Class acts: Diverse collaborative helps teachers get results 

The name may sound a bit abstract, but make no mistake: The Center for Teacher Efficacy is rooted squarely in the real world, offering high school teachers the training they need to make an impact with students who are anything but abstractions.

This results-oriented professional development program is the product of a unique collaborative between the San Mateo, Sequoia and Jefferson Union high school districts; the San Mateo Office of Education; and San Francisco State University and Cañada College.

Each collaborative partner contributes to the distinctive mix: Participating high school districts share the costs of faculty, providing substitutes to free teachers to attend classes during the day, and specifying what their teachers need to learn. SFSU finds faculty members who have both real-world experience and are current on the latest educational research. San Mateo COE serves as fiscal agent, and Cañada College provides classroom space and other support.

Vera Lane, emeritus professor and former associate dean at SFSU’s College of Education, has been a key part of the program since 2005, when administrators at SFSU and Cañada began discussing the need to better support high school teachers in local districts serving high percentages of English learners who are not achieving at high levels.

“We asked districts what they needed,” says Lane. “Our goal is to provide teachers with strategies that directly address specific needs, as identified by districts, that teachers can use immediately. The center links high school teachers with college educators from San Francisco State who are involved in the research of best practices and immersed in theory.”

The center’s classes focus on practical issues, such as the effective use of computers and other technology, data analysis to find out what is and isn’t working in the classroom, how to tailor instruction in algebra and biology to the distinctive learning styles of diverse students, and how to help students understand and use academic English.

“Usually, districts send teachers out to a one-day workshop or conference,” says Jeanie Kwong, director of curriculum and assessment for San Mateo Union HSD. “We never do a one-time class. This collaborative gives us the opportunity to provide targeted, focused training. Teachers have a chance to go back to the classroom and practice what they’ve learned and report back on how it worked. This is a journey we all take together.”

Kwong says it’s been especially helpful to focus classes specifically on the needs of high school teachers and to offer classes that meet over the course of several months. Providing substitutes so that teachers can attend class off site has also been key. “If we don’t get them away from the school site, teachers are always running back to their classrooms,” she notes.

Kate Kinsella, an adjunct faculty member at SFSU who teaches courses through the center, says her focus is on results. “We offer an intense professional development program that stresses practical, evidence-based methods. We don’t assign a great deal of reading. Districts didn’t want a discussion of equality in education. They wanted us to deliver the goods.”

Kinsella, one of the nation’s foremost experts in language acquisition, says she gives teachers strategies they immediately take to the classroom.

“I recently gave my students a highly structured final that required them to implement some key practices, to explicitly teach certain vocabulary to a class that includes students with a range of language proficiency levels and learning styles. I ask teachers to collect and analyze student notes,” she says.

Kinsella says effective professional development programs are especially critical for schools that have had difficulty being effective with disadvantaged students and those who speak English as a second language.

Diane Termini, a veteran special education teacher from San Mateo Union HSD, says she’s learned an immense amount from the two computer courses and the class on differentiated instruction she’s taken thus far. “I’ve been teaching for 30 years and there are still things I can learn,” she says. “The classes were spectacular.”

Termini says she hopes classes can be made available to more teachers. “There are teachers who have been in the field awhile who are floundering,” she says. “Our students are more diverse. The old lesson plans aren’t working. Teachers can learn to do things differently, but they also desperately need the time to collaborate and to learn from each other.”

The center has been honored for its innovative professional development programs. In 2009, the program received a Golden Bell Award for effective collaboration from CSBA, after winning a Kent Award from the San Mateo County School Boards Association earlier that year.

—Carol Brydolf

• WHO Center for Teacher Efficacy
• WHAT Wide-ranging collaborative partnership that provides intense, focused professional development to high school teachers in San Mateo County
• WHEN Since 2006
• WHY To give teachers effective, in-depth training and specific pedagogical strategies based on the unique needs of local teachers and their students
• HOW Unique collaboration between Jefferson, San Mateo and Sequoia Union high school districts; San Mateo County Office of Education; San Francisco State University; and Cañada College allows all participating organizations to pool talent and resources.