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Network for Excellence in Teacher Effectiveness (NExT) Initiative

Partnership with the Archibald Bush Foundation

Minnesota State Mankato NExT Project Overview

January 9, 2012

Network for Excellence in Teaching (NExT)

Minnesota State Mankato is one of 14 higher education institutions in the upper Midwest selected by the Archibald Bush Foundation to partner in a historic teacher education initiative focused on the following strategies:< Emphasize and support teacher effectiveness, especially on recruiting< Preparing (pre-service level), placing (in-service level) and supporting

(mentoring & induction) the next generation of teachers.  Why did the Foundation focus on teachers? Research shows that teacher effectiveness is the most important factor in improving student performance and reducing the disparities among diverse student groups. To that end, the initiative aims to produce 25,000 new and highly effective teachers during the next decade.

The College of Education at Minnesota State Mankato is scheduled to receive more than $6 million in funding from the Bush Foundation for its work in support of this outcome.

NExT Recruitment Campaign Overview – Become an insider…http://proclaim.netbriefings.com/flv/psbpr/zpshj/psbprzpshj100080/ (Name/NExT)

Minnesota State Mankato ProjectOverview

The teacher education unit (pedagogical faculty and arts and sciences faculty) is implementing a new program designed to create pipelines of strong candidates by:< Identifying,< Involving,< Mentoring, and< Advising

increasingly diverse candidates with great potential in middle schools, high schools, community colleges, our university, and other career pathways.

Minnesota State Mankato ProjectOverview Continued

Our program vision will involve:< 2 years of school experiences, with nearly all teacher preparation

instruction in the schools, taught by teams of master teachers and university faculty, and focused on the real instructional needs of E-12 (Early Childhood and P-12) learners for whom the candidates have responsibility.

< The candidates will serve on sustained instructional teams, deploying instruction as a team and within the co-teaching model, with increasingly sophisticated responsibilities as they are taught more about teaching. This teamed model of instruction will improve the school’s effectiveness in generating E-12 student learning, and will increase the productive use of data to improve instruction.

Eight school districts have readily engaged in this project to date. We anticipate launching additional urban partnership sites over the next two years.

In addition, we envision all candidates experiencing a minimum of 6 weeks of uniquely divergent field experience (urban, international, etc.) to shift perspective while building resilience and resourcefulness.

Minnesota State Mankato ProjectOverview Continued

We will guarantee the effectiveness of our graduates, follow graduates with three years of professional development and mentoring, and will monitor their success with E-12 learners.

Content courses (our teacher education candidates take at minimum the same major requirements as majors who do not plan to teach) will be taught on line and after school each day.

Ongoing analysis of the capacities of our data/information management systems are being collaboratively studied by the College of Education, Minnesota State Mankato ITS, MnSCU ITS, the Bush Foundation, and the Value-added Research Center (University of Wisconsin).

High quality performance assessments and surveys are being developed as well as growth and value-added E-12 student learning data gathered for candidates and graduates.

Predictive studies will allow informed refinement of our programs.

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Brief Orientation to the Particular Emphasis and Unique Characteristics of Our Program

Intentionally connecting high impact elements that existed in our previous program/partnership structure to a seamless, coherent continuum of educator preparation:< Existing high impact elements that we are building our

foundation upon: Curricular review for continuous improvement – assessment,

standards, and NCATE accreditation processes (Prepare) Professional Development School (PDS) partnerships

(Prepare and Place) Scaffolded field experiences utilizing Danielson’s Framework

(Prepare) Mentoring and Induction (Support) P-20 professional development delivery systems (Support)

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Brief Orientation to the Particular Emphasis and Unique Characteristics of Our Program

Strategically scaling up program, and building capacity within the Unit and P-12 partners for the transformation … seamless, coherent continuum of educator preparation.< New elements incorporated into the continuum:

Maverick Recruitment Coordinator role Unit-wide Curricular Leadership Team role Co-teaching model within student teaching and extended pre-service field

experiences Assessment and Research Coordinator role Partnership with the Center for Excellence in Scholarship and Research Partnership with the MN Modeling & Simulation Center Integrated Field Staff model for professional development of P-12 field staff Metropolitan partnership development (Bloomington and Inver Grove

Heights Public Schools) PDS Advancement via Individual Determination (AVID) Alliance

Recruit

Prepare•Curriculum•Field Experience

Place/Partnership Development

Support

Assessment/Research

Integrated Project Advancement

•Strategic Communication•Development

Project Components

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Key Challenges and Opportunities for Growth

Strategic communication across all stakeholder groups – “messaging” - crisp, clear, engaging, and inspiring.

Access to, engagement with, and shared-ownership of the project vision with content-area Unit faculty

“Continuum” development – advancing everyone +1 Appropriate financial allocations and investments …

determining what inputs will yield the greatest ROI for short- and long-term.< Seeking models to increase scholarship funding to enhance

recruitment initiatives

Target Benchmarks for 2011-2012

Acting upon target metrics for Recruitment Coordinator, Unit faculty, and P-12 partners to based on prospect admissions data modeling conducted during 2010-2011.

Co-teaching in the student teaching component will move to full-implementation while “extended field placement” opportunities for students in their final year of teacher preparation will increase.

Partnership “continuum” development will be articulated through visual maps engaged by all stakeholders.

Online curriculum modules aligned across stakeholders to improve teacher effectiveness and enhance increased in-the-field instructional delivery.

Visual diagramming that communicates the interconnectivity between NCATE accreditation, NExT, and Unit programs and initiatives will be completed.

Partnership development with 2-year community colleges will continue to advance. Development of unit-wide procedures and policies to guide the aggregation, analysis and

dissemination of all data gathered on students, faculty, programs and departments. NExT research agenda for Minnesota State Mankato established and growing; studies

receiving IRB approvals and are in beginning stages of data-collection and analysis.10

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Resources/Links

Minnesota State Mankato’s Teachers of Tomorrowhttp://ed.mnsu.edu/teachersoftomorrow/

College of Education InfoBriefshttp://ed.mnsu.edu/eoutreach/enewsletter_home.html

Network for Excellence in Teaching (NExT) Programhttp://www.nextprogram.org/

Archibald Bush Foundationhttp://www.bushfoundation.org/

Professional Development School

Partners

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Professional Development School (PDS) Governance Council

Mr. Todd Sesker, Superintendent - Faribault Public Schools Mr. Rich Hanson, Superintendent - LeSueur-Henderson Public Schools Ms. Sheri Allen, Superintendent - Mankato Area Public Schools Dr. Tom Tapper, Chair, Superintendent - Owatonna Public Schools Dr. Jeffrey Olson, Past-Chair, Superintendent - St. Peter Public Schools Mr. Steve Jones, Superintendent - Sibley East Public Schools Mr. Brian Dietz, Superintendent - Waseca Public Schools Dr. Jean Haar, Interim Dean - College of Education Dr. Ginger Zierdt, Director - Center for School-University Partnerships Mr. Paul Preimesberger, Assistant Director – Center for School-

University Partnerships

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Professional Development School (PDS) Teachers-on-Special-Assignment (TOSA)

Ms. Pam Kennedy, Faribault Public Schools Ms. Kirsten Hutchison, Faribault Public

Schools Ms. Laura Linde, Mankato Area Public

Schools Ms. Bridget Weigt, Mankato Area Public

Schools Ms. Cindy Olson, Mankato Area Public

Schools Ms. Kim Hermer, Mankato Area Public Schools Ms. Kay Green, Mankato Area Public Schools Ms. Karen Letcher, Mankato Area Public

Schools

Ms. April Rosendale, LeSueur-Henderson Public Schools

Ms. Jayne Gehrke, LeSueur-Henderson Public Schools

Ms. Michelle Meiners, Owatonna Public Schools

Ms. Lynn O'Brien, Sibley East Public Schools

Ms. Rhonda Hermanson, Sibley East Public Schools

Mr. Scott Robinson, St. Peter Public Schools

Mr. Darin Doherty, St. Peter Public Schools Ms. Lisa Zika, Waseca Public Schools Ms. Susan Topp, Waseca Public Schools

Metropolitan NExT Project Partnership

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Bloomington Public Schools –Minnesota State Mankato Partnership Advisory Board

Nancy Allen-Mastro, Assistant Superintendent Tim Anderson, Director, Secondary Teaching and Learning Beth Anderson, Director, Elementary Teaching and Learning Jim Angermeyr, Director, Research, Evaluation, and Testing Dinna Wade-Ardley, Director, Office of Educational Equity Joan Maland, Principal Indian Mounds Elementary Shawn Conradi, Teacher, Indian Mounds Elementary Susie Ney, Teacher, Indian Mounds Elementary Tom Lee, Principal, Hubert Olson Middle School  Anne Girton, Teacher, Hubert Olson Middle School Dan Andersen, Teacher, Hubert Olson Middle School Steve Hill, Principal, Jefferson High School Heidi Simons, Teacher, Jefferson High School Ryan Pedersen, Teacher, Jefferson High School Kelley Spiess, Mentor Governing Board, Teacher, Valley

View Middle School Jane Moriarty, Mentor Governing Board, District Mentor and

Staff Development Heather Verstraete, NExT Teacher-on-Special-Assignment

Jean Haar, Interim Dean, College of Education Ginger Zierdt, Director, Center for School-University

Partnerships, NExT Project Director Kristin Dauk, Director, Office of Field and International

Experiences, NExT Project Area Lead – Preparation (Field Experience)

Laura Bemel, Assistant Director, Office of Field and International Experiences

Kitty FoordChair, Faculty - Dept. of K-12 and Secondary Programs NExT Project Area Lead – Preparation (Curriculum)

Anne Dahlman, Faculty - Dept. of K-12/Secondary Programs, Project Strategic Communications Coordinator

Lori Bird, Director, Center for Mentoring & Induction, NExT Project Area Lead – Support

Carol Burns, Assistant Director, Center for Mentoring & Induction Daria Paul-Dona, Faculty, Educational Studies, K-12 and

Secondary Programs Dept., NExT Project Area Lead – Assessment & Research

Steve Bohnenblust, Faculty – Dept. of Health, NExT Project Faculty Advisor

Robbie Burnett, Maverick Recruitment Coordinator, NExT Project Area Lead – Recruitment

Paul Preimesberger, Assistant Director, Center for School-University Partnerships, CSUP at 7700 France Point

Campus Project Leadership TeamDr. Jean Haar

Interim Dean – College of Education

Dr. Ginger Zierdt

Director – Center for School-University Partnerships and Campus Project Director – Network for Excellence in Teaching

Ms. Robbie Burnett

Maverick Teacher Recruitment Coordinator

Dr. Kitty Foord

Dept. Chair of K-12/Secondary Programs, Area Lead for “Preparation - Curriculum Redesign”

Ms. Kristin Dauk

Director – Office of Field Experience, Area Lead for “Preparation – Field Experience”

Ms. Lori Bird

Director – Center for Mentoring & Induction, Area Lead for “Support”

Dr. Daria Paul-Dona

Faculty member of Dept. of K-12/Secondary Programs, Area Lead for “Assessment”

Dr. Stephen Bohnenblust

Director – Center for Excellence in Scholarship & Research, Project Advisory Member

Dr. Anne Dahlman

Faculty member of Dept. of K-12/Secondary Programs, Strategic Communications Specialist

Dr. Teri Wallace

Faculty member of Dept. of Special Education, Grantsmanship Steward