Mike - 

Great to hear about this project - it sounds like your participants are getting so much out of your support. I heard you say that you were working with 25 teachers. How many cohorts of teachers are you working with over the five years of the project? 

I'd also love to hear some more examples of the ways teachers are moving in to being leaders as you had hoped - or, if they haven't as you had hoped and why.

Thanks!
Jeanne

Hi Jeanne,

My name is Barbara and I orchestrate the teacher leadership component of the project. We will be working with the same 25 teachers for the project’s duration. This stability allows everyone to explore their practice in depth as it evolves over the project (see D’Alba & Sandberg, 2006). Eight from this group are pursuing teacher leadership roles and have completed two badges thus far, with others to come. The first badge had teachers exploring the tenets of teacher learning and professional development - as two separate concepts. They also probed their own perceptions of leadership. The second badge provided opportunities to examine various professional development models specific to mathematics and science and a more in-depth look at different leadership models. Each person then gathered data about teacher learning needs in their department, school, or district then drafted a site-specific, data-based, PD project they would lead. Badge three asks the teachers to implement their project and design an action research project that studies the impact and their developing leadership skills. 

I hope that answers your question!

~Barbara

This looks like a very promising strategy for continued professional growth!

  The literature on teacher leadership provides evidence that one factor that can inhibit teachers from taking on some kind of leadership is the receptivity or welcome that their peers give them — Are these teachers who have "solved" that problem, owing to their prior experience (so their colleagues are receptive)?  I did hear one voice talk about how he was using the data from one of his studies to make a case with colleagues.

Good question, Brian.  The answer is complex.  We have teachers in the projects from a number of different schools.  Some have a few colleagues in the project, so advocating and leading is a little bit easier since much of their team is on the inside of the project.  Others are sole participants at their schools, and this makes it more challenging.  I think some of those people are working on advocating with their peers.  The ones who are successful, it seems, are the ones who are sharing broadly their action research results with their colleagues as a prelude to advocating for leadership and change.  It creates a trust and validity to the project work that pays dividends in the leadership domain.

I can't tell you how much I love this project! Well done, all!

I have a policy-oriented question about the microcredentials: what do you see as local and state policies that inhibit or support the work you're doing? Are there things you'd change about the credentialing process broadly based on this experience if you could?

Hello Levi,

In our conception of the badges, each is the equivalent of one graduate credit. This allowed us to frame each with the requisite amount of learning/work. It also encouraged teachers to earn graduate credit through the UW-Milwaukee. At this time, few school districts acknowledge and reward acquisition of microcredentials as professional development but most do not. That said, we believe the MMTP is just one more way to normalize the value of microcredentials so supporting district and university policy can be drafted. We believe teachers earning these badges will be an impetus for changing the way professional learning is acknowledged in traditional structures (school district and university policy). It would have been helpful to have these policies in place before the project started. That said, if the policies were in place, the project would have been less innovative! 

~Barbara

Barbara,

Thanks for your response. I like the link to a graduate credit. I think that creates a semi-structured sense of the effort required to achieve a badge, plus could create space for innovation across other IHEs. I've been looking a lot at the work of LRNG (formerly Cities of Learning). Their original work in Chicago (search YouTube for Chicago Summer of Learning) was informed by really impressive design-based strategies that I think we could/should replicate in the micro-credential space for educators.

I'm particularly interested in how states can leverage Title II.A funding to initiate this work and encourage districts to leverage their own Title II.A funding to sustain the efforts. We'll have to talk at some point about all of this!

Lastly, I love the comment about policies! I think what I'm wondering is what policy or policies you'd put into place or remove that would help make this a more broad-scale reality. I'm all ears! :)  

I think the Milwaukee Master Teacher Partnership is an excellent project for teacher continual growth. Thank you for sharing.

How are you measuring improvements in pedagogical practices that influence student learning?