recruitment and preservice training • Lesley University – new 3 credit foundations course, Child Homelessness: A Multidisciplinary Discourse (evolved from a 1-credit pilot) • Sharpe Scholars – William and Mary • Embed in courses on: diversity, assessment, classroom management, special education, collaboration, children’s literature, trauma • Let’s discuss…

16. Supporting Effective Local Practices • From Milwaukee, WI • Each principal is asked to identify a staff person as the homeless contact in the building. To avoid inconsistency, we taped a media site presentation that is now mandatory. Each principal must show the video at a staff meeting in the fall and then sends Administrative Leadership a form that verifies the date it was shown. (A separate video is shown to secretaries with enrollment details.) Thanks to Catherine Klein!

17. Supporting Effective Local Practices • From Madison, WI • We use our PBiS (Positive Behavior Support) staff to continue many "good for all students" initiatives. Building communities, building safety and welcoming activities and making sure that students are ready to learn. Each of our schools has a PBS coach. … Once the PBS interventions are in place, the focus can come down to the individuals who need something more than what everyone gets. This is where many homeless children enter. The need for someone to check in with them and check out each day comes in handy. Even if it is to make sure they had a good day or that they have everything they need to go home with. • Our classrooms receive support from our PBS coaches daily through explicit teaching and shared school wide "cool tools." I come in when there is a student who is not responding to the overall support and a need for brainstorming beyond their own ideas is needed. I also work as a district wide consultant on after school connections, early childhood supports, professional development, community outreach, summer school, shelter contacts, and helping our homeless student find a way to share their voices (WWA project - meeting and writing a book to share in the community). Thanks to Jani Koester!

18. Supporting Effective Local Practices • From Roanoke, VA • I am planning to offer trainings and presentations at faculty meetings this fall to get the info to the teachers. I keep track of where all of our referrals come from and this past year, several of them came directly from the teachers who received info directly from the parent or student. • I also ensure each principal gets a list of all students who enrolled or were enrolled in their school who were living in transition. This has been a great source of communication. • For this upcoming school year, I am also working on the approval of a newsletter to be sent to principals updating our number of students and also any specific needs for our assisting our students, (i.e., school supplies, hygiene items, clothing, shoes and coats) and "thought provoking" information regarding some of the challenges our students and families face to give it more of a personal approach. The principal would be asked to email to the faculty in their building, so this will be another way of getting info to the teachers. Thanks to Malora Horn!

19. Supporting Effective Local Practices • From Minneapolis, MN • Building Bridges Project has been done here in MPS for seven years with excellent results. This is an intensive professional development program for School Social Workers, who then work directly with the teachers at their school sites to support students. This past year we also instituted Classroom for Success, a software tool that provides dynamic access to academic student data with features that allow careful monitoring of students who are homeless to inform and guide instruction at the individual student level. Thanks to ZibHinz!

20. Supporting Effective Local Practices • From NC • I have the homeless liaisons work directly with school social workers (SSWs) each year to provide a mini training to staff. The training is usually a 10 - 20 minute presentation during the opening staff meeting. The SSWs discuss warning signs, provide a classroom tip sheet to staff, discuss the process for referring a student in the building and supports/services that are available. The SSW shows a power point and use something I provided to the liaison who is required to add local information. By providing the materials to the liaison, I am able to reduce the work for the liaison and the SSWs, reduce anxiety of anyone needing to prepare a presentation, and I am able to ensure information is accurate and consistent not just in the LEA but also across the state. I talk with liaisons about developing a training that includes 1 hr sessions each month after school for teachers (and others) that helps them learn about working with homeless students and those at risk. At the end of this training, the teachers receive CEU credit from their LEA (of course the liaison works with their professional development office prior to doing this as well). This is just another strategy to assist teachers to obtain at least 1 credit towards their licensure. Thanks to Lisa Phillips!

21. Connecting Points to Reach Teachers • Recruitment, • Preservice training, • Induction and in-service training, • Retention

22. The one exclusive sign of thorough knowledge is the power of teaching. Aristotle