The California Standards for the Teaching Profession have been around at least since 1997. However, except for pre-service training at the universities for our in-coming teachers and the BTSA program of induction for our probationary teachers, most teachers of any experience are only marginally familiar with them. Yet, the teacher evaluation instrument now in place is directly tied to these standards, and the last part of that evaluation, the teacher’s professional growth plan, is also based on Standard 6. No one can blame a veteran teacher for being a little confused about these recent developments. But for anyone who thinks this is only the latest educational fad, and, if you just fly under the radar, it will pass, the reality is quite the contrary. In a little over two years, credentialing will be based on successful completion of the BTSA Program, including a series of 12 CFASST Events, which are themselves inquiries into the standards. Flying under the radar just won’t work this time. I recommend embracing the standards and I have a plan to help teachers do that.
There are 6 standards, each of which contains a number of more specific elements, 31 in all. The standards are numbered 1-6, but this is very misleading. In point of fact, all the standards are in play to one degree or another at all times. If you are just becoming familiar with the standards, and knowing full well that you may be evaluated by someone using them, the fact that all are in play at any given time, gives little comfort. I think, though, the standards can be logically sequenced and an incremental examination of them can sustain a teacher’s inquiry for years to come. I think the optimum time to begin such an inquiry is at the culmination of a teaching year. And I have a recommendation on how a veteran teacher might organize a journey through them.
A logical path through the standards is as follows:
1. Take a yearly view of teaching and the standards, that is, from June to June. When the school year ends, most teachers turn their brains off, at least for a while, and providing they have not signed on for summer school duty. However, at some point, the brain re-awakens and most teachers begin the mental examination of last year and next year. This is seminal long-term planning. This is the perfect time to consult the standards.
2. Begin with standard 3: “Understanding and Organizing Subject Matter for Student Learning.” The purpose of this standard is to make sure that teachers are both competent in their subject matter knowledge and also the manner in which students learn that content. Teachers have always done this, even before the standards were codified. Significant numbers of teachers have used the summer break to return to the classroom as students to increase their subject matter competence or to learn about new trends in pedagogy. My recommendation is to take one of the 5 elements in standard 3 and focus there. I would recommend Standard 3.2: “Organizing Curriculum to Support Student Understanding of Subject Matter.” The quotations which follow in this article are from California Standards for the Teaching Profession: Resources for Professional Practice: Element Descriptions and Descriptions of Practice with Introduction. This is a state publication designed for use in the BTSA Program. The “Descriptions of Practice” are matrices for each of the teaching elements. Practice is described developmentally as:
· “Practice Not Consistent with Standard Expectations”
· “Developing Beginning Practice”
· “Maturing Beginning Practice”
· “Experienced Practice that Exemplifies the Standard.”
Most beginning teachers describe themselves as falling somewhere between developing and maturing beginning practice on a variety of the teaching standards. Few of us ever reach exemplary practice on all the standards, but, as an inquiry, it makes a wonderful goal to focus on at the start of your journey. A brief description of Standard 3.2 is as follows:
"This element refers to the teacher’s skill in using his or her knowledge of the content to organize the curriculum in a way that engages students in that content. This element requires knowing not only the content, but also how students learn that content. [p. 34]"
Under the accompanying description of practice, the following details are aligned with experienced practice that exemplifies the standard:
"The curriculum is organized and sequenced and demonstrates concepts, themes, and skills, and the relationships between them. It reveals and values a broad range of perspectives, and is organized to ensure that all students develop a deep understanding of core concepts." [ p. 35]
3. This first step on the yearlong journey of the teaching standards leads logically to Standard 4: “Planning Instruction & Designing Learning Experiences for all Students.” Here I would recommend focusing on element 4.3: “Developing and sequencing instructional activities and materials for student learning.” A brief description from the standards’ booklet is as follows:
"This element refers to the teacher’s ability to structure learning activities over time to help students achieve specific learning goals. Instructional activities are what students do (e.g. read, write, talk together, perform an experiment). Instructional materials are what students use (texts, objects, handouts) when engaging in the instructional activities. A teacher sequences instruction by choosing or creating instructional activities and materials that follow each other in such a way that each subsequent activity either builds on previous activities or activates prior knowledge to lead students to achieve the intended learning goals." [p. 48]
Once again, a look at the description of practice for this element reveals a lofty goal under “Experienced Practice that Exemplifies the Standard”:
"Instructional activities and materials are differentiated to reflect individual students’ interests and developmental needs, and engage all students in meaningful learning. Activities support the learning goals and are logically sequenced to clarify content and concepts. [p. 49]" A hallmark of the teaching standards is differentiated instruction. This differentiation takes many forms, to include, but not limited to, the language continuum, gender considerations, ability levels, and learning styles. For those of us who have gradually adapted our teaching style to the middle of the class, this is a wonderful eye-opener, for it challenges us to use our peripheral vision to see all the students and their needs.
Summer reflection, then, naturally turns to planning and sequencing lessons, but with added attention paid to the diversity in our classrooms.
4. Those one or two days [or more] that precede the start of school, when teachers return to set up their classrooms, is a perfect opportunity to visit Standard 2: “Creating and Maintaining Effective Environments for Student Learning.” I would further point you toward element 2.4: “Establishing and maintaining standards for student behavior.” It is always a good idea to revisit our classroom rules and procedures and our expectations for student behavior. A brief description of this element follows:
"This element addresses the teacher’s ability to establish an appropriate climate for learning by interacting with students and supervising interactions among students in ways that consistently reflect agreed-on standards for classroom behavior. Both students and the teacher may contribute to the development of the standards. The exact nature of the standards may vary widely among teachers, in response to such factors as students’ developmental levels, their cultural backgrounds, the subject being taught, the method of teaching being used, the level of noise or informality with which the teacher is comfortable, and school wide norms. However, all standards and methods of keeping order should, at all times, embody a sense of respect for students as people. Once established and agreed upon, these standards should be maintained consistently, although situations will occur that require exceptions to the rule." [p. 24]
The “Description of Practice” is particularly important with regard to this element because teacher’s views vary widely as to how democratic their classroom should be. I will include the descriptions for both maturing and experienced practice on this element. First, for maturing practice:
"Standards for behavior are established, are clear to all students, and are maintained by the teacher. The teacher’s response to student behavior is appropriate." [p. 25]
And for experienced practice:
"Students and teacher develop standards for behavior together, and students are responsible for helping each other maintain standards." [p. 25]
Whichever description more closely matches your teaching style and personality, it is a good idea to revisit your expectations for student conduct as you are setting up your classroom. If you choose mature practice, you can develop these rules prior to the actual start of classes. If you opt for experienced practice, then the first few days of school provide the best chance to include students in the formulation of these rules. The consultant teachers have encouraged our beginning teachers to post these rules. A noted practitioner, Harry Wong, says that if you don’t have your classroom environment established by Friday of the second week of school, it is going to be a LONG year. And by that magical date, you have already visited three of the six teaching standards and have done so incrementally, by examining one element of each.
5. Though classroom environment [Standard 2] gets the most attention during the first critical days of school, remember what was said at the beginning of this article: all the standards are more or less in play at all times. The focus on Standard 2 moves logically and almost immediately to Standard 1: “Engaging and Supporting all Students in Learning.” In narrowing our focus down to just one element of Standard 1, I would recommend Standard 1.2: “Using a variety of instructional strategies and resources to respond to students’ diverse needs.” A brief description of this element follows:
"This element addresses the teacher’s ability to use a sufficient variety of instructional strategies to meet the needs of individual students within the context of teaching an entire class." [p. 8]
Experienced practice for this standard looks like this:
"The teacher makes skillful use of a wide repertoire of instructional strategies to engage all students in learning, making adjustments while teaching to respond to students’ needs." [p. 9]
The experienced practitioner has available a wide variety of strategies (what some veterans refer to as a “bag of tricks”), not simply for variety’s sake, but more for targeted instruction that depends on continuous student assessment.
6. And this, of course, leads us logically to Standard 5: “Assessing Student Learning.” It is a toss-up whether to begin with element 5.2: “Collecting and using multiple sources of information to assess student learning” or 5.4: “Using the results of assessments to guide instruction.” Because I think 5.2 logically precedes 5.4, we will begin there. A brief description of this element follows:
"This element focuses on the teacher’s ability to identify and use multiple sources of information to inform his or her understanding of student progress toward meeting learning goals. Multiple sources of information provide different perspectives on student learning. Furthermore, reliance on a single source can sometimes give a misleading impression. Sources of information include teacher observations documented in notes, running records, essays, student responses to teacher questions, student dialogue with the teacher and peers, performance tasks, interviews with students and families about relevant student achievements and activities outside of school (e.g. what the student reads for pleasure), and teacher-made and standardized tests." [p. 58]
Experienced practice on this element looks like this:
"The teacher uses a variety of sources to collect information about student learning and a wide range of appropriate assessment strategies to understand student progress." [p. 59]
The Content Standards’ Frameworks now call for assessment throughout the unit of instruction. A pre-assessment can establish the prior knowledge of students. In some cases, it can even indicate that certain students have already mastered the unit planned. Continuous assessment is part of the unit and can be used to modify instruction. And post assessment can reveal not only which students have mastered the material, but also which students, or concepts, need re-teaching. Ultimately, it can be used to modify subsequent instruction. Some studies indicate that highly effective teachers actively assess during classroom instruction at the rate of about once a minute. Obviously, assessment is a broad term, which encompasses much of what a teacher does during his workday. Just a scan of your room to see who is on-task, or whose face has a quizzical look, are forms of assessment. The questions that teachers pepper their students with almost daily are powerful assessment tools: “Do they get it; where do they need help; what do I need to re-teach?”
7. We are only in the first few weeks of school and you have now visited teaching elements in the first 5 standards. About this time, your principal will ask you to submit an Initial Planning Sheet. This will form the basis of a classroom observation, which may include a pre- and post-conference. Your own inquiry into the teaching standards, and selected elements, will give you a powerful tool for taking control of this process. By citing specific teaching elements in your I.P.S. you are asking the administrator to become a second set of eyes in your classroom, and from a different vantage point within the room, look for evidence of these elements. While this does not preclude an administrator from gathering all evidence he sees, I can almost guarantee that he will welcome the focus this brings to the observation. It is very difficult to gather evidence in more than a few standards and by planning ahead, you can determine where the observation will go and the subsequent evidence gathered by your observer can truly make a difference in your teaching.
8. The final standard to address is Standard 6: “Developing as a Professional Educator.” This would likely flow from the post-observation conference. The most logical element to address is 6.1: “Reflecting on teaching practice and planning professional development.” The post-observation conference is a perfect opportunity to engage in reflection on your teaching practice with your observer. This element is described in the following way:
"This element refers to the teacher’s ability to learn from experience and engage in self-directed improvement. Such self-directed learning requires honest appraisal of the relative successes of different approaches with students, and the pursuit of improved teaching techniques and practices." [p. 68]
Experienced practice for this element follows:
"The teacher reflects on his or her teaching practice in relation to student learning and instructional goals, assesses growth over time, and plans professional development based on reflection." [p. 69]
The title of this article refers to a yearlong approach. As I have described it, all 6 standards have been reviewed by the end of October. I also mentioned that technically speaking, all six standards are in play more or less all the time. Good teaching involves moving seamlessly between planning, engaging and assessing. Teachers are continually updating their subject matter competence and there is periodic opportunity for professional growth via workshops, conferences, and other types of in-service. But come the end of the next school year, teachers move logically back to an examination of Standards 3 & 4 over the summer and 2 and 1 at the very outset of school. However, subsequent years offer the opportunity to look at different elements within the standards. Using this approach, a teacher could review all of the 31 elements within the 6 standards over the course of 5 years. This long-view is consistent with an incremental approach to improvement in teaching practice and renders an inquiry into the teaching standards a manageable endeavor.
The approach described in this article is by and large what good teachers have always been doing. But using this approach allows an individual teacher to become conversant in the language and the philosophy of the teaching standards. Part of the intent of creating the standards was to develop a statewide vocabulary for talking about teaching, not only to facilitate discussion between administrators and teachers, but also to enhance inter-district communication. All in all, a common vocabulary for talking about teaching practice is a laudable goal.
A final caveat: this is what seems logical to me. There is no one true path through the teaching standards. I encourage you to look for a sequence, which makes sense to you. But I do think that isolating a hand-full of elements per year and focusing on improving teaching practice within those elements provides the best chance for mastering the standards.