Introduction to Teaching: Making a Difference in Student Learning [2 ed.] 9781483365015

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Introduction to Teaching Edition 2

DEDICATION The authors dedicate this book to the great teachers we have known—from early childhood teachers to research university professors. We have wonderful memories of their deep knowledge and skillful teaching, their helpfulness, and their cheerful willingness to offer guidance. They taught us to learn, challenged us to think, and also brought in their humor. They found joy in their teaching and brought true joy to our learning. We are blessed with having had more of them than we can name. All the same, we want to name several who made significant differences to each of us. Gene E. Hall: Teachers and professors who made significant differences for me include Mrs. Connie Johnson (Park Street School): My third-grade teacher who taught us phonics at a time when Whole Language was the way. Mr. Jack Alexander (Director of Music, Rutland High School): Who developed high-quality band, choral and special performances, including our doing The Mikado with all the props from Broadway. Dr. Calvin Grass (Physics Professor, Castleton State College): My undergraduate physics teacher who mentored me into applying for graduate studies at Syracuse University. Dr. Howard Jones (Dissertation Advisor at Syracuse University, who later moved to the University of Houston): The ideal model of what a professor can be for the profession and his students: mentor, career-long colleague, and friend. Linda F. Quinn: Just a few of the many teachers and mentors who shared their wisdom with me and helped me become an educator include John P. Quinn, Professor, husband, friend who listened to all of my ideas and helped me write them down.

Jane Stallings, Stanford PhD, Texas A & M Professor Emerita, Teaching, Learning, and Culture took me under her wing and made me part of the Weekend Warriors. W. Robert Houston, PhD, University of Houston, John and Rebecca Moores Professor and Executive Director of the Institute for Urban Education, a brilliant educator who saw me through the doctoral dissertation minefield with patience and kindness. Jane McCarthy, EdD, President, World Federation of Associations of Teacher Education, quintessential educator, fun-loving friend who always has a super idea for out next educational adventure. Donna M. Gollnick: Teachers who made a difference in my learning include Mr. Bill Doig: My algebra and advanced math teacher who made me feel smart by insisting that I participate in mathematics competitions. Mr. Kenneth Sever: My high school speech teacher who not only taught the seniors public speaking but also instilled in us a creative spirit. Dr. Phyllis Lowe: The professor of education at Purdue University who inspired me to be an engaging teacher as an undergraduate and later encouraged me to seek a doctorate rather than becoming a school administrator. We thank each and every one of these teachers and the thousands of other exceptional teachers who have made a difference in learning for their students, and who have found joy in teaching.

Introduction to Teaching Making a Difference in Student Learning Edition 2 Gene E. Hall University of Nevada, Las Vegas Linda F. Quinn University of Nevada, Las Vegas Donna M. Gollnick TEACH-NOW

FOR INFORMATION: SAGE Publications, Inc. 2455 Teller Road Thousand Oaks, California 91320 E-mail: [email protected] SAGE Publications Ltd. 1 Oliver’s Yard 55 City Road London EC1Y 1SP United Kingdom SAGE Publications India Pvt. Ltd. B 1/I 1 Mohan Cooperative Industrial Area Mathura Road, New Delhi 110 044 India SAGE Publications Asia-Pacific Pte. Ltd. 3 Church Street #10-04 Samsung Hub Singapore 049483

Copyright © 2017 by SAGE Publications, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including

photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. Printed in the United States of America Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Hall, Gene E., 1941-, author. | Quinn, Linda F., author. | Gollnick, Donna M., author. Title: Introduction to teaching : making a difference in student learning / Gene E. Hall, Linda F. Quinn, Donna M. Gollnick. Description: Second edition. | Los Angeles : SAGE, [2017] | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2015038933 | ISBN 978-1-4833-6501-5 (pbk.: alk. paper) Subjects: LCSH: Teaching—United States—Textbooks. Classification: LCC LB1025.3 .H34 2017 | DDC 371.102—dc23 LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2015038933 This book is printed on acid-free paper. Acquisitions Editor: Theresa Accomazzo Associate Editor: Jessica Miller eLearning Editors: Robert Higgins and Lucy Berbeo Editorial Assistant: Georgia McLaughlin Production Editor: Jane Haenel Copy Editor: Alison Hope Typesetter: C&M Digital (P) Ltd. Proofreader: Caryne Brown Indexer: Virgil Diodato Cover and Interior Designer: Janet Kiesel Marketing Manager: Ashlee Blunk

Brief Contents 1. Preface 2. Acknowledgments 3. About the Authors 4. Part I. Today’s Teachers, Students, and Schools 1. 1. Becoming a Teacher 2. 2. Today’s Students 3. 3. Addressing Learners’ Individual Needs 4. 4. The Social Context of Schools 5. 5. Families and Communities 5. Part II. The Foundations of Education 1. 6. History of Schools in the United States 2. 7. Developing a Philosophy of Teaching and Learning 3. 8. Organizing and Financing Schools for Learning 4. 9. The Law as it Relates to Teaching and Learning 6. Part III. Teaching for Student Learning 1. 10. Standards, Curriculum, and Accountability 2. 11. Managing the Classroom and Student Behavior 3. 12. Teaching Strategies 4. 13. Assessing Student Learning and Using the Results 7. Part IV. Becoming Tomorrow’s Highly Effective Teacher 1. 14. Succeeding in Your Teacher Education Program, and Beyond 8. Glossary 9. References 10. Index

Detailed Contents Preface Acknowledgments About the Authors Part I. Today’s Teachers, Students, and Schools 1. Becoming a Teacher Teacher Interview: Dawn Lockett Questions to Consider Learning Outcomes Introduction Why Teach? The Joy of Teaching Intrinsic and Extrinsic Rewards Making a Difference Student Learning The Teaching Profession Being a Professional Setting and Upholding Standards Specialized Knowledge Code of Ethics Obligation to Practice in Acceptable Ways What Do Teachers Need to Know? Teacher Education Programs Ways Programs Are Organized and Why Different Pathways to Licensure The Five-Year Teaching Degree Master of Arts in Teaching (MAT) or Certificate Programs Trends in the Teaching Force Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) Special Education English Language Learners (ELLs)/Bilingual What Role Does Technology Play in the Lives of Teachers? Educational Technology Standards for Teachers

What Do Teacher Education Candidates Need to Do? How to Get Off to a Good Start in Your Teacher Education Program Test of Basic Skills Learn About Assessment Practices Pass Licensure Tests Spend Time in Schools School District/University Partnership Schools Teachers’ Lounge Challenging Assumptions Become a Member of a Teaching and Learning Team Understanding and Using Evidence Understand the Role of Your Mentor or Cooperating Teacher How Do You Keep Track of Your Growth as a Teacher? Know the Standards Student Standards Teacher Standards Begin a Portfolio Reflect on Your Observations and Practice in Schools Begin Collaborating With Peers and Professors Connecting to the Classroom Field Guide for Learning More About Becoming a Teacher 2. Today’s Students Teacher Interview: Kelly Maschari Questions to Consider Learning Outcomes Introduction How Racially and Ethnically Diverse Are Our Schools? Race and Ethnicity of the Population The Impact of Immigration Race and Ethnicity in Schools Teaching Students From Diverse Racial and Ethnic Groups The Achievement Opportunity Race in the Classroom Ethnic Studies

Ethnocentric Curricula How Do Economics Affect Students and Schools? Economic Diversity of Students Students in Low-Income Families Homeless Students Middle-Class Families Providing Equity in Schools Teachers’ Lounge Teacher Expectations Tracking What if Students’ Native Languages Are Not English? Teaching English Language Learners (ELLs) Understanding and Using Evidence Bilingual Education English as a Second Language (ESL) What Is the Relationship of Gender and Education? Differences Between Females and Males Delivering an Equitable Education for Girls and Boys Challenging Assumptions How Is Sexual Orientation Addressed in Schools? Sexual Identity Supporting Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer or Questioning (LGBTQ) Students How Does Religion Impact the Classroom? Religious Diversity Addressing Religion in Public Schools Connecting to the Classroom Field Guide for Learning More About Today’s Students 3. Addressing Learners’ Individual Needs Teacher Interview: Brandy Donald Questions to Consider Learning Outcomes Introduction Do All Students Develop in the Same Way? Stages of Cognitive Development Maturation Activity

Sensorimotor Stage (0–2 Years) Preoperational Stage (2–7 Years) Concrete Operational Stage (7–11 Years) Formal Operational Stage (11 Years to Adult) Human Brain Development Different Neural Circuits Develop at Different Ages Impoverishment Effects Can Be Long Lasting The Brain Has Plasticity Implications of Developmental Models for Teaching and Learning What Are Some Ways of Distinguishing Students in Terms of Academic Ability? Intelligence as One Ability Multiple Intelligences (MI) Implications of Academic Abilities for Learning and Teaching Understanding and Using Evidence Who Are Students With Disabilities? Identifying Students With Disabilities Categories of Disability Learning Disabilities Speech Impairment Intellectual Disability Emotionally Disturbed Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) Teachers’ Lounge Other Disabilities How Do Schools Serve Students With Disabilities? Inclusion Individualized Education Programs (IEPs) Accommodations and Modifications Parental Involvement Disproportionate Placement Response to Intervention (RTI) What Are Some of the Most Common Ways of Categorizing Students?

Socioeconomic Status (SES) as a Way to See Each Student as Exceptional Gifted and Talented Education (GATE) Challenging Assumptions Struggling Students The Importance of Vocabulary Students at Risk Dropping Out: Early Warning Indicators Twice Exceptional (2e) What Implications for Teaching and Learning Arise From Seeing Each Student as Exceptional? Culture of the Classroom Indications of What’s Important The Meaning in the Symbols Important Classroom Characteristics Safe and Caring Classroom Environment Bullying Can Come in Two Ways Implications of Class and Culture for Teaching and Learning An Example of Using Student Experience Constructing a Learning-Centered Environment Is an Important Challenge Connecting to the Classroom Field Guide for Learning More About Addressing Learners’ Individual Needs

Preface Welcome to Introduction to Teaching: Making a Difference in Student Learning, Second Edition, which has been developed by an expert team of authors who have wide-ranging experiences and deep knowledge about today’s schools and teacher education. Our combined experiences as teachers, teacher educators, and scholars add up to more than 100 years! We are fully engaged in today’s schools, always experimenting with new approaches to teacher education, and frequently collaborating with colleagues across the United States and in other countries. The members of our author team have a strong commitment to improving teacher education, and we have each worked on that goal in a variety of ways. Over the past few years, as we would meet and talk about what is happening in today’s schools, we came to the conclusion that most of the textbooks for introductory teacher education courses do not accurately represent how schools and instruction are changing. Similarly, in many teacher education programs the increased emphasis on state-mandated testing, standards, and the importance of assessing versus testing are not receiving as much attention as needed. We strongly believe that future teachers need an introduction-to-teaching textbook that is heavily grounded in the new paradigm for schools, which is focused on student learning. We decided to write an introduction-to-teaching textbook that is grounded in today’s schools, places a heavy emphasis on understanding student learning, and acknowledges the challenges of teaching while also emphasizing the joy to be found in this profession. The first edition of our new textbook has been very well received—so much so that our SAGE colleagues asked us to develop this new edition. Also, the emerging pressures from many sources—including policymakers, parents, and society in general—have led to schools and teachers responding in a number of new ways. Given all that is happening, this is the

right time to prepare this new edition. We are updating each chapter’s basic content and inserting new examples of the many neat ways that teachers and schools are responding to today’s pressures and needs. A quick look through most introduction-to-teaching textbooks can leave the impression that they all are the same. However, a closer look reveals there can be significant differences between these texts. The differences go beyond how the books are organized and their design. The overall philosophy of textbooks for the introduction-to-teaching course can vary dramatically. In this book we have worked to ensure that the view of teaching we reflect is grounded in what schools are really like today, and where they are headed in the near future. The examples, discussion questions, and field activities throughout promote deep understanding of what it takes to become a teacher who improves student learning. Our goal in writing this introduction-to-teaching textbook is to help future teachers prepare for one of the most important, challenging, and worthwhile professions there is. We all know from our own experience when we were students what it means to have an exceptional teacher. We also know what it means to have a teacher who is not. By combining our more than 100 years of experience, we have written a textbook that will help you become one of those exceptional teachers.

Themes We have identified several key themes that are carried across each of the chapters in this text. Each theme is foundational to what we see exceptional teachers doing.

Focus on Learning. The most important theme of this book, as is reflected in the subtitle, is making a difference in student learning. In the past, including when each of us went through our teacher education program, the major focus was on describing what teachers do. Today, the focus has shifted to student learning. The most important purpose of teaching and schools is to have all

students learning. High-quality teachers are always thinking about how what they are doing is affecting student learning.

Understanding and Using Data. Most of today’s schools have more data available than can be used effectively. The importance of data should not be underestimated. However, learning how to use data and making decisions based on data are new skills for most teachers. One important resource for using data efficiently and well is technology. In this edition we provide examples of the ways teachers, and principals, use data.

Real Educators, Real Schools, and Real Students. Given that each of us has been a teacher and teacher educator for a long time, we know that it is important to include the words of teachers and other education professionals. Therefore, every chapter begins with an interview of a real educator who is working in schools and school districts at this time. Several of the chapters begin with an interview of a first- or secondyear teacher, people who have solid recommendations for beginning teachers today. Because schools cannot succeed without good leaders, other chapters begin with an interview of a school or district administrator, and the opening interview for one of the chapters features two school law experts. There is no escaping the importance of legal aspects of education, so we thought it would be important for you to read firsthand about the legal perspective and how it affects the responsibilities of teachers and the opportunities for all students to learn.

Using Technology for Learning. We all see how the many types of technology are being used by students. Integrating technology into instruction can be powerful, and so uses of technology are referenced throughout this book. In addition, this text provides users with access to several useful and innovative technologybased resources, one of which is a set of videos of real classrooms. We asked expert teachers with interesting classrooms to share what they are doing, and then produced these videos specifically for this book.

Facing Challenges. Now is not only a very important time to become a teacher; it is also a time during which schools are facing many very difficult problems. Today’s students are more diverse than ever before. For the first time in the history of the United States, there are governors and legislators who are questioning the importance of public schools and reducing their support of teachers. In a textbook designed to introduce aspiring teachers to real schools, we must address these serious challenges and explore ways to deal with them.

Joy in Teaching. We would be remiss if we did not also address the important theme of joy in teaching. There is much joy in teaching, but it is easy to overlook if you’re confronted with all the work and challenges. So, throughout this text we have made reference to joy in teaching. There are cartoons throughout, as well as a special feature called Teachers’ Lounge. For this feature we asked teachers and colleagues to share humorous, touching, and insightful stories from their experiences. As you become a teacher, we will welcome your contributions to this feature in future editions.

Features As you read this text, you will find interesting and useful features. Teacher Interviews open each chapter and offer an authentic look at what it means to be a teacher today. Each chapter-opening interview is paired with Questions to Consider that are designed to stimulate critical thinking about the chapter topic and prepare you to engage more deeply with the material that follows. Learning Outcomes at the beginning of each chapter guide the readers to think about what they should take away from their reading. Marginal Icons throughout the chapters direct readers to relevant video and audio resources as well as journal articles and reference resources that

will allow them to take a deeper look at areas of particular interest to them. Summaries close each chapter and are designed to help teacher candidates focus on key chapter content. Class Discussion Questions challenge students to think critically and apply what they have read. Self-Assessments allow students to examine their own level of understanding of the chapter content by using a Complexity of Thinking rubric to identify areas of weakness that may require additional study or attention. The Field Guide for Learning concludes each chapter and provides students opportunities to extend their learning beyond the pages of this book. Each field guide represents a critical resource to help students develop the knowledge and skills that we find in expert educators by providing suggestions for classroom observation activities, reflection questions to promote journaling, portfolio builders, and suggested books and websites for further study. Stories and Examples are important ways to learn about teaching (and improving student learning), and so each chapter includes plenty of these to illustrate the basic ideas. We also have a number of engaging boxed features: Understanding and Using Evidence boxes present a set of research findings or data and ask students to form an understanding of the information and to attempt their own analysis. Using data is now a very important skill for teachers. Follow-up information and sample answers are provided on the ancillary website. Challenging Assumptions boxes engage future teachers in confronting “common sense” conclusions they may hold about education practices that are, in fact, not supported by research. We have provided examples of surprising research information that we hope will encourage candidates to

question the obvious, and to be rigorous when investigating and implementing teaching strategies. Teachers’ Lounge boxes feature inspirational, humorous, and unexpected classroom moments shared by educators from across the country. These boxes offer the reader a behind-the-scenes glimpse at the stories teachers share with one another in the teachers’ lounge that define the day-to-day experience of what it means to be a teacher. Video Case boxes feature video clips that bring the reality of the modern classroom into focus. Each box features two or three questions that prime students to think critically about the accompanying video (online). Connecting to the Classroom boxes offer a convenient summary of suggestions for teaching best practices presented in the chapter.

What’s New? Preparing the next edition of a book always is a challenge for the authors. We see much of the previous edition being useful and important to retain. There are the necessary changes such as updating sources and references. Readers and instructors will have provided reviews and suggestions based on using the previous edition. The authors and their editors will have ideas about how to make this next edition even better. At the same time, making too many changes can lead to instructors not seeing our textbook as being the same as the previous edition that had worked so successfully. In other words, there is a need to balance making changes and continuing to preserve the core content and elements. The feedback about the first edition from instructors and teacher education candidates has been positive and encouraging. We authors have been pleased with the reception that our textbook has received. There has been no glaring fault or demand for making a major change. Therefore, our efforts have been to preserve, update, refine, and enrich. This does not mean that this edition is not new: it most certainly is. In addition to

the usual updating of sources and refining of the wording we have made the following changes in major elements to make this textbook even better. Reduced the Number of Chapters to 14: In the first edition there were 16 chapters. The typical academic semester is 15 weeks. Having just 14 chapters will be much easier and more efficient for students and instructors. New Exceptional Educator Interviews: Each chapter begins with an interview with a real teacher or administrator. These interviews need to be up to date, so 10 of these interviews are new for this edition. New Teachers’ Lounge Stories: These stories have been well received. Instructors and colleagues have submitted six new ones that really fit the themes of each chapter. Challenging Assumptions: Probing questions have been added to the end of this feature to further encourage critical thinking Updating Content: Changing views of public education, reauthorization of ESEA, a.k.a. NCLB, and the opting out of testing movement are emerging topics. Updating, Tables, Figures, and Sources: Recent information about funding, court cases, new federal and state statutes, as well as new approaches to curriculum and instruction have been updated. Current Information: The latest research is represented as well as introducing current issues and topics within the discussions and the features. Identifying Additional Student Differences: Native Hawaiians and other South Pacific Islanders are now separate from Asians. Annother difference is the importance of recognizing the need and providing safety for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer or questioning (LGBTQ) students. Taken together we have a new edition that builds on the strengths and successes of the first edition. The interviews and stories, as well as the content updates, make this edition the best yet for instructors and our readers—in other words, for teacher education candidates.

Ancillaries

Our book offers a robust ancillary package with numerous resources to support instructors and students. All of these supplements can be accessed at the SAGE edge companion website, edge.sagepub.com/hall2e.

Instructor Teaching Site SAGE edge for Instructors supports teaching by making it easy to integrate quality content and create a rich learning environment for students. Test banks provide a diverse range of prewritten options as well as the opportunity to edit any question and/or insert personalized questions to effectively assess students’ progress and understanding. Sample course syllabi for semester and quarter courses provide suggested models for structuring one’s course. Editable, chapter-specific PowerPoint slides offer complete flexibility for creating a multimedia presentation for the course. EXCLUSIVE! Access to full-text SAGE journal and reference articles that have been carefully selected to support and expand on the concepts presented in each chapter to encourage students to think critically. Multimedia content includes original SAGE videos that appeal to students with different learning styles. Lecture resources include discussion questions, class activities, and access to all supplemental materials featured in the margins of the text. A course cartridge provides easy learning management system (LMS) integration.

Student Study Site SAGE edge is a robust online environment designed to customize and enhance each student’s learning experience. Carefully crafted tools and resources encourage review, practice, and critical thinking, giving students the edge they need to master course content.

Mobile-friendly eFlashcards strengthen understanding of key terms and concepts. Mobile-friendly practice quizzes allow for independent assessment by students of their mastery of course material. Carefully selected chapter-by-chapter video links and multimedia content enhance classroom-based explorations of key topics. A customized online action plan includes tips and feedback on progress through the course and materials that allow students to individualize their learning experience. Chapter summaries with learning objectives reinforce the most important material. EXCLUSIVE! Access to full-text SAGE journal and reference articles that have been carefully selected to support and expand on the concepts presented in each chapter to encourage students to think critically.

Interactive eBook Introduction to Teaching: Making a Difference in Student Learning is also available as an Interactive eBook, which can be packaged free with the book or purchased separately. The interactive eBook offers links to video cases, to Deeper Look materials, including SAGE journal articles and reference articles, as well as to additional audio, video, and web resources.

A Final Important Note Teaching is hard work; in fact, becoming an exceptional teacher is very hard work. Although we have years of experience in schools and thinking about teaching and learning, we still have times when we wonder about our own effectiveness and what we could be doing differently that would help our students learn more. All the thinking, doing, and reflecting that is necessary to be an exceptional teacher can be exhausting. It is important that teacher candidates and teachers have a life outside of teaching. To paraphrase an old saying, if you only teach you will indeed become a dull teacher. You will see in several of the Teacher Interviews that our interviewees have made reference to what they do outside of teaching. For

example, Brandy Donald runs half marathons, and Amber Velasquez is very active in her community. Dr. Shirley Hord has developed a significant second career, and is giving back in a number of ways. To be an exceptional teacher requires having a balance. Teachers can’t be “on” 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Teachers need time to power down and regenerate. This is one of the reasons the photos we have inserted below are of ourselves in nonprofessional educator settings. Teaching is hard work, and you rarely stop thinking about it, so it is important to have a life outside of school. As competitive as we are, it still is important to be able to say to others, and to yourself: Have fun!

Gene E. Hall, professor, husband, father, and grandfather with grandson Malcom (five years old)

Linda F. Quinn, professor, wife, mother, grandmother, and traveler

Donna Gollnick, administrator, mother, scholar, and golfer In the electronic edition of the book you have purchased, there are several icons that reference links (videos, journal articles) to additional content. Though the electronic edition links are not live, all content referenced may be accessed at edge.sagepub.com/hall2e . This URL is referenced at several points throughout your electronic edition.

Acknowledgments The authors want to express their appreciation for the many talented colleagues and professionals who have contributed to the creation of this book. The thoughtful and insightful contributions of our real educators, the constructive feedback from reviewers, and the Teachers’ Lounge authors who shared their experiences all have made this book better, more informative, and grounded in the best of teaching and schooling. We also express our appreciation for our teacher educator colleagues and their candidates who adopted the first edition. Their compliments and feedback have reassured us that developing a fresh approach has indeed been worth doing. We particularly want to recognize Jane Leibbrand, Wendy Wiggins, and Margie Crutchfield for their research on Chapters 3, 4, and 5. Based on all our experiences in producing this book, we see ourselves as being fortunate to now be members of the SAGE author family. It has been a positive, professional, and successful experience. Without the insight and leadership of Diane McDaniel, executive editor, we would not have had this opportunity. For this edition we have had the pleasure of working with Terri Accomazzo, acquisitions editor. The editorial and production team have been highly professional and good at what they do. Jessica Miller, associate editor, has been our day-to-day pace setter. Without her patient, yet persistent, probing and communicating we would not now have such a good textbook. Many others at SAGE have contributed their expertise, including Alison Hope, copy editor; Amy Lammers, marketing associate; Lucy Berbeo and Robert Higgins, eLearning editors; Georgia McLaughlin, editorial assistant; and Jane Haenel, production editor. This has truly been a team effort where each of us has shared and learned. To all, we say thank you. Another important set of contributors were the teacher educators who took time from their busy days to review early drafts of our manuscripts. The reviews were substantive and constructive. Also, the reviews arrived in time so that we authors were able to refer to them in clarifying (what we thought

were perfect) explanations, making changes (by emphasizing and adding important points), and being reminded of why this book is based not only in what schools are like today, but in how important it is to keep pointing out the joy in teaching and learning. Reviewers of the second edition: Lauri Pepe Bousquet Le Moyne College Beth A. Childress Armstrong Atlantic State University Suzanne Cordier D’Annolfo University of Hartford Tracey Garrett Rider University Katie Lewis Texas A&M International University Joanne Newcombe Nichols College Thomas Sheeran Niagara University Laura B. Turchi University of Houston

Karen A. Vuurnes South Texas College Reviewers of the first edition: Pamela W. Aerni Longwood University Angie Jones Bales Bossier Parish Community College Tanisha Billingslea Cameron University Lauri Pepe Bousquet Le Moyne College Jesse Chenven Central New Mexico Community College Pamela Chibucos Owens Community College Garnet Chrisman University of the Cumberlands H. Jurgen Combs Shenandoah University Diane G. Corrigan

Cleveland State University Elaine Bacharach Coughlin Pacific University Charles Edward Craig Jr. Tennessee Technical University Camy Weber Davis Oakland City University Darryl M. De Marzio University of Scranton Thomas S. Dickinson DePauw University Rebecca Fredrickson Texas Woman’s University Jill E. Gelormino St. Joseph’s College Carol Gilles University of Missouri Amanda Lee Glaze Jacksonville State University Claudia Green

Corban University Pam Green Southwestern College Steven R. Greenberg Bridgewater State University Janice A. Grskovic Indiana University Northwest Sam Guerriero Butler University Felecia A. B. Hanesworth Medaille College Dana Lewis Haraway James Madison University Dana Hilbert Cameron University Bethany Hill-Anderson McKendree University Jennifer Holloway Cameron University at Rogers State University Johnnie Humphrey

John Tyler Community College MeHee Hyun Antioch University Los Angeles Rebekah D. Kelleher Wingate University Leonard Larsen Des Moines Area Community College Nina Mazloff Becker College Reney McAtee Tennessee State University Kathy J. McKee Multnomah University Deena McKinney East Georgia College Sarah K. McMahan Texas Woman’s University Linda A. Mitchell Jacksonville State University Madonna Murphy

University of St. Francis George Noblit University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Denise Patmon University of Massachusetts, Boston Nina Gunther Phillips Bryn Athyn College Rebecca Pitkin Dickinson State University Thomas A. Raunig University of Great Falls Donna Redman University of La Verne Suzanne Roberts Florida College Phillip Russell University of Arkansas, Fort Smith Marjorie Schiller Central Arizona College Brian Schultz

Northeastern Illinois University Eric-Gene J. Shrewsbury Patrick Henry Community College Richard K. Simmons College of DuPage Darlene Smith Walters State Community College Janet Stramel Fort Hayes State University Douglas Sturgeon Shawnee State University Lucia Torchia-Thompson Reading Area Community College Curtis Visca Saddleback College David Vocke Towson University Harold Waters Southern Wesleyan University Gail Watson

County College of Morris Colleen M. Wilson Jacksonville University We would also like to extend a special thanks to the teachers and administrators who graciously allowed us to film their schools and classrooms: Principal Lou Lichtl and instructors Jason Brown, Jeff McCann, Brinden Wohlstattar, and Melissa Wood-Glusac at Thousand Oaks High School in Thousand Oaks, California; and instructors Jan Evans, Tema Khieu, Lisa Sigafoos, and Mia Tannous at the University of Texas Elementary School in Austin, Texas.

About the Authors

Gene E. Hall currently is a professor of educational leadership at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. He has had a career-long involvement with the development of programs and national accreditation of teacher education. He began his career as the science methods instructor and faculty team member for the experimental Personalized Teacher Education Program (PTEP) at the national R&D Center for Teacher Education, The University of Texas at Austin. Subsequently he was a faculty member at the University of Florida and the University of Northern Colorado. He has twice been the dean of a college of education. He also has had career-long involvement with studies of the change process and development of tools and applications of the Concerns-Based Adoption Model (CBAM). He is coauthor of Implementing Change: Patterns, Principles and Potholes (4th edition), and The Foundations of Education (16th edition).

Linda F. Quinn is an associate dean for academic and professional programs in the College of Education at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV). She was a member of the UNLV faculty from 1991 to 1995, and rejoined the faculty in 1999 after four years as a visiting professor and associate dean at the University of Northern Iowa. Before coming to

UNLV, she had a rich and varied career in public and private schools in the United States, and in Iran and Japan. She has taught upper-division courses in curriculum development, classroom management, and instructional strategies. Her research interests focus on all aspects of teacher professional development, distance education, and global education. She is an annual contributor to national meetings of the Association of Teacher Educators and the Northern Rocky Mountain Educational Research Association. Reports of her research have been published in journals and as book chapters. She currently lives in Henderson, Nevada, with her poet husband and three lovable labs.

Donna M. Gollnick

is the chief academic officer of TEACH-NOW, an online teacher education program in Washington, DC. She is coauthor with Philip Chinn of Multicultural Education in a Pluralistic Society, which is in its 10th edition, and is coauthor of the textbook Introduction to the Foundations of American Education, in its 17th edition. Dr. Gollnick is a past president of the National Association for Multicultural Education (NAME). She has been recognized by the School of Family and Consumer Sciences at Purdue University and the Rossier School of Education at the University of Southern California by receiving a Distinguished Alumni Award. The American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education honored her as an “Advocate for Justice” in 1998.

Part I Today’s Teachers, Students, and Schools Chapter 1 Becoming a Teacher Chapter 2 Today’s Students Chapter 3 Addressing Learners’ Individual Needs Chapter 4 The Social Context of Schools Chapter 5 Families and Communities

Chapter 1 Becoming a Teacher

© iStockphoto.com/ands456

Questions to Consider 1. Dawn’s experience tutoring students led her to teaching. What other experiences in people’s lives might lead them toward choosing teaching as a career? 2. What are some of the joyful images that come to mind when you think about being a teacher? 3. Would teaching in a suburban area be much different from teaching in a large urban area? Why? Why not? 4. Do high school teachers usually get hired to teach the content in which they are experts? Why? Why not?

Teacher Interview Dawn Lockett

© Dawn Lochett Meet Dawn Lockett, a math teacher in the Clark County School District, Nevada, the fifth-largest school district in the United States. Dawn earned her teaching degree at University of Wyoming, earned her master’s degree in 2006, and became a nationally board-certified teacher in 2010. Dawn is currently working on her PhD and has just completed her 13th year as a teacher, and her second year in the school district. Dawn teaches at Foothill High School, along with 17 other math teachers and a school faculty of 150 for more than 2,600 students. Each day, Dawn Lockett greets 170 students in classes of Algebra and Algebra 2. Clark County School District covers a little over 8,000 square miles and encompasses five major cities and 11 unincorporated communities. The open

vistas and desert weather of Southern Nevada, as well as the famous Las Vegas Strip, attract a constant flow of families seeking employment and a better life. The school population grows in tandem with this tide of immigrants, creating a steady need for teachers. Foothill High School is in Henderson, the second-largest city in the state. Schooling in Clark County is a fast-paced enterprise with approximately 325,000 students going daily to and from classes in elementary, secondary, and alternative schools. Q: Why did you decide to become a teacher? A: I didn’t start out to be a teacher. I originally entered college to become an aerospace engineer, minoring in animal science. As a freshman in college I was asked to tutor a friend in calculus and found that I really enjoyed helping someone learn. That’s when I began to think about becoming a teacher. I did enter the teacher education program for a couple of years but actually got my undergraduate degree in animal science. Q: What is your school/community like? A: Even though I had been teaching for some time, when I moved to Nevada I was a new kid on the block and I had to adjust to a new town, a new school, and different systems. At the new teacher orientation, I was one of a few math teachers new to the district’s training program. My school is located in a suburban area. One of my colleagues at the school introduced me to the technology person so I could get all the technology I needed to teach Algebra 2 in my portable classroom. It’s nice to have helpful friends when you move into a new building. Q: What do you do to make certain that all of your students are learning? A: I use a standards-based grading system so I can know who is getting it and who isn’t. When students don’t understand a concept, I can give them another chance to learn what they need to know. I make students justify their answers and tell me how they came up with them. Sometimes I conduct afternoon tutoring sessions for students who are struggling. Q: What brings you joy in teaching? A: My joy mostly comes from the lights that go on in students’ eyes when they finally “get it.” Students who struggle and struggle with a concept but are willing to try to learn it and finally say, “Wow, that makes sense,” offer the best reward teachers can ever receive. Q: What advice do you have for those who are studying to become teachers? A: Gather as much information as possible. Don’t hesitate to ask questions because if you don’t ask, you’ll never learn. Don’t let opportunities slip away. Stay on top of things. Don’t get stale; keep adding to your box of ideas. Reach out to others. The connection with your colleagues is one of the most important elements in becoming a teacher and staying in the profession. Teachers need to watch other teachers teach, to give and receive feedback so each teacher can learn all there is to know. Q: How do you use technology? A: I provide engaging lessons through technology-integrated activities. Emphasizing appropriate technology activities supports the development of concepts while helping

students make strong connections.

Learning Outcomes After reading this chapter, you should be able to do the following: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.

Identify the range of variables that influence teachers and teaching. Know the steps one can take to earn a teaching license. List reasons educators consider teaching a profession similar to law and medicine. Compare the ways to find a job and assess which one will work best for you. Develop patterns of behavior that will contribute to a successful career as a teacher. Track your personal and professional growth as a teacher and the directions that growth can lead.

Master these objectives using an online action plan at edge.sagepub.com/hall2e

Introduction There are probably as many reasons to become a teacher as there are teachers. Every teacher has a personal story that served as the genesis of his or her journey toward a professional career as a teacher. The major steps you will take on this journey are varied, rigorous, and amazing. Since your journey will be both personal and professional, it will be shaped by your personality, by your life experiences (present and past), and by the professional learning and growth of your knowledge (pedagogical and content), the skills you have acquired, and your attitudes. In most ways, who you become as a teacher is up to you. And you are not alone. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (2011, as cited in Ingersoll, Merrill, & Stuckey, 2014, p. 6), PreK–12 teachers form the largest occupational group in the nation. Teaching is a noble profession. It is a joyful profession. It can be fun to help others learn. Teaching is also hard work. Teaching is a demanding profession that requires making hundreds of decisions during a school day, managing 20 to 40 students or more hour after hour, analyzing data about learning, and interacting with parents and colleagues. Teaching has never been easy even in earlier times when the classroom was a one-room schoolhouse. In addition to making sure all of their students were learning, teachers in former times had to build the fires to keep the school warm and sweep up after the students went home. Teaching requires high levels of sustained energy, effort, and motivation. Since you are reading this text, you are no doubt thinking about teaching as a career. Is teaching the right choice for you? Some candidates in teaching have started along this career path because they enjoyed going to school. Some follow in the footsteps of parents, aunts, or uncles. Others want to be part of kids’ lives, to advocate for children, and to give children exciting, meaningful experiences to help them become educated adults. Many remember a favorite teacher and want to have the same influence on others that that teacher had on them. Teaching seems familiar because we have all spent so much of our lives in classrooms. It is possible to think that teaching can’t be too difficult because many of our teachers made it seem easy. We saw teaching through the eyes of the students, not the teachers. Teachers

have a very different view of classrooms. This text will help you explore whether teaching is the right profession for you and what it means to view classrooms from a teacher’s perspective.

Get the edge on your studies edge.sagepub.com/hall2e Take a quiz to find out what you’ve learned. Review key terms with eFlashcards. Watch videos of teachers in action.

Video Link 1.1

Watch a video about the journey to become a teacher.

Why Teach? Dawn Lockett’s original plan for her future didn’t include becoming a teacher. She wanted to be an aerospace engineer. But when she had the opportunity to tutor a friend in calculus, she began to think about how much fun it was to help someone learn, and she began to think of becoming a teacher. This thought percolated for some time before it finally took hold, and when it did Dawn only looked forward. What brought you to consider a career in teaching? Most teachers say they want to teach because they believe they can make a difference in the lives of their students. Many secondary teachers report they chose teaching because they love the subject they are teaching. Some chose teaching because they love to learn. Some chose teaching because of the personal interactions teaching affords. Teachers are generally happy with their work, and teachers in the United States rate their lives better than all other occupation groups, trailing only physicians (Lopez & Sidhu, 2013). Most of us are happy to be doing something we love, that allows us time to be with and support our families, to be a part of something larger than ourselves, and that gives us a sense of personal worth. We can find all of this through teaching.

Teachers get to work with people of all sizes, and every day brings something to be happy about. © iStock/monkeybusinessimages

The Joy of Teaching In a Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index (Rich, 2013) teachers ranked above all other professions in answers to questions as to whether they had “smiled or laughed yesterday.” If it isn’t fun, why do it? Teachers need to have fun. Teachers have to be able to laugh, to get their students to laugh, and to laugh with their students. Learning should be fun. Smiles and laughter can brighten up any situation, relieve stress, and possibly make whatever difficult task is at hand less daunting. The joy that bubbles up when a group of students are pleasantly surprised or excited should never be squelched. New teachers may be admonished, “Don’t smile until Christmas,” but hopefully you’ll never find yourself in such dire circumstances. A bit of silliness now and then does not exclude the serious aspects of teaching. A favorite science methods professor of mine made every class a delight. He would laugh, joke, and tease us into learning complex concepts. He often reminded us that he was serious but not somber about science education, and then he would smile. It is the playfulness and spirit of teachers that endears them to students. And it is what students remember of their teachers. There is funny stuff about what happens between students and their teachers on the Internet. One of my favorite websites for silliness about teaching is www.rd.com/funny-stuff/funny-teacher-stories. It’s easy to laugh along with the students and the teachers when you read what the students said and what they did. Most teachers have a funny story to tell. It is through the sharing of stories that teachers become aware of the strong ties they have to their professional community. Sharing stories also provides a venue for understanding the mysteries of teaching and why it is so rare and marvelous to be a teacher. Ask teachers you know to tell you a story

about something funny that happened to them while they were teaching. As their stories unfold, watch their faces, and you will see the joy in teaching. The joy and rewards of teaching vary from teacher to teacher. The best teachers truly enjoy working with children and youth. They find a challenge in ensuring that underserved students learn at high levels and take joy in the academic success of all students. Former teacher and author Jonathan Kozol shares ideas about how to put the fun back into learning in his latest book, Letters to a Young Teacher. Francesca, the first-grade teacher Kozol shares teaching stories with, finds joy amid her struggles to reach the most recalcitrant of students. Kozol tells Francesca, “I think teaching is a beautiful profession and that teachers of young children do one of the best things that there is to do in life; bring joy and beauty, mystery and mischievous delight into the hearts of little people in their years of greatest curiosity” (Kozol, 2007, p. 8). Every teacher has a story about the joy he or she finds in teaching. Teachers treasure these moments and are always willing to share them. Ask any teachers you know what brings them joy in teaching.

Most teachers find that their job offers both intrinsic and extrinsic rewards. © iStock/Steve Debenport

Intrinsic and Extrinsic Rewards Dawn found her joy in teaching came when students learned difficult concepts. The joy in teaching can be found in a variety of ways. Most teachers experience intrinsic rewards when students grasp the concept or task they have been teaching. Students are as different as night and day. Some students may be successful in everything they pursue. Some are not. Some students are involved. Others are not. Some students actually resist learning. Teachers search for lessons that will engage all students, and they create ways to get all students to participate in discussions and projects. When teachers can engage students they are rewarded for their efforts. The more teachers are able to bring students together in a learning community, the more they are rewarded. It is a positive cycle that excellent teachers strive to perpetuate. It is challenging to try to meet the needs of each individual student, and it is genuinely exciting when teachers can accomplish this. Teaching is never boring. It is different from minute to minute, and there is no single formula that works for everyone. Intrinsic rewards can also result in what teachers do for themselves. Dawn didn’t stop her formal education once she became a teacher. She continued down the path of earning a master’s degree and then becoming nationally board certified and forging ahead to earn a doctorate. She obviously saw no limits to what she could accomplish in her personal life as well as her professional life. Extrinsic rewards for teachers come in the form of acknowledgments from students, from other teachers, from parents, and from prestigious awards such as Teacher of the Year. It is interesting to learn how the extrinsic reward of becoming a Teacher of the Year also provides intrinsic rewards through reflection on professional growth. Visit http://www.cde.ca.gov/ta/sr/ct/comments.asp to read some of the

comments from California Teacher of the Year applicants regarding their experiences. Teachers receive visits and letters from former students thanking them for inspiration, comfort, and happiness. Sometimes teachers are surprised at the influence they have had on certain students. When that mischievous student who made them want to tear their hair out, day after day, shows up in later years with a smile and a thank-you, the reward is clear. Parents write thank-you notes, volunteer to be a teacher’s aide, and bake treats for special occasions. Other teachers ask for help with a specific problem, or ask to use a lesson that you have developed. Their appreciation of your skill as a teacher is rewarding. Teachers of the Year receive public accolades and have the opportunity to share their expertise with others through speeches and demonstrations. Some awards are even accompanied by money. Receiving payment for going an extra distance is rewarding, but most teachers will tell you it is not the money that brings them joy in teaching. See Figure 1.1.

Video Case 1.1

The Joy of Teaching 1. Teachers in this video express ways of finding joy in teaching. What similarities did you find among their comments? 2. Not everyone decides to teach for the same reason. What are some of the reasons teachers in this video give for becoming teachers?

Video Link 1.2

Watch a video about the joy of teaching.

Making a Difference Can you think of a teacher who made a difference in your life? It may be one who really cared about you, or a teacher who persuaded you to apply for college, or one who challenged you to learn, or one who helped you develop self-esteem. Professional athletes, presidents of companies, and national leaders often attribute their success to a teacher. The teacher may not know until years after the student has left her classroom that she had such an impact. Figure 1.1 Why New Teachers Choose to Teach

Source: Adapted from Farkas, S., Johnson, J., & Foleno, T. (2000). A sense of calling: Who teaches and why (p. 10). New York, NY: Public Agenda. Source: Adapted from Farkas, S., Johnson, J., & Foleno, T. (2000). A sense of calling: Who teaches and why (p. 10). New York, NY: Public Agenda. Parents believe that teachers make a difference in their children’s lives, especially when it comes to learning. Many parents know who the good teachers are in their schools and do everything they can to ensure their children are in those teachers’ classrooms. According to the 2011 Gallup Poll of the public’s attitudes toward the public schools, more than 50% of Americans gave either an A or B to the schools in their community (Bushaw & Lopez, 2011). Research validates parents’ beliefs that effective teachers do make a difference in student learning. Caldwell (2009) estimated that an excellent teacher does increase the potential for student learning. In the 1990s Sanders and Rivers (1996) and their colleagues at the University of Tennessee compiled achievement data from standardized tests for students in Tennessee schools and followed the data through successive years of school. They found that two students who performed at the same level in the second grade could be separated by as many as 50 percentile points by the fifth grade if one of them had an effective teacher and the other an ineffective teacher for the next three years. Gladwell (2009) estimated that the difference between a very good teacher and a very bad one is “a year’s

worth of learning in a single year” (p. 318). Effective teachers do make a substantial difference in student achievement (Marzano, Pickering, & Pollack, 2001), and teacher effectiveness also increases across the first several years (Henry, Fortner, & Bastian, 2011). Other researchers have found that the influence of teachers on student achievement is greater than any other observable factor such as small class sizes (Darling-Hammond, 1999; Rivkin, Hanushek, & Kain, 1998). These are very good reasons for you to strive to be an effective teacher. Excellent teachers hardly ever stop thinking about the subjects they teach. When you discover a subject that you love, the best way to enjoy it for the rest of your life is to teach it to others.

Audio Link 1.1

Listen to teachers who have made impacts on their students’ lives

Student Learning At any one time, there will probably be no more than two or three of your students who will process information in the same way or at the same speed. Each student is an individual, and teachers have to know a variety of ways to convey information or differentiate instruction (You will learn more about this in Chapter 12.). One of most joyful parts of teaching is to see students achieve at high levels. This achievement could be physical, social, or creative as well as intellectual. All are important in the development of the whole person. During your teacher education program, you will learn how to develop lesson plans and deliver instruction to meet the needs of all students. You will be expected to be creative in developing rigorous and engaging lessons that draw on the cultural background and prior experiences of all of your students. Your joy and success as a teacher will be expressed when students learn the concepts you are trying to teach.

Teachers enjoy sharing the things that happen at school.

© iStock/DGLimages How will you know that students are learning at the expected levels? One of the most superficial measures will be performance on standardized tests, which are required annually in most schools. Of course you will want students to perform well on those tests, but they measure only a narrow slice of the knowledge that students should be acquiring. And they don’t measure student development in areas other than knowledge and comprehension. Teachers are also helping students develop skills to use the knowledge they have learned in real-life situations. Teachers provide opportunities for students to analyze and think critically about the subject. They help students develop dispositions, or attitudes and behaviors that will show they value learning. Joy is seeing examples of student learning in multiple forms that convince you that a student is ready for the next grade.

The Teaching Profession Most teachers consider themselves professionals. However, until recently, teaching was identified by many as a semi-profession as compared with the professions of law, medicine, architecture, engineering, and accountancy. One reason was that teaching had not provided the same monetary advantages or prestige as the traditional professional fields. Another reason was that teachers seem to have relatively little control over their work. Other professionals or policymakers select the curricula, set rules, and develop learning standards. Most teachers have limited access to an office, telephone, and secretary. The structure of a teacher’s day leaves little time to interact with colleagues to plan or challenge each other intellectually. Merriam-Webster’s defines profession as “a calling requiring specialized knowledge and often long and intensive academic preparation” (MerriamWebster’s, n.d., 4a). All states require at least a bachelor’s degree to be eligible for an initial license to teach. Traditionally, states have required some specialized preparation in education that includes student teaching or an internship. A growing number of universities are requiring teacher candidates to have a bachelor’s degree in a content area before they begin graduate work in education. Thus, over time teachers can receive their

specialized preparation for teaching at the graduate level. Many teachers today have a master’s degree and continue to participate in professional development activities throughout their careers.

Helping students learn is the number one goal of effective teachers. © iStock/Christopher Futcher

Being a Professional A profession sets standards for entry into the profession. In addition, its members apply standards and codes of ethics to themselves and others, disciplining one another when necessary by removing licenses from offenders. Professionals provide services to clients. Their work is intellectual, requiring specialized knowledge and skills. They are bound by an ethical code that guides their relationships with clients and colleagues. They also have an obligation to practice their profession in ways the public would find acceptable.

In other professions, standards and rules are set by the professionals themselves. School administrators, members of the school board, and state legislators usually set standards and rules for teachers. This practice is not likely to change unless teachers themselves become involved in the teaching profession beyond their own classrooms. Teacher unions provide an opportunity for teachers to negotiate contracts that outline salary and working conditions. Teacher organizations in most states conduct annual or semiannual statewide meetings for their members. These meetings provide professional development opportunities, a chance to network with other teachers, and a mechanism for becoming involved at the state level. You can stay engaged with your subject area and other educational interests by joining national organizations such as the National Council for Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) or the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE). Many of the national organizations have state affiliates of which you could become a member or even a leader. Through teacher organizations, teachers can serve on accreditation teams that evaluate schools and universities in their state or across the country. One sign of a true professional is active and continued involvement in professional organizations at local, state, and national levels.

Audio Link 1.2

Listen to an interview with a teacher advocate.

Deeper Look 1.1

Read about criteria concerning teaching as a profession.

Setting and Upholding Standards Teachers work with professors, parents, and the general public to set standards for students and teachers in their school districts, states, and national organizations. In some states, teachers have the majority control of professional standards boards that have the responsibility for developing licensure standards for teachers and other school professionals. When necessary, these boards withdraw licenses from teachers whose behaviors have led to malpractice. In states without professional standards boards, these functions are usually provided by a state board of education, whose members have been elected or appointed by the governor.

Accreditation.

Colleges and schools of education and specific teacher education programs are held to professional standards. Most other professions require their members to graduate from an accredited program before they can take the state licensure examination. In the past, some states required teacher education programs to be nationally accredited by the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE) or the Teacher Education Accreditation Council (TEAC). Now these two accrediting agencies have merged into one accrediting body with the new name Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation (CAEP). Once you begin teaching, you are likely to be involved every few years in an accreditation visit by the state and/or regional accrediting agency. When a college of education hosts an accreditation visit by a board of examiners (BOE), team members will want to talk to the teacher education candidates and ask questions about specific programs and field experiences. The team may ask you about your portfolio and what you have learned about working with students from diverse populations. They may ask how you know that the students you teach are learning. They are also likely to ask you about the quality of teaching at the university, particularly by education faculty members. Accreditation teams want to make certain that the teacher candidates are prepared to meet the challenges of the profession and to meet the needs of all students. A visiting accreditation team expects the educator preparation program to have a system in place that provides assessment data on what teacher candidates are learning and how well they are demonstrating this knowledge. Teacher preparation programs can create an assessment system tied to the mission and goals of the institution, or they can implement educational programs designed to assess teacher candidate learning. Taskstream, Tk20, and edTPA are all such assessment systems, and in fact you may be asked to use one of these systems as you begin your teacher education program.

Taskstream. Taskstream has been described as the “leading, assessment, accreditation, and e-portfolio software provider to higher education institutions” (Lauren

McCarty, Associate Director of Marketing, Taskstream, personal communication, 2014). Taskstream is a partner with the Association of American Colleges and Universities’ Valid Assessment of Learning in Undergraduate Education (VALUE) initiative. The purpose of VALUE is to create an approach to assessment based on real student work rather than on surveys or standardized tests and the Taskstream software is making this possible for teacher education candidates.

Tk20. Tk20 is a comprehensive data management and learning outcomes assessment system for teacher education candidates. The tools provided through membership in Tk20 help candidates, their college faculty, and mentor teachers in K–12 classrooms track student progress and demonstrate individual personal growth. Once you have signed on for Tk20 as a candidate, you will have access to the program for eight years beyond graduation. This long-term use of the tools can make it easy for you to track your own professional growth as a teacher.

edTPA. edTPA, developed from a partnership between Stanford University and the American Association of College for Teacher Education (AACTE), “gives teacher preparation programs access to a multiple-measure assessment system aligned to state and national standards—including Common Core State Standards and the Interstate Teacher Assessment and Support Consortium (InTASC)” (AACTE, n.d.). Through edTPA teacher candidates are expected to demonstrate their knowledge, skills, and dispositions through a performance-based assessment. You can learn more about edTPA at http://edtpa.aacte.org/about-edtpa. Teaching is a profession where the first-year teacher is expected to be capable of the same job as someone who already has some experience as a teacher. Software programs and assessment systems can help you catch up to your more experienced peers even before having a classroom of your own.

Licensure. To teach in a public school, teachers must be licensed by a state agency to teach a specific subject (e.g., mathematics or social studies) at the middle or high school levels. Early childhood, elementary, special education, physical education, music, and art teachers are licensed to teach children in specific grades such as preschool, primary, K–6, or K–12. If you graduate from a state-approved program, which is connected to national accreditation, you have usually met the state requirements for a state license. You also will be required to pass a state licensure test in most states. Some states will grant a provisional license that allows you to teach for three to five years before meeting all of the requirements for licensure. Several years of successful practice and possibly completion of a master’s degree is normally required to attain a professional license to continue teaching. Requirements are different when you apply for a license in a state other than the one in which you graduated. The second state may have additional requirements that you must meet and may have higher cutoff, or qualifying, scores on the required licensure tests such as the PRAXIS Core exam or content exams. If you plan to move to a different state to teach, check the requirements for a license so that you can take the appropriate courses during your program.

National Board Certification. Teachers with three years of experience are eligible to apply for national certification by the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS). Applicants provide evidence in the collection of documents that are compiled in a portfolio to demonstrate meeting standards for their subject area at a specific age level. Each portfolio must include a videotape of the teacher teaching a lesson, reflections on teaching, and an analysis of student work. In addition, the teacher must complete assessment exercises at a testing center. Teaching performance is judged by experienced teachers using rubrics aligned with standards. Many states and school districts cover the costs for teachers to participate in this process, which could be $2,300 or more. What are the advantages of seeking national board certification? Most applicants report that the process helped improve their teaching and the

performance of their students. They learned to reflect on their practice and make changes to improve student learning. A 2004 research study (Goldhaber & Anthony, 2004) of student test scores in North Carolina supports the perceptions of these teachers. The study found that the students of national-board-certified teachers are far more likely to improve their scores on state tests than students of non-national-board-certified teachers. In addition, many national-board-certified teachers receive annual bonuses or pay raises.

Video Link 1.3

Watch a video about National Board Certification.

Video Case 1.2

Becoming a Teacher 1. What reasons does Brinden Wohlstattar give for becoming a teacher? How does she find inspiration and fulfillment in her career as a high school English teacher? 2. What suggestions does she give to new teachers? How do reflection and interactions with others contribute to enhanced teaching and learning?

Specialized Knowledge Teachers must know the subjects they will be teaching. The knowledge and related skills for teaching the subject are described in the standards of the national organizations that represent teachers in that field. You will be expected to understand the subject well enough to help young people know

it and apply it to the world in which they live. If students are not learning a concept or skills, teachers must be able to relate the content to the experiences of students to provide meaning and purpose. The professional and pedagogical knowledge needed by teachers is outlined in the widely accepted standards of the InTASC, established by the Council of Chief State School Officers. In 2010 an updated version of the standards was vetted to educational organizations for public comment, and in April 2011 the new standards were adopted. The InTASC standards are used by most states as a framework for individual state standards. A complete discussion of the new InTASC Model Core Teaching Standards and Learning Progressions for Teachers 1.0 (2013), are available online at InTASC Standards. For a quick view of the InTASC Model Core Learning Standards go to http://mrfluharty.iweb.bsu.edu/portfolio/styled/index.html. Reading about the effort behind the development and adoption of the new InTASC standards makes clear that teaching requires a great deal of specialized knowledge and skill. Teachers have to be some of the brightest people on the planet. Teaching may not be rocket science, but it is close.

Code of Ethics Like members of other professions, teachers as a group have developed a code of ethics to guide their work and relationships with students and colleagues. Professional standards boards and other state bodies investigate teachers for infractions against the code of ethics adopted by the state. Ethics statements address issues such as discrimination against students, restraint of students, protecting students from harm, personal relationships with students, and misrepresenting one’s credentials.

Obligation to Practice in Acceptable Ways Being a member of a profession is more than showing up for work by 7:30 and not leaving before 4:00. The parents of students in your classroom expect that you will help their children learn. They expect their children to

score at acceptable or better levels on achievement tests. They are counting on you to contribute to their children’s literacy and to push them beyond minimal standards. Good teachers manage their classrooms so that students can focus on learning. The public and parents become very concerned when classrooms and schools appear out of control. As a teacher, you will have an obligation to model acceptable behavior based on the norms of the profession.

What Do Teachers Need to Know? When you watch teachers at work you may wonder why they do things in a certain way, or what motivates them to address one student’s behavior differently from the way they might address another student’s behavior. Since you can’t get inside teachers’ heads and they can’t stop what they are doing to explain to you the reasons behind their actions, you have to accept the fact that they do know what they are doing and why they are doing it. Understanding and being able to articulate teaching practices is something that you will learn to do in your teacher education program. Becoming familiar with the teaching standards developed by InTASC will also help you understand the specialized knowledge, skills, and dispositions specific to the teaching profession.

Teacher Education Programs Since teachers have to be well educated, the first step in getting into a teacher education program is to demonstrate your brightness by completing university core requirements with a grade point average (GPA) of at least 2.5. However, some colleges of education are requiring a GPA of 2.75 to be admitted to the professional course work teachers must take for licensure. The advising centers at most colleges of education have complete information on what is required before anyone can be admitted to a traditional teacher education program. Visit the website of your local institution of higher education and check out the steps you must take to be admitted to one of their licensure programs for teachers.

The college of education website at the California State University, Long Beach, presents a range of links to different programs, to different levels of professional work, and provides numerous links to career services and advising. It is easy to find out what you must do to earn a teaching degree. All the information you need to have a successful beginning is right at your fingertips.

Ways Programs Are Organized and Why Teacher education programs are traditionally designed to move candidates along a path of acquiring knowledge of human development and behaviors, learning about laws affecting practice in schools, gaining understanding of counseling practices as well as the impact of cultural diversity on schools and classrooms, and gathering an understanding of working with children with disabilities in regular school classrooms. Candidates who are seeking a secondary license to teach in middle schools or high schools must, in addition to the general university core, complete a specified number of courses in their elected field. There is a great deal of debate in political and educational groups regarding the type of training necessary for teachers to receive a license. Some points of view believe it is only necessary that a teacher know the content to be taught. Others believe knowing how to teach is as important and perhaps more important than content during the early grades. It is quite possible that future programs in teacher education will be entirely school based and candidates will learn as apprentices alongside an expert mentor. The path to becoming a teacher will offer many opportunities and novel approaches. Some will fit you to a T. Find the right path, stay the course, and you will discover a very rewarding future.

The Importance of Clinical Practice. Many teacher education programs include early clinical experience to provide the candidates opportunities to begin to learn what teaching involves (Darling-Hammond, Hammerness, Grossman, Rust, & Shulman, 2005). A policy brief on the clinical preparation of teachers by the AACTE stresses the importance of clinical experiences as a key factor in candidates’

success (AACTE, 2010). Lortie (1975) made it clear that observing teaching wasn’t the ideal way to learn how to teach, that teacher education candidates had to be actively involved in the daily work of teachers. Now, more than 40 years after Lortie’s conclusions, teacher education programs are in the process of redesign to more closely align university course work with practice in the field. Field-based teacher education programs place cohorts of candidates in partnership or professional development schools, assign them site-based mentors and supervisors, and require evidence of reflection on practice to help the candidates develop cognitive frameworks for teaching. One such field-based program is the 21st Century Schools Partnership between the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) College of Education and the Clark County School District in Nevada.

Different Pathways to Licensure The majority of teachers have completed bachelor’s programs that prepared them for a license to teach. Most often, they began their preparation soon after high school. Although some education courses may be taken in the first two years of college, candidates are usually not admitted to education programs until they are juniors. Many education courses require candidates to complete field experiences in schools as a component of the course. Some programs require candidates to be observing and working in schools for several days a week, even offering the education courses at the school. Candidates student-teach under the supervision of a teacher and college supervisor during the final year of their bachelor’s program. You can study to become a teacher through many routes. Programs are delivered in college classrooms and schools. Some programs can be completed via distance learning without stepping on campus. A growing number of candidates begin exploring teaching as a career in community colleges, initially developing portfolios and working with children and youth in schools and community projects. Most colleges and universities offer a number of pathways for becoming a teacher. Not all teacher education programs are traditional four-year undergraduate programs. Many colleges of education offer postbaccalaureate courses to meet state licensure requirements. School districts

may negotiate professional development course work with state licensing agencies to provide on-the-job credit for individuals who have the expertise to fill high-need positions but do not have a degree in teaching or a state license to teach. A national debate regarding the credibility of differing routes to licensure is hotly contested in educational journals and the popular media. The U.S. Department of Education provides funding incentives to colleges of education and local school districts for creating specialized routes to licensure for high-need areas of teaching. An example of a U.S. Department of Education–funded program is the Project KNOTtT (Kansas, Nevada, Ohio, and Texas Transition to Teaching) partnership led by The Ohio State University. This partnership is designed to recruit, select, train, coach, mentor, and retain teachers in high-need, hard-to-staff school districts. As a national initiative, Project KNOTtT addresses the teacher shortages in the subject areas of math, science, English/language arts, foreign languages, English language learners (ELLs), and special education (K–12). This project serves 545 new teachers pursuing nontraditional routes to certification in four states: Kansas, Nevada, Ohio, and Texas. Funding from the U.S. Department of Education is provided through grant applications; not all colleges of education receive financial support from the government for teacher education programs.

Deeper Look 1.2

Read more about teacher certification in the United States.

The Five-Year Teaching Degree Some teacher education programs are five-year programs that begin at the undergraduate level and end with a master’s degree or eligibility for a license after completing a sequence of graduate courses. These programs allow more time for candidates to study the art and science of teaching and learning. They sometimes require a yearlong internship in schools, allowing candidates to practice under the guidance of professionals who provide feedback and support throughout the internship. Many colleges of education offer teacher education course work once a student has completed an undergraduate program in a specific content area. The final or fifth year of a teacher education program generally places the

candidate in a school as a teacher or co-teacher under the supervision of college faculty and school personnel. The fifth-year student gains practical experience during the day and attends classes in the evening. Once students finish their fifth year, they are eligible for licensure and are also awarded a master’s degree.

Master of Arts in Teaching (MAT) or Certificate Programs College graduates who decide that they want to become teachers after they have completed a bachelor’s degree in another area have several options for pursuing a teaching career. They could choose a Master of Arts in Teaching (MAT) program that offer courses in pedagogy, human growth and development, assessment practices and some form of internship. Programs in Alabama, Oregon, and Hawaii, to mention just a few, offer MAT programs to qualified candidates. Many colleges and universities have certificate or licensure programs in which candidates can complete the courses and student teaching required for a state license. Some of these programs are offered entirely online. Most MAT or certificate programs require observation time and supervised student teaching, giving credit to the belief that before candidates are eligible to be teachers of record, they should have some practical experience in classrooms under the tutelage of an experienced teacher. A web search of fifth-year and MAT programs will provide you will a robust list of colleges and universities where you can enroll in a program that will lead to a teaching license and a master’s degree. Critics of MAT and certificate programs say that they may not offer the value that should be expected of a master’s degree (Robinson, 2011)

Alternative Licensure Plans. A number of new teachers are entering the profession through alternative routes that allow them to begin teaching without any specialized preparation in teaching and learning course work or field experiences in schools. Other professions such as medicine and engineering would never

allow a person to work in the field without proper preparation and supervised experiences with professionals in the field. Opening the entry to teaching to anyone with a bachelor’s degree challenges the status of a profession because doing so requires no specialized training. However, most states require these alternative-route teachers to take education courses and to be mentored by experienced teachers while they are teaching and completing the course work required for licensure. In the past decade a number of nontraditional or alternative routes have emerged. Many of these programs are designed for adults beyond the traditional college age of 18 to 24. They build on the experience and background of candidates who often have worked for a number of years in a nonteaching field. These programs may be similar to traditional undergraduate and graduate programs, but they offer greater flexibility in scheduling courses through distance education and prompting candidates to schedule their own field observations. Many candidates in these programs are working full time in schools or other jobs. Not all teachers complete programs at colleges and universities. School districts, state departments of education, and other organizations are also preparing teachers. Military personnel may participate in Troops to Teachers, a program to assist men and women who have completed their military service in becoming teachers. When the U.S. military organizations are downsized, many well-trained individuals must seek employment in other fields. As stated on the program’s website, “Troops to Teachers is a U.S. Department of Defense program that helps eligible military personnel begin a new career as teachers in public schools where their skills, knowledge and experience are most needed.” Military personnel who sign on to this program can receive financial assistance in tuition costs and in some cases are reimbursed for the expenses of moving to a new location. Visit www.proudtoserveagain.com to find out more about this program. Teach For America (TFA), founded in 1990, recruits outstanding students from some of the nation’s most prestigious universities to teach for two or more years in low-income communities throughout the United States. The TFA candidates spend a month in intensive preparation for their initial placement. During their years of teaching, they attend monthly professional

development meetings conducted by TFA mentors and may also attend courses at a local college of education that will lead to a master’s degree. The following information about TFA is also available on the Teach for America website at www.teachforamerica.org. There are 37,000 alumni of the TFA program: 11,000 of these alumni are teachers, 793 are principals, and 219 are school system leaders. Eighty-six percent of all alumni work in education or with low-income communities.

Graduate Licensure. Graduate licensure programs are generally limited to persons holding an undergraduate and/or graduate degree in a field other than education. Licensure programs lead to an elementary or secondary teaching license and a master of education degree. Candidates in this type of program are required to complete courses that mirror the undergraduate teacher education courses and must complete all of the clinical practice required of undergraduates.

© iStock/PhilAugustavo

Not all schools are the same, nor do they benefit from the same level of funding. © iStock/Micah Youello

Trends in the Teaching Force A projected 58 million students will be enrolled in U.S. public PreK–12 schools by the year 2022 (U.S. Department of Education, 2014), and a projected 367,000 new teachers will be hired by 2022 (Hussar & Bailey, 2014, p. 13). It would appear that in the near future there will be a need for your talent. Teaching jobs become available as current teachers retire, move to other schools, or leave the profession. Over the next decade, around 700,000 teachers—almost one of four current teachers—are projected to retire. Teachers leave the profession and move from school to school for a variety of reasons. The primary reasons for moving are layoffs, school closings, and other organizational changes in a school or district. Personal reasons include pregnancy, child-rearing responsibilities, moving to a new

location, and health problems. Perda (2013) reported that more than 41% of new teachers leave teaching in the first five years. The teacher turnover rate in urban high-priority schools is almost one-third higher than in other schools (National Commission on Teaching and America’s Future, 2003), but the largest turnover rate is in small private schools. The rate of teachers leaving large private schools is fairly low, but small private schools suffer from an annual turnover that is often one-fourth of the staff. Although teachers in private schools report greater satisfaction and that their environments are more positive than public schools, they are much more likely to transfer to a public school than their public school counterparts are to transfer to a private school (Ingersoll, 2003). Not all new hires in a school district are recent graduates. About half of them are teachers returning to the classroom or moving from another district. A growing number of new teachers are not recent college graduates. They are military retirees or people switching from business or other careers. They often complete alternative pathways into teaching in school-based graduate programs that build on their prior experiences. You may not be able to find a teaching job in the community in which you grew up or near the university you are attending because the schools have few openings. However, jobs do exist if you are willing to move to a part of the country where there are shortages because of high turnover, a growing student population, or a move to reduce the teacher-to-student ratio in classes. For instance, Nevada recently mandated a class size reduction for all kindergarten classrooms. This mandate has resulted in the need for nearly double the number of existing kindergarten teachers. The demographics of the teaching force do not match the population at large. The majority of teachers are white females. The profession has a shortage of men and teachers of color. Other shortages exist in some areas of the country and for some teaching fields as described below. To attract teachers to areas with teaching shortages, some school districts offer signing bonuses, pay moving expenses, and assist teachers in purchasing homes. Wealthy school systems usually have a surplus of teachers who are applying for jobs. Some new teachers are willing to substitute in these school systems for a year or more until a permanent job becomes available.

Opportunities to get a teaching job are greater in urban high-poverty areas where high turnover exists. Generally, urban and rural areas have more openings than suburban areas, although acute shortages exist in highpoverty suburban areas as well. If you are willing to move to another state, your job opportunities will grow. Alaska, western states, and southern states are actively recruiting new teachers to staff the schools for a growing school-age population (National Commission on Teaching and America’s Future, 2003). California, Florida, Nevada, North Carolina, and Texas are experiencing growth in their student populations, increasing the need for teachers. Where you decide to teach might be determined by the salary that you can receive. However, buyer beware: Some states offer higher salaries because the cost of living is also higher in that state. Figure 1.2 presents a list of the average starting salary for beginning teachers from school districts around the nation, as reported by the National Education Association (NEA). There is variation in beginning salaries within states due to dense population areas and need. For example, in Georgia beginning teachers in Atlanta are likely to be paid more than beginning teachers in Savannah. Most states also offer incremental increases for longevity and course work and degrees earned: as of 2015, a beginning teacher in New York State with a bachelors’ degree and no experience could make $45,530, and a beginning teacher with a master’s degree could make $51,425. Most teacher contracts are for less than 12 months, but teachers can earn additional income within the school or in summer or second jobs outside the school. Teachers can also supplement their base salaries when they engage in the following activities related to schools or their education: Serving as a mentor or staff developer Achieving additional teaching licenses or certifications Becoming national board certified Teaching in a subject area where there is a teacher shortage Working in a school more challenging to staff than other schools in the district Teachers also may receive supplemental income for chairing departments, being team leaders, sponsoring extracurricular activities, and coaching.

Teaching Fields. The first time the idea of teaching crosses our minds, we hold an image of teaching a certain age group of children or a certain subject. One person will imagine a kindergarten room full of brightly colored centers, another will visualize herself at a board working equations with a group of serious high school seniors, another will imagine helping a group of students construct a model of the planets in Earth’s solar system, and yet others might see themselves using technology to deliver distance education. Teaching is an endless array of possibilities, and for each aspiring teacher, its attraction is to a different reality. Figure 1.2 2012–13 National Average Starting Teacher Salary: $36,141

Source: NEA Collective Bargaining/Member Advocacy’s Teacher Salary Database, based on affiliate reporting as of December 2013. http://www.nea.org/home/2012-2013-average-startingteacher-salary.html Source: NEA Collective Bargaining/Member Advocacy’s Teacher Salary Database, based on affiliate reporting as of December 2013.

http://www.nea.org/home/2012-2013-average-starting-teachersalary.html Have you decided what subjects you would like to teach? Math? Art? History? Writing? Technology? Or all of the above? Urban and rural schools are likely to have openings for all subjects, from elementary through high school. However, not enough teachers are being prepared or retained in schools to teach mathematics and science classes, Englishlanguage learners, and students with disabilities. Your chances of finding a job improve if you qualify for one of these high-need areas. The U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics (2015) projects above average national growth in demand for professionals in key disciplines currently served by or aligned with programs in colleges or schools of education. A few of these programs are listed in Figure 1.3.

Deeper Look 1.3

Read about factors related to recruitment and retention of beginning teachers.

Deeper Look 1.4

Read more about teacher compensation.

Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) The increase in federal funding for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) programs is the result of data showing that fewer than 50% of U.S. high school students are ready to take college-level math and fewer than 40% are ready for college-level science. Since it is anticipated that many of the job opportunities in the 21st century will require math skills and scientific knowledge, the federal government has made it a priority to fund educational programs that focus on STEM. There is also a concern that Hispanic and black U.S. students have not had equal opportunities for instruction in STEM-content learning during high school.

Many secondary schools report they have had to hire teachers who did not major in mathematics or science to teach their courses. These out-of-field teachers sometimes have not even minored in these fields and lack the knowledge and skills to help students learn these core subjects. The lack of qualified mathematics and science teachers in urban high schools has contributed to not offering advanced placement classes in these subjects and to the poor test performance of students in these schools. In 2000, the Recruiting New Teachers organization reported that over 95% of the largest urban school districts had an immediate need for qualified STEM teachers. This remains true today, as many teacher education programs focus on recruiting teachers for math and science.

Special Education Another major shortage area is special education teachers for all grades, from preschool through high school. These teachers may work with a classroom of special education students, but often work as a resource teacher with regular teachers in inclusive classrooms. They teach students with mental, behavioral, sensory, physical, and learning disabilities. These jobs are usually very demanding, sometimes physically so, but they can lead to great deal of joy as students become academically successful or learn to be independent. Many large urban school districts desperately need highly qualified special education teachers.

English Language Learners (ELLs)/Bilingual School districts report a shortage of culturally and linguistically diverse educators, especially in areas of the country with large numbers of Latino and immigrant students. Over the past decade, the schools with these needs have expanded from the Southwest, California, Florida, and large urban areas to smaller cities and communities in the Midwest and South where immigrants are employed and migrant workers have settled. Knowledge and skills in English as a second language (ESL) and bilingual education will give a new teacher an advantage in many urban and rural areas today. Many large urban school districts have an immediate need for ELL/bilingual teachers. This is certainly true for Clark County School

District in Nevada, where the Latino school population is now over 50% of the total population. Figure 1.3 Projected Growth in Demand for Professionals 2012–2022

Source: U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2015. Source: U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2015. As mentioned earlier, beginning teachers often want to teach in the same community where they grew up and went to school. However, the types of communities that most beginning teachers have grown up in are not always the places that need the most teachers. If you want to be sure of beginning your teaching career when you graduate, you must go where the jobs are. Highly qualified teachers are always in demand. Make certain you meet the highest requirements for any job, and you will likely end up where you want to be. In real estate the three major areas of concern are location, location, location. In teaching location might have some influence, but good teachers can teach anywhere and find joy from interacting with students.

Video Link 1.4

Watch a video about diversity.

What Role Does Technology Play in the Lives of Teachers? In this age of information, technology puts facts (and too often opinions) as close as the touch of our fingertips on a smart phone or tablet. You all know how to use various forms of technology for personal purposes—to find that new restaurant, what time the movie starts, pay a bill, be a fan, check up on friends, and let your circle of loved ones know where you’ve been and what you’ve been up to. It’s hard to imagine life without the ease of connecting to the world that technology affords us today. As you develop your teaching persona you will have to think how to use technology in a professional manner and of course how you can use it to help your students learn.

Technology has always provided tools for teaching and has been part of education in America since the first student in Massachusetts etched a numeral or letter on a slate. From stones for etching softer rocks, to styluses for making marks in soft clay, to shaved brushes for painting icons, teachers have used tools to enhance their practice. Chalk and blackboards made it possible for teachers to invent their own text in classrooms. Imagine where Albert Einstein would have been without a chalkboard. The science of photographic reproduction in the 19th century made it possible for teachers to show students photographs of famous art objects and historical sites in faraway places. The first Kodak slide projector, produced in 1937, offered another piece of technology for teachers to enhance instruction. Teachers also learned to use movie projectors to show select 8-millimeter and 16millimeter films to their students. Nearly anyone graduating from a teacher education program in the 1950s had to take a course on audiovisual aids, and today’s teacher candidates are often required to complete a course in technology for teachers. When television was introduced in schools, there was a consensus among educators that the small screens installed in many classrooms would revolutionize teaching and learning. Televisions did not revolutionize teaching and learning. Unfortunately, typical television programming puts the viewer in passive mode, except maybe for programs like Dora the Explorer. (Three-year-olds are known to stand up during one of Dora’s silences and yell, “Backpack!”) Technology available to teachers today are fantastically improved and interactive modes of programming are readily available. Some of the newest technologies for teachers are described at http://www.educatorstechnology.com/2014/06/8-new-educational-webtools-for-teachers.html. Much of what happens when you begin teaching is a mystery. In many ways, what happens from day to day in any classroom can be surprising. You might be prepared for the worst and find the best. You might discover something wonderful that you weren’t quite prepared for that stretches your knowledge and skills in ways that are new and occasionally frightening. Teaching with the technology available to teachers today adds a dimension of magic to the art and science of teaching. It poses challenges that can leave your head spinning and surprises that make you and your students go,

“Wow!” Teachers today must consider technology as a tool for student learning that can foster critical thinking, and must learn to use the virtual interactive tools that their students use in their personal lives (McGrail, Sachs, Many, Myrick, & Sackor, 2011).

Teachers can use the ever-growing varieties of technology to teach online courses. © iStock/ferrantraite

Educational Technology Standards for Teachers The International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) has developed a set of standards for teachers. These standards define the fundamental concepts, knowledge, skills, and attitudes that teachers should exhibit. Candidates seeking certification or endorsements in teacher licensure should meet these standards. The instructors at your institution are responsible for making sure that you have knowledge of the standards and

that you have had the opportunity to meet some of the performance indicators. Table 1.1 lists ISTE’s five standards areas with the main objective for the performance indicators. The standards are specific enough to define the broad goals of using technology in educational settings, yet general enough to allow for a comfortable fit with local circumstances. Visit http://www.iste.org/standards/iste-standards/standards-for-teachers to learn more about the performance indicators for teachers. These performance indicators will give you a better understanding of what will be expected of you once you begin teaching.

Video Link 1.5

Watch a video about using technology in the classroom.

What Do Teacher Education Candidates Need to Do? The previous section of this chapter provided information regarding jobs, salaries, and expectations for being part of the teaching profession. This section will help clarify the purpose of teacher education programs and what you can do when you are enrolled. Knowing what is expected of you is one of the best ways to feel confident and to ensure you get the most out of your classes and the clinical experiences you will have to complete. Learning to teach in an actual classroom is called a “practicum.” It is practice. Practice is just as valuable for a teacher as it is for a pianist learning a new piece of music. In your teacher education program you will have to practice, test yourself, practice again, test yourself again, and most important of all reflect on your practice and how well it went.

How to Get Off to a Good Start in Your Teacher Education Program Usually people spend some time planning and charting a path before they embark on a long journey. There are maps to read and places of interest to check out to see if a side trip is warranted. Some folks even develop strategies for getting the most out of every mile. Not much planning is required for a trip to the supermarket, though a list is always helpful. But when committing to something that might be a benchmark in your life goal of becoming a teacher, planning is certainly essential.

Test of Basic Skills Teacher candidates are usually required to pass a basic skills test before they are admitted to a teacher education program. Every teacher should be competent in the basic skills of reading, writing, and mathematics. These tests are designed to determine that future teachers have the basic knowledge and skills in these areas. So in order to be admitted to the professional course work in a teacher education program, most states require that you demonstrate aptitude by achieving passing scores on basic skills tests. The Educational Testing Service (ETS) website at http://www.ets.org/praxis offers detailed information about taking a basic skills test. The ETS website also contains a drop-down menu for individual state testing requirements for licensure. The Pearson National Education Series website at http://www.pearsoned.com/ provides detailed information about its test services and how you can take exams at its test centers. Some states have developed their own tests of basic skills and other tests required for teacher licensure. Individual state test requirements and passing scores can also be found at state departments of education websites.

Learn About Assessment Practices

Teacher candidates are not expected to be passive learners during the coursework in a teacher education program to be eligible for a license to teach. You will be required to show evidence that you meet professional and state standards through a number of performance assessments throughout your program that demonstrate that you know your subject matter and can teach. These assessments are usually administered at three major transition points within a program: (1) before admission to the program, (2) before you can student-teach, and (3) at completion of student teaching and the program. The assessments include standardized paper-and-pencil tests, portfolios, case studies, evaluations of your student teaching or internship, comprehensive examinations at the end of the program, and projects. You will also be expected to show that you can help all students learn. Earlier in this chapter you read about companies that provide software and guidelines for candidates to keep track of their progress. However, even without professional software support you will be able to track your professional growth toward becoming a teacher.

Teachers must demonstrate their knowledge of basic skills and their readiness to teach. Standardized tests provide states with evidence of a teacher’s qualifications. Pearson Your professors and field-based supervisors will evaluate your performance in the classroom on assessment rubrics that describe the areas you must reach to show you are proficient in the skills and knowledge to help all students learn. When you receive the feedback from the supervisors and professors, you will know where you need to improve your practice to meet the standards.

Pass Licensure Tests

Potential teachers in most states must pass one or more tests to be eligible for a license to teach. States either develop their own licensure tests or contract with a major test company such as the ETS or Pearson National Education Series. A state board of education or standards board determines the cut score that test takers must achieve to pass the test. The score required to pass the same or similar tests varies from state to state. Your score could be high enough to be licensed in one state, but not in another. Ohio, Virginia, and Connecticut have set higher cut scores than other states as part of their effort to raise the quality of teachers in the state. Check with the state in which you plan to work to determine the tests you will be required to pass before you receive a license.

Content Tests. Content tests assess a candidate’s knowledge of the subject or subjects they will be teaching or the field in which they will be working (e.g., ESL, algebra, or special education). These tests generally assess the knowledge outlined in the state and professional standards for the field, which is another reason to be familiar with the standards. You should develop the knowledge bases for your field in the courses you have taken in the sciences, humanities, arts, psychology, and social sciences. Secondary and middle-level teacher candidates often major in the academic discipline they plan to teach. Some states require elementary teacher candidates to major or have a concentration in one or more academic fields such as social sciences, mathematics, science, a foreign language, or English. Are you required to have an academic, rather than education, major to be licensed in your state? Check out the state department of education website for this information. Most states require new teachers to pass content tests before they receive the first license to teach. Many institutions require candidates to pass this test before they are eligible to student-teach. Knowledge of the subject you teach and how you teach it may seem like different sides of the same coin, but they are truly quite different. It is possible to be an expert in a field and not be able to explain one bit of it to a group of students in a classroom. Because of this, many states require that teachers pass tests in pedagogy.

Knowledge, Skills, Dispositions, and Student Learning.

Knowledge is one of the easier areas to assess. The most popular assessment of knowledge is a standardized, pencil-and-paper test, which now is often completed on a computer. Teacher-developed quizzes and tests provide information on what is known or understood. Grades and your performance on papers, projects, presentations, and case studies contribute to the overall evaluation of the knowledge needed to teach. Skills or performances are usually demonstrated as you collaborate with your peers, interact with your professors, and work with teachers and students in schools. Your skills can be observed and measured by how successful you are in helping students achieve on tests and other assessments. Field experiences and student teaching provide opportunities for you to apply your knowledge about a subject and pedagogy. You and others will assess your effectiveness in these settings. Although standardized assessments exist, they are relatively expensive to implement. A few states require beginning teachers to complete Praxis III, in which trained assessors evaluate their performance as a first-year teacher against standards using a scoring rubric. Teacher education programs in those states emphasize the development of the skills assessed by Praxis III. Other states, like Connecticut, require their new teachers to submit a portfolio after their first year of teaching as evidence they are meeting state standards. At the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, at the end of the student teaching practicum elementary teacher education candidates present a digital portfolio to an audience of their peers and professors. Artifacts collected for the ePortfolio are tied to the InTASC standards. Many teacher education programs have identified the dispositions that you should demonstrate before you become a teacher. They might include proficiencies such as these: Believing that all children can learn at high levels, which requires persistence in helping all children be successful Appreciating and valuing human diversity, showing respect for students’ varied talents and perspectives, and commitment to the pursuit of individually configured excellence Respecting students as individuals with differing personal and family backgrounds and various skills, talents, and interests

These proficiencies cannot be easily measured on a test. They come across in the papers you write, the presentations you make, the lessons you teach, and your interactions with students and parents in schools. Over time and in multiple ways, your dispositions are demonstrated and assessed. In most teacher education programs, you are expected to learn how to assess student learning and how to respond when a student is not learning. During your field-based practica, you most likely will be required to collect data on student learning, analyze those data, and determine next steps if one or more students are not learning. Figure 1.4 provides an example of an assessment exercise you may be asked to complete during student teaching. See Figure 1.5 for an example of a rubric that accompanies the student learning assessment. You might be asked to design an assessment that will help you know whether students are learning. You might be given a sample of student work and asked to analyze it and describe any concerns raised by the student’s work. By the time you finish your program, you should be familiar with a number of assessments besides a test. You should also know that students learn in different ways, requiring that you teach using strategies that build on their prior experiences and cultures. Figure 1.4 Assessment for the Analysis of Student Learning in a Teacher Work Sample

Source: Hussar, W. J., & Bailey, T. M. (2011). Projections of Education Statistics to 2020 (NCES 2011–026). Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics. Source: Hussar, W. J., & Bailey, T. M. (2011). Projections of Education Statistics to 2020 (NCES 2011–026). Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics. Figure 1.5 A Scoring Guide to Assess Student Learning

Source: Elliott, E. (2003). Assessing education candidate performance: A look at changing practices. Washington, DC: National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education. Reprinted with permission of the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education. Source: Elliott, E. (2003). Assessing education candidate performance: A look at changing practices. Washington, DC: National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education. Reprinted with permission of the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education.

Pedagogical and Professional Knowledge Tests. Some states also require new teachers to pass a test that assesses general pedagogical and professional knowledge that teachers should have to manage instruction and students. This information is taught in courses such as educational foundations, educational psychology, multicultural education, tests and measurement, teaching methods, and the course that requires you to read this book. Your specialized knowledge about teaching and learning is assessed in this group of tests. They require you to know theories in education, the critical research that guides how to teach your subject, instructional strategies, the impact of diversity on learning, and the use of technology in teaching.

Spend Time in Schools Most teacher education programs require candidates to observe and work in schools, often beginning with the first education course. You want to make sure you really like working with young children if you are planning to teach at the primary level or older adolescents if you are planning to teach high school. You can also learn whether you have the temperament to work with 30 students at a time or to maintain a schedule that requires you to be in a classroom with students for hours at a time without talking on your cell phone, texting, or having a snack. Field experiences confirm for most candidates that they really do want to teach. Others discover that teaching is not the job for them.

Learn to Be Comfortable in Schools. Most of us found the time we spent as students in school enjoyable, and we liked going to school. That was probably one reason we were drawn to teaching. Most times we got along well with our classmates and with our teachers. Teachers must be at school most days of the school year. The teachers we remember fondly are the ones that appeared to enjoy being at school. They were the ones who greeted everyone with a smile and shared a kind word or two with everyone they came in contact with. They appeared generally happy and happy to be sharing their days with others in a school.

Schools are busy places full of happy people helping one another. New teachers should make a point of knowing and respecting all the support staff at their school. © iStock/XiXinXing The people who work in schools alongside teachers also appreciate friendly greetings and encouraging words. It is important to know the people who support your role as a teacher because they are often the ones you call for help when something nonacademic goes amiss. When you are comfortable in the schools you are assigned to, when you know the people who work at the school and what their jobs are, when you show a positive regard for each member of the school team and exude a happy character, you will be comfortable in schools and help the people who work with you feel comfortable too.

Professional Development Schools.

You may be assigned to a professional development school (PDS) for your field experiences and clinical practice. Teachers, teacher candidates, and college professors in a PDS collaborate to support student learning. They may team-teach and take turns teaching, planning together, and supporting each other. After a few weeks of working together, students and parents often are not able to distinguish between the teacher, professor, and teacher candidate. One or more professors may spend most of their time in a PDS, working with the teacher and candidate in the classroom and providing professional development for faculty as needed.

School District/University Partnership Schools These partnerships may appear similar to professional development schools, given the collaboration that takes place between personnel in both institutions. The aim of a partnership between a university and a school district is to seek reform at all levels. This means that both members of the partnership have to learn to work in new ways. Institutional cultures may have to change, and while change is inevitable, it is not always welcomed. Forming a partnership is labor-intensive and not always perceived in the same way by all members of the partnership. The university teacher education curriculum may have to be revised to meet the specific needs of schools and students in a district. School structures may have to be redesigned to meet the goals of the partnership and the inclusion of teacher education candidates into the daily functions of the school. The achievement of K–12 students remains at the center of any reform effort of partnership schools, as does the professional development of teachers and teacher candidates.

Shadow a Student or a Teacher for a Day. Before you receive your first clinical assignment, make a concerted effort to spend a day in a school shadowing a student or a teacher. Shadowing students will help you see the school day through their perspective. Observe what work they are engaged in and how they negotiate the physical, mental, and social demands of being members of a class group. Take note of the kinds of interactions they have with other students and with the teacher. Learn how they keep track of all that is expected of them.

Shadowing a teacher will help you begin to understand what will be expected of you during a typical school day. Make an effort to keep track of the number of decisions teachers make, and what those decisions entail. Note the special routines and management strategies they have in place to keep track of the students, student work, and class and school schedules. Listen to the conversations they have with the students and with other teachers. Watch their work with an eye toward the roles you will perform when you begin teaching. It could be an eye-opening experience. If you hear students, parents, other teachers, and administrators refer to effective teachers, ask if you can visit their class to observe their interactions with the subject matter and with students.

Deeper Look 1.5

Read more about professional development schools.

Teachers’ Lounge Is It Mr. or Mrs.? Having already completed my master’s degree in elementary education, and not finding a permanent position in the previous summer, I turned my attention to working as much as possible in the schools of Johnson City as a substitute. In an attempt to meet and be known by as many people as possible, I accepted a several-day position as a kindergarten teacher. My teaching license covered grades 1 through 6, but I thought my experience and general training could be easily adapted to kindergarten. In addition, I thought that the small class sizes and presence of a teacher assistant could alleviate any potential problems that may arise.

© Lloyd J. Goldberg For context, Johnson City had recently constructed one building to house its K–8 classes, eliminating the middle school and several aging neighborhood elementary schools. Within the school there were no male teachers in the 30+ sections of K–3, nor were there any male administrators or office staff. Additionally, Johnson City sits on the confluence of the Susquehanna and Chenango rivers in central New York. During the winter temperatures can easily dip below zero, and wind chills can cause dangerous situations if anyone is outside too long. As a self-preservation technique I used to grow a full, black beard each winter.

On my first day I was immediately ushered into the world of the little ones. Having a substitute immediately gets them into hyper-mode, and having a male teacher creates some form of irreconcilable conflict in their minds. As the day progressed, we were having a productive experience, but one little boy kept referring to me as Mrs. G, instead of Mr. G. Normally, this isn’t a big deal but he was a smart kid and was the only student to seem to have difficulty with the concept of his teacher being a man. The fact I was wearing a tie and had a full beard was of little consequence to him. Finally, I pulled him aside and gently said “Buddy, I don’t know about your family but in mine it is the men who have beards and we call them mister.” After a few seconds of intense thought he motioned for me to come closer to him and responded with “But my grandma has a mustache.” Out of sheer respect I let him call me Mrs. G for the rest of the time I was in the class. Lloyd J. Goldberg, Teacher Third grade, Schorr Elementary Las Vegas, Nevada

Challenging Assumptions Do the kinds and amounts of preservice education and preparation that teacher candidates receive before they begin teaching have any impact on whether they leave the profession after their first year on the job?

The Assumption Some policymakers believe that teachers who enter the teaching force through an alternative route to licensure with little or no supervised field experience in a school setting are just as likely to stay in teaching as those candidates who have course work related to teaching and learning and have had practice teaching experiences.

The Research Ingersoll, Merrill, & May (2014) examined measures of teachers’ subject-matter education and pedagogical preparation from data provided by two National Center for Education Statistics surveys. Their analyses demonstrated that “the type of college, degree, entry route or certificate mattered little. What did matter was the substance and content of new teachers’ pedagogical preparation. Those with more training in teaching methods and pedagogy—especially practice teaching, observation of other classroom teaching and feedback on their own teaching—were far less likely to leave teaching after their first year on the job” (p. 29). These study results suggest that what keeps teachers in the classroom beyond the first year has much to do with their pedagogical preparation apart from their other qualifications and experiences.

1. Do you know what the legislators in your state think about teacher preparation? 2. What experiences do you think are most important in learning to teach? 3. Can you cite any evidence for either of the perspectives on teacher preparation mentioned above? Source: Ingersoll, R., Merrill, L., & May, H. (2014). What are the effects of teacher education and preparation on beginning teacher attrition? Research Report (#RR-82). Philadelphia: Consortium for Policy Research in Education, University of Pennsylvania.

Volunteer as a Teacher’s Aide or as a Tutor. To learn more about the work of teachers, volunteer to help out in a classroom or school. Teachers have scores of duties to address, before, during, and after class, and an offer of help from a well-meaning individual is always welcomed. Visit a school near your home, meet with the principal, and explain that you are studying to be a teacher and would like to have some experience working in a school as a volunteer. Your offer of help will certainly be met with enthusiasm. There are many ways that you can develop skill when working with students. When starting out in your teacher education program, it is good to have experience working closely with one or two children. Tutoring is a great way to become familiar with students’ learning styles and to understand the difficulties some students have learning specific content. Tutoring programs at reading centers in colleges of education or in public libraries seek tutors for a variety of programs. Working as a tutor can help build your confidence and competence as a teacher.

Become a Member of a Teaching and Learning Team You will have ample opportunity to discuss educational issues in your teacher education courses. You will learn of the theories underlying practice and discuss ways theories are demonstrated through teachers’ actions. While you are involved in your clinical practice, make an effort to join a teacher group and listen when teachers discuss teaching and learning issues and develop strategies for serving students. Take advantage of the expertise that can be gained from experienced teachers. Ask questions. When you

visit schools as part of your field experience requirements, note effective teaching practices that you could incorporate into your own repertoire as you student-teach and later when you have your own classroom. To become effective teachers, we learn as we observe and practice. We test theories and strategies, expanding our repertoire of ways to help students learn. With time we become more familiar with the subjects we teach and the students with whom we work. We become more comfortable in the classroom as we understand the bureaucratic requirements of a school and become better managers of the classroom and learning.

The Power of a Support Group During Clinical Practice. Even though teaching involves being with groups of students every day, it can be a lonely profession if teachers don’t make time to interact with one another in professional and personal settings. Sharing what works with colleagues and having them react and provide advice should be part of the culture of being a teacher. Other professions such as medicine and architecture require new graduates to practice as interns under the tutelage of experienced doctors or architects during their first years of practice. In many regards, field experiences and student teaching are intended to serve this purpose. Teachers who welcome teacher education candidates into their classrooms as co-teachers represent a special group who are not only experts in their profession but also eager to give back to their profession by helping others succeed. These teachers will guide you through the myriad dimensions of teaching. They will give you feedback on your teaching assignments and actively listen to your concerns. They become your colleagues in learning to laugh when the unexpected happens and to cheer you onward when your steps may not be so sure. They are also responsible for making sure that you meet standards for clinical experience, so they will expect your best effort and may admonish you when your performance is not acceptable. Be ready to accept constructive criticism as well as the praise that will certainly be yours to enjoy.

Understanding and Using Evidence

Licensure Test Scores Each state sets the qualifying or cut score that test takers must achieve before they can receive a license to teach in the state. These scores differ across states as shown below:

Your Task Respond to the following questions: 1. What does this table tell you about becoming qualified in these eight states? 2. Why are scores not indicated for some states? 3. Why do some states require higher scores than others? One way to analyze test scores across states is to look for patterns. In the table below, the red highlights indicate the state(s) with the highest qualifying score, and the blue highlights indicate the state with the lowest qualifying score. In some cases, states have qualifying scores that are close, but the range between high and low scores can be as much as 33 for elementary education for the states shown below.

Source: Educational Testing Service The Praxis Series® Passing Scores by Test and State at https://www.ets.org/s/praxis/pdf/passing_scores.pdf

Understand the Role of Your Mentor or Cooperating Teacher Many years ago the Harvard Business Review let the business community know that “Everyone Who Makes It Has a Mentor.” The article went on to advise new members to business that if they didn’t have a mentor they should go find one (Collins & Scott, 1978). Soon after this pronouncement, the teaching profession began to look at what support mentors to new teachers could provide, and a formal construct for mentoring in teaching was developed. Of course experienced teachers who serve as mentors to beginning teachers have always been around even without being called mentors. Your cooperating teacher is one of the mentors you will encounter on your journey to becoming a teacher. Other mentors may come in the form of professors, relatives, colleagues, and friends. If you don’t seem to have a mentor, ask questions, and one will magically appear.

How to Set the Stage for Success in Your First Teaching Job. There is so much you need to know before you enter the classroom that first day. It has been said that if you desire a perfect ending then the beginning must also be perfect. Your teacher education course work and clinical experience will program you for success in your first teaching job, but the guarantee that you will be more than ready rests solely on your shoulders. To paraphrase Eleanor Duckworth, an emeritus professor of education at Harvard, to truly understand a thing you have to learn it for yourself. All the lectures, all the assignments, all the visits to schools will not have prepared you at all if you have merely gone through your program with your eyes on the degree at the end of the line. The best way to be prepared for that first teaching job is to develop the habit of asking questions, reflecting on each new step you take, collaborating with others, and always trying to broaden the horizon ahead by looking at it through perspectives different from your own.

How Do You Keep Track of Your Growth as a Teacher?

As humans we are strangely programmed to keep track of changes in our environment and in ourselves. We track the weather, our weight, the stock market, and the standing of our favorite football team. We even use almanacs to help us track events that will happen in the future. Teachers use benchmarks such as “surviving the first year,” “successfully completing a round of parent–teacher conferences,” and “having students make adequate yearly progress on standardized exams” to track their progress and to set personal standards for their continuous professional development. Teaching is replete with standards of all types. In addition to setting personal standards, it is a teacher’s responsibility to be familiar with school district, state, and national standards at all levels.

Know the Standards You may feel overwhelmed with standards, but if you can’t talk about standards during your job interview, you will not be the top candidate for the job. Most schools have adopted a standards-based curriculum and provide their teachers with power standards and Common Core Standards (you’ll find more about the Common Core Standards in Chapter 10). It is not only the standards for the students you will be teaching that affect your work: The teacher education program in which you are enrolled should be standards based. Your program should be preparing you to meet the InTASC standards mentioned earlier in this chapter. You are also expected to know the professional standards for your field (e.g., mathematics or early childhood education). Are you familiar with any of these standards?

Student Standards New teachers should know the student standards for the subject they will be teaching. All states have developed student standards that indicate what students at different grade levels should know and be able to do in a subject area. The tests that students are required to take annually in mathematics, reading, writing, science, and social studies are based on the state standards. Many state standards are based on national standards developed by national organizations such as the International Reading Association (IRA), National Council of Social Studies (NCSS), and American Association for the

Advancement of Science (AAAS). These standards provide a guide for what you should be teaching in those core curriculum areas. They can be used to develop your own performance assessments to determine what students are learning. The state tests also provide feedback, although limited, on what students have learned. State standards can be accessed on the website of your state department of education.

Teacher Standards National professional associations have also developed standards that describe what teachers should know and be able to do to teach a specific group of students (e.g., ELLs or students with disabilities) or a specific subject such as physical education. If teachers meet these standards, they should be able to help students meet the student standards. After you have taught for three or more years, you may decide to apply for national board certification. The NBPTS standards expect accomplished teachers to do the following: Be committed to students and their learning. Know the subjects they teach and how to teach those subjects to students. Be responsible for managing and monitoring student learning. Think systematically about their practice, and learn from experience. Be members of learning communities. In addition to these general expectations, the NBPTS has standards for teaching each subject area for specific age levels such as early childhood, middle childhood, early adolescence, and young adulthood. Your teacher education program will help you develop the foundation to meet these standards later in your career. A number of colleges and universities have redesigned their master’s degrees to reflect these standards and help teachers become nationally certified. There is no time like the present to start down the path toward successful teaching. Take advantage of the assignments and experiences you are required to complete, always thinking about how they relate to the subject

or students you will be teaching next week or in a few years. In the activities at the end of each chapter in this book, you are provided opportunities to apply your knowledge to the realities of classrooms and schools. These activities can be incorporated into a portfolio of your work that will show your growth as you learn how to teach over the next year or two, and can be used later during your interview for a job.

Begin a Portfolio A portfolio is a collection of your work, including papers, projects, lesson plans, and assessments. It serves many purposes. During your program, the artifacts (i.e., the documents and presentations) in your portfolio show your growth as a teacher from the first education course you take to completion of the program. Your written papers may have been submitted as part of your coursework, or they may be written reflections of your experiences working with students. They show that you understand a particular topic in your field as well as your writing skills, and demonstrate your ability to analyze issues and classroom situations.

Maintaining a digital record of professional growth and achievements is one way teachers can document their careers and share information with others. © iStock/Silvrshootr Lesson plans, which you will develop later in the program as a detailed guide for your instruction of a topic, show that you understand the subject that you are teaching and that you can select appropriate instructional strategies for helping students learn. Evaluations of your field experiences and student teaching by your school and university supervisors provide evidence of your effectiveness in the classroom. Samples of student work related to the lessons you teach, along with your analysis of the student work, and reflections on how effective your teaching was and what you would do differently the next time, provide evidence that you have the knowledge, skills, and dispositions critical to a teacher’s work. The artifacts in your portfolio can serve as evidence that you meet state and professional standards that were discussed earlier in this chapter. Like architects and artists, new teachers select examples of their best work for portfolios to be presented at job interviews. These portfolios should also include demographic information that present your credentials: a résumé, transcripts, child abuse clearance, criminal background clearance, and teaching license. Any awards or honors that you have received should be added to this portfolio. Letters of recommendation from faculty and/or your supervising teachers should be included along with any letters of appreciation or commendations from parents or students. You may not be asked to present a portfolio until you are further along in your program. However, the task of compiling a portfolio will be much easier if you begin now to collect and organize your papers, projects, evaluations, and student work. You may be surprised to see your own growth over time. Technological advances have made the creation of digital portfolios commonplace. One advantage to the electronic portfolio is that it provides you the opportunity to highlight your technology skills—one of the requirements of many standards. To assist you in beginning your

portfolio, each chapter in this book suggests one or two tasks for that purpose.

Deeper Look 1.6

Begin a portfolio.

Reflect on Your Observations and Practice in Schools Reflection, a valued skill in teaching, allows you to think about the effects of your choices and actions on students, parents, and other professionals in the learning community. According to Kottler, Zehm, and Kottler (2005),

reflection is among the most important missions of a teacher. It is an extremely complex and demanding process that requires a lifetime of dedication. Others have found that reflection improves the professional knowledge of teachers and serves as a powerful tool for individual learning (Oner & Adadan, 2011). Teachers can achieve professional development through continuous reflection (Ayan & Seferoglu, 2011), and reflection can be promoted through documentation of actions. Creating a portfolio is one way you can keep track of what you do and record how well it seems to play out. Once you have the documentation you can revisit specific events or actions over time and reflect on what might be improved. Reflective teachers are able to articulate why they chose one instructional method over another, analyze the effectiveness of the approach when they use it, and choose another approach for a student who did not learn. Early in your program, you will be observing teachers and working with small groups of students rather than teaching. However, you can begin to develop your reflection skills in both these school settings and activities in your college classroom. One popular process is the maintenance of journals in which you summarize your thoughts about and reactions to the major things you observed or experienced in a class or school. Journal entries should be brief, candid, and personal. You should record how you were affected by the events and why. You may be surprised, angry, puzzled, delighted, or apathetic. You may not believe what you are reading or seeing. You may want to step in and change something. You may have learned a new strategy for accommodating the needs of a student with disabilities. The journal allows you to regularly record (usually daily or weekly) your reflections on what you are learning. As you read your journal later, you will see how your thoughtful reflections helped you define your own teaching.

Begin Collaborating With Peers and Professors One way to help you determine whether you want to teach is to talk and work with teachers and other school professionals. You will begin to get a better sense of what it is like to be a teacher rather than a student. Ask them why they chose a particular lesson, responded to one student in one way

and in a different way to all of the others, and used a particular assessment. Be helpful to the teachers you are observing when they ask for assistance. You should begin to develop your collaborative skills as you work with other candidates and professors on campus. You are likely to be assigned to work with your peers on group activities. These activities provide you the opportunity to be a leader in planning and delivering papers and presentations. To be successful, you will have to work with people with whom you have many common experiences and others with whom you have little in common. You may have to assist others, and sometimes do some of their work for the good of the team. When you are in the classroom, you will find similar dilemmas as you work with other teachers. You may also have a better understanding of the group dynamics of students when you assign them to group work in the classroom. It is wise to begin now to learn to collaborate with professional colleagues. In a year or two or three you will be amazed at where your journey to become a teacher has taken you.

CONNECTING TO THE CLASSROOM This chapter has provided you with some basic information about the need for qualified teachers, where the jobs are, how to become licensed, and some of the circumstances you might encounter during your first few years of teaching. Below are some key principles for applying the information in this chapter to the classroom. 1. Effective teachers make a difference in student learning. 2. Professional teachers are responsible for the well-being of their clients (students). 3. New teachers have a better chance of success at the start of their careers if they receive support from teachers with more experience. 4. A school’s curricula will be guided by the state or school district’s standards for students. 5. Teacher standards identify the key knowledge, skills, and dispositions that teachers should demonstrate in the classroom. 6. The collection of your work in a portfolio should provide evidence that you have met standards and that you can help students in your classroom learn.

SUMMARY Five major points were discussed in this chapter.

Teaching is a challenging profession that requires its members to be very knowledgeable, skillful, and in possession of the necessary disposition for working with students. The rewards of teaching can be both intrinsic and extrinsic, as teachers help students acquire knowledge and develop skills. Teacher education candidates need to become familiar with standards for PreK–12 students and standards for teachers, and to demonstrate competency in content areas through performance on standardized tests. Teacher education candidates need to spend time in schools observing experienced teachers and working with students. Activities that contribute to a teacher’s development include the initiation of a portfolio, reflection on one’s practice, and collaboration with colleagues.

Class Discussion Questions 1. Some teachers believe that the accountability measures imposed by policymakers stifle their creative abilities as teachers. In what ways do you think teacher creativity might be hampered by having to administer norm-referenced tests of student achievement under district or state mandates? 2. What are some of the ways you learned about teaching profession even before beginning your teacher education program? 3. This chapter suggests that teacher education candidates should be able to show evidence that they meet the InTASC standards. Why is it necessary for teachers to possess the knowledge, skills, and dispositions identified in these standards? Which of the InTASC standards do you personally find most important? Why? 4. Do you consider teaching a profession similar to law and medicine? Why? Why not? 5. Why is it important to track your professional growth during your teacher education program? How can tracking your growth as a professional help you in the future?

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Key Terms

accreditation 10 benchmarks 33 bilingual education 20 cut score 24 dispositions 9 English as a second language (ESL) 20 English language learner (ELL) 15 extrinsic rewards 7 field-based supervisors 24 intrinsic rewards 7 journals 36 lesson plans 34 mentors 14 National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS) out-of-field teachers 20 pedagogy 25 performance assessments 24 portfolio 34 profession 11 proficiencies 25 reflections 12 rubrics 12 standards-based curriculum 33

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Self-Assessment What Is Your Current Level of Understanding and Thinking About Becoming a Teacher?

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One of the indicators of understanding is to examine how complex your thinking is when asked questions that require you to use the concepts and facts introduced in this chapter. Answer the following questions as fully as you can. Then use the Complexity of Thinking rubric below to self-assess the degree to which you understand the complexities of becoming a teacher. 1. How would you explain to someone who was not an educator why teaching is a profession? 2. Why is it important for teachers to possess specific knowledge and skills? 3. How can a teacher’s competency in a content area be assessed? 4. When should someone who is a teacher candidate begin collecting artifacts about their professional growth? Why?

Student Study Site

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Field Guide for Learning More About... Becoming a Teacher A field guide is a book or pamphlet someone can bring along when exploring their surroundings. The term field guide is generally used to help people identify wildlife or other objects in nature. In biology, field guides are designed to help the reader identify

specific birds, plants, or fish by studying their features and characteristics. Field guides can help people distinguish one object from another that might look similar but is not. In this text, the term field guide is a metaphor. The activities described at the end of each chapter will help guide you through your investigations of the foundations and purposes of schooling in America. In a sense, you will be creating your own field guide of evidence of teaching and student learning. As a field biologist would do, you should take field notes as you complete the activities outlined for you at the end of each chapter. These notes should include facts and descriptions of your observations. Your field notes should also include date, time of day, the grade or group you are observing, and your reflections and “Aha!” moments. Keeping such detailed data is a form of journaling. Persons engaged in field work also collect artifacts such as pictures and samples of what they are studying. John James Audubon (1785–1851), an American naturalist, completed more than 400 life-size paintings of birds in his expeditions into the field. You will not be expected to collect a specific number of items or even attempt paintings of the classrooms you visit, but you should have evidence of teaching behavior, student responses, and school organization and culture. Once you have become comfortable in schools and in the classroom, you should begin to compile your field notes into a portfolio—a collection of evidence of your growth toward becoming a teacher. Each chapter in this text will introduce field guide activities such as observation of the school and classroom environments, specific portfolio tasks, and the practice of journaling. When you complete each of the suggested activities, you will have ample evidence that you have a thorough understanding of schooling in America.

Chapter 2 Today’s Students

© iStockphoto.com/Diane Diederich

Questions to Consider 1. What is similar and different about Ms. Maschari’s class and the schools with which you are most familiar? 2. How prepared do you think you are to work in the diverse settings in which Ms. Maschari has taught? 3. What do you want to make sure you learn before you begin to work in a school with students from a number of diverse groups with which you have no or limited experience?

Teacher Interview Kelly Maschari

© Kelly Maschari Kelly Maschari teaches one of three third-grade classes at Brent Elementary School in Washington, DC, a few blocks from the U.S. Capitol building, where Congress convenes. Raised in rural Ohio, Kelly has since expanded her knowledge and experience with cultural diversity after teaching in Hong Kong, Houston, and now the District of Columbia. With a bachelor’s degree in business administration and marketing, she began her teaching career as an ESOL (English for speakers of other languages) teacher in Hong Kong where she worked with students from the ages of five months to 13 years at a language center. In Houston she taught at Ortiz Middle School, a charter school with a

majority of Hispanic students. Since arriving in Washington, she has taught at both a charter school and traditional public schools. Q: What have you found as successful strategies in working with students from diverse groups? A: When students see themselves as a collective team, they become members of a community and active participants in helping each other regardless of their race, economic background, or gender. They learn to ask how they can help each other and their partners. Building a sense of empathy is crucial. Both Brent Elementary School and my previous school use a responsive classroom approach that focuses on social and emotional teaching strategies. We help students develop traits of empathy and caring for each other. The approach works well for most students, but other students need more concrete experiences that aren’t part of the responsive classroom. Involving parents is another critical factor in diverse classrooms. The principal at my school is very successful at engaging parents. I have now set up a consistent routine for communicating with parents and guardians through a newsletter and website that open the door for parents to contact me directly. It is a lot of work, but leads to a great payoff in which parents become more engaged in their children’s learning activities. For example, all of the parents of my students were involved in one or more of the nine field trips that the class took last year. Finding an outlet to talk with families about differences that leads to a better understanding of one another’s point of view is important. Q: What do you enjoy most about teaching students from diverse groups? A: Teaching brings me the greatest joy when I’m a part of a moment when a child feels successful in a particular skill, project, or performance.

Learning Outcomes After reading this chapter, you should be able to do the following: 1. Illustrate how students’ race and ethnicity can be used by a teacher to develop effective instructional strategies for learning. 2. Demonstrate that you value and respect students regardless of the socioeconomic status (SES) of their families. 3. Explain at least three instructional programs that are used with English-language learners (ELLs). 4. Identify gender differences that will help teachers provide equitable instruction for both girls and boys. 5. List actions a teacher could take to be supportive of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer or questioning (LGBTQ) students in classrooms and schools. 6. Analyze the impact of the religious beliefs of students and their families on classroom and school practices in your community.

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Introduction The students you will be teaching may be very similar to you, coming from the same racial and ethnic group and from families with the same socioeconomic status (SES) as your own family. However, many new teachers find their first jobs in schools with students from groups and cultures with which they have little or no firsthand experience. The students may be very different from them, coming from a different racial or ethnic group, speaking a different language, and/or practicing a religion different from their own. Very few schools are segregated by gender, so it is likely that not all of your students will be the same sex as you, but some of them may have a different sexual orientation than you, or identify their

gender differently than you would expect. You are also likely to have one or more students with a disability in the classroom. Both students and teachers are multicultural. We are all members of different groups in society. Our identities are influenced by our race, ethnicity, gender, SES, language, religion, sexual orientation, mental and physical abilities, and age. Being a member of one of these groups impacts how we see ourselves as a member of another group. Religion, for instance, may have a great influence on how we think girls and boys should behave. In our society, race and economics define power relationships. Our identities are also determined by others who define us based on their observations of who we are and their experiences or lack of experiences with members of our cultural groups. One of the keys to being a successful teacher is to care about the students in your classroom. A part of caring is to know the students, their families, and the realities of their everyday lives. This task is much easier in a close-knit community in which most families know one another because they attend the same church, synagogue, temple, or mosque. It is more challenging in large urban and suburban areas in which the histories and experiences of families differ greatly. At the same time, learning about the cultures of your students and communities can be one of the joyful parts of teaching. The growing diversity of the student population offers teachers the opportunity to learn new cultures and expand their cultural competencies. To help all students learn, regardless of their ethnic or racial identity, teachers should learn as much as possible about groups other than their own before they begin teaching. Learning about other groups can be very enlightening and should become a lifelong learning experience. This chapter will introduce you to the student diversity you may encounter as you prepare to be a teacher and in your subsequent jobs.

Video Link 2.1

Watch a video about diversity and diverse students.

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How Racially and Ethnically Diverse Are Our Schools?

We are often asked to identify our race or ethnicity on applications and surveys. Our ethnicity is determined by the country or countries from which our families or ancestors have come. Race, on the other hand, is a term that groups people by biological traits such as the texture of hair, color of skin and eyes, and body stature. The United States census places the population into six pan-ethnic and racial groups: black or African American, American Indian or Alaska Native, Asian American, Latino or Hispanic, Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander, and white. We now can choose the category “Two or More Races” on some forms to indicate our parents or ancestors are from different races. Still, a number of students find it difficult to classify themselves into one of these groups because they do not see themselves as a member of any of them. This section provides a brief introduction to the ethnic and racial diversity of students in schools today, but further study of this topic is strongly recommended so you can learn more about the history and experiences of the students you will teach in the future.

Race and Ethnicity of the Population American Indians and Alaska Natives are the indigenous or original people who inhabited the United States. Today, 6.5 million U.S. citizens, or 1.3% of the population, identify themselves as Native American, American Indian, or Alaska Native, with 4.2 million or 65% of them indicating they are biracial or multiracial (U.S. Census Bureau, 2015). The American Indian population identifies with one or more of the 566 tribal governments recognized by the federal government (Bureau of Indian Affairs, 2015). Most American Indian students will identify with their tribal heritage, with the largest numbers being Cherokee, Navajo, Choctaw, Mexican American Indian, Chippewa, Sioux (i.e., Dakota, Lakota, and Nakota peoples), Apache, or Blackfeet (Norris, Vines, & Hoeffel, 2012). The largest Alaska Native tribes are Yup’if, Inupiat, Tlingit-Haida, Alaskan Athabascan, and Aleut. One in five American Indians and Alaska Natives lives on a reservation, on trust lands, or in Alaska native villages. Nearly three in four American Indians live in the western and southern United States. Native Hawaiians and other South Pacific Islanders are also indigenous to their native lands: more than half of them live in Hawaii and California.

Just over 1 million residents identify themselves as Native Hawaiians or South Pacific Islanders, with one in three of these residents being biracial or multiracial (U.S. Census Bureau, 2015). This group includes people who identify as Native Hawaiian, Guamanian, Chamorro, Samoan, Tahitian, Tongan, Tokelauan, Marshallese, Palauan, Chuukese, Fijian, Guinean, and Solomon Islander (Hixson, Hepler, & Kim, 2012).

Before 1965, the majority of immigrants to the U.S. were from Europe. Today, they are from Mexico and Asia, changing the nation’s diversity over the past 50 years. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division African Americans, or blacks, who made up 13.8% of the population in 2013 (U.S. Census Bureau, 2013a), have developed their own culture out of their different African, European, and Native American heritages and their unique experiences in this country. Today immigrants from African and Caribbean countries are joining this pan-ethnic group. Most African American students whose ancestors have been in the United States for

several hundred years are greatly influenced by their group membership because of a common history of slavery and discrimination. By middle school, students have experienced racism firsthand or know families or friends who have been negatively affected by racial discrimination. Asian Americans have immigrated to the United States from numerous countries across the world’s largest continent and are currently one of the fastest growing groups in the country. Chinese Americans are the largest Asian ethnic group in the United States, with 3.8 million, followed by Filipinos (3.4 million), and Asian Indians (3.2 million) (Hoefel, Rastogi, Kim, & Shahid, 2012). Nearly half of the Asian Americans live in the west, with California home to the largest number—over three times as many as New York, the state with the next-largest concentration. They account for nearly 40% of Hawaii’s population and 5.9% of the U.S. population (U.S. Census Bureau, 2015). Latinos or Hispanics come from many nations. Mexican Americans are the largest of this pan-ethnic group; other families come from or have ancestors from Mexico, Central America, Cuba, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, and South America. The Spanish were among the early European explorers in the North and South Americas. When the United States annexed the southwestern part of the country, Mexicans were the majority population of that region. Many Latinos don’t identify themselves by race. Instead they identify themselves as American or by their family’s country of origin (e.g., Mexican American or Puerto Rican). They may or may not identify themselves by pan-ethnic terms such as Hispanic or Latino, which are used by the government and researchers to categorize the population from countries whose primary language is Spanish. Some families may refer to themselves as Chicano, especially if they are Mexican American and political activists. Maintenance of the Spanish language is important to many Latinos.

The Impact of Immigration The immigration rate during the past decade has been approximately 1 million persons per year (U.S. Department of Homeland Security, 2014). More than one in four California residents is foreign born. New York and

New Jersey are not far behind, with 23% and 21% of their populations foreign born. Nearly one in four of the residents of Florida and Nevada is an immigrant, but all states are home to immigrants (Krogstad & Keegan, 2014). Large cities attract immigrants, with the largest concentrations found in New York City and Los Angeles (U.S. Department of Homeland Security, 2014). Non-metropolitan areas are also becoming home to immigrants: For example, the Hispanic population more than doubled over the past decade in Alabama, Arkansas, Kentucky, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, Tennessee, South Carolina, and South Dakota (Passel, Cohn, & Lopez, 2011). As a result, schools across the country include students from different cultures and with many native languages other than English.

© Harley Schwadron

The nations from which immigrants come have changed over time, primarily because of immigration laws set by Congress. When the Johnson– Reed Act was abolished in 1965, immigration from the Eastern Hemisphere increased dramatically. The largest number of legal immigrants in 1960 came from Mexico, Germany, Canada, the United Kingdom, and Italy. In 2013 the largest number of immigrants came from Mexico (14%), China (7%), India (7%), the Philippines (5%), the Dominican Republic (4%), Cuba (3%), and Vietnam (3%) (U.S. Department of Homeland Security, 2014). Over 50% of the foreign-born population is from Mexico and other Latin American countries, 29% is from Asia, and 12% is from Europe (U.S. Census Bureau, 2013b). Another group of immigrants is refugees who have been recognized by the federal government as being persecuted or legitimately bearing persecution in their home country because of race, religion, nationality, or membership in a specific social or political group. More than 588,000 people were admitted as refugees between 2004 and 2013. The largest number came from Iraq, Myanmar (Burma), Bhutan, Cuba, Iran, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo in 2013 (U.S. Department of Homeland Security, 2014). The most controversial immigration issue in the country is that of unauthorized immigrants, who made up 3% to 5% of the nation’s population in 2012. Seven percent of K–12 students have at least one unauthorized immigrant parent (Passell & Cohn, 2014). Some unauthorized immigrants originally entered the country as travelers or on student or other visas. They extended their stay beyond the authorized date and may be eligible to have their status reclassified as legal at some point if they meet the requirements for employment-based visas, if they are classified as refugees, or if they are sponsored by a family. The majority of unauthorized immigrants are from Mexico (52%), but others arrive from other Central American countries, Asia, Europe, Canada, and Africa. Nevada, California, Texas, and Arizona are home to the largest number of unauthorized immigrants (Passel & Cohn, 2014). In 1975 the Texas legislature decided to withhold funds from local school districts for children who were not legally admitted into the United States.

The act also allowed school districts to deny enrollment to unauthorized children. When the Supreme Court was asked in Plyler v. Doe (1982) to determine the constitutionality of the Texas statute, it ruled that unauthorized students have a right to seek a public education. School officials cannot ask parents for their immigration status. Officials cannot ask parents for Social Security numbers or other documentation that might expose their status.

Race and Ethnicity in Schools The United States population is currently predominantly white (62%), but less so each year (U.S. Census Bureau, 2014e). By 2060 44% of the population will be white, and the Latino population will nearly double, comprising 29% of the population (Colby & Ortman, 2015). The school population reflects the growing diversity of the country more profoundly than the general population because a large number of immigrants are Latino or Asian, and the average age of those groups is younger than whites, resulting in a larger proportion of births. Students of color were 35% of the school-age population in 1995, but were projected to be 51% in 2015 and 55% by 2023, as shown in Figure 2.1 (Snyder & Dillow, 2015). The percentage of African American and American Indian students will remain about the same, while the number of Latino and Asian American students will continue to grow over the next four decades. The chances that you will teach students from diverse ethnic and racial groups depend on the location of your school. The largest concentration of students of color is in the western part of the United States, and the Midwest is the least diverse. Already, more than three in five students in California, the District of Columbia, Hawaii, Nevada, New Mexico, and Texas are students of color. Over half of the student population in Arizona, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, and New York are students of color, and the number is approaching 50% in seven other states. The highest concentration of African American students is in the South, where they make up 24% of the student population. They are also the majority population in many urban areas and the first ring of suburbs around large cities. Latino students make up 41% of the students in the West, and Asian American students 9% of the students in the West

(Kena et al., 2015). Students of color also are the majority of the population in many urban schools across the country. Figure 2.1 Projected Changing Diversity of the School-Age Population

Source: Snyder, T. D., & Dillow, S. A. (2015). Digest of education statistics 2013 (NCES 2015–011). National Center for Education Statistics, Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education, Washington, DC. Source: Snyder, T. D., & Dillow, S. A. (2015). Digest of education statistics 2013 (NCES 2015–011). National Center for Education Statistics, Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education, Washington, DC. As shown in Figure 2.2, the diversity of teachers in the nation’s schools does not match the ethnic and racial diversity of the student population. Over four in five public school teachers are white, and three in four are women (Snyder & Dillow, 2015). Not all teachers understand their students’ cultures or have any experience with them. In these cases, teachers and students may misunderstand each other’s cultural cues. Teachers may accept the negative stereotypes of students from ethnic and racial groups with which they have no experience. Students and parents may come to believe that the teacher does not respect or accept their

cultures. They may feel that the only way to be successful in school is to adopt the teacher’s culture, which may lead to the denigration of their own culture. Some adolescents of color resist the dominant culture of schools and sometimes label academically successful peers as “acting white.” The incongruence between students’ and teachers’ cultures may contribute to students not participating in school in meaningful ways. Figure 2.2 Diversity of Public School Teachers and Students in 2011– 12 School Year

Source: Snyder, T. D., & Dillow, S. A. (2015). Digest of education statistics 2013 (NCES 2015–011). National Center for Education Statistics, Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education, Washington, DC. Source: Snyder, T. D., & Dillow, S. A. (2015). Digest of education statistics 2013 (NCES 2015–011). National Center for Education Statistics, Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education, Washington, DC.

Teaching Students From Diverse Racial and Ethnic Groups How should educators respond to the ethnic and racial diversity in their schools? One approach is color blindness, in which teachers say they don’t see the race of their students and treat all students the same. The problem with this approach is that the curricula and activities of most schools predominantly reflect the cultures of European Americans and do not

always integrate the cultures of students from other cultures. In addition, teaching everyone in the same way does not seem to be working, as shown in the great differences in academic achievement among groups as measured by standardized tests.

The Achievement Opportunity Disparities in the academic performance and achievement among groups of students are referred to as the achievement gap or achievement opportunity to indicate that students from higher-income families or with parents who have finished college perform at higher academic levels than other students. Although some students from all groups perform at high levels, achievement data show that students from white and Asian American families are more likely than other students to score at high levels, graduate from high school and college, and attend professional schools. African American and Hispanic students, and students who live in poverty, suffer the most from the lack of achievement opportunities. Their grade point averages are lower than those of other students. Their performance on standardized tests is lower, they are less likely to take rigorous courses, and they are disproportionately placed in special education (Boykin & Noguera, 2011). These gaps begin early in the lives of children when their families lack educational resources and suffer from poor health care and nutrition. Peer pressure, student tracking, negative stereotyping, test bias, and many other factors also contribute to the achievement opportunities among students. Too often students in poverty and students of color attend high-poverty schools where most of the students are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch (Kena et al., 2015); such schools end up being the lowest-achieving schools (Editorial Projects in Education Research Cente, 2011). One of the major challenges for educators is to increase the achievement opportunities for students from different racial and ethnic groups. Schools are required by a federal law, the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (2002), to annually test public school students to determine if they are meeting state standards in reading and mathematics. To prevent receiving a sanction for not meeting adequate yearly progress (AYP), schools must meet the

annual measurable objective (AMO) or fall within the confidence interval overall and in each subgroup represented in the school (e.g., African American, American Indian, ELLs, students from low-income families, and students with disabilities). Students’ achievement on standardized tests is the indicator most often used when the achievement gap is being discussed. Although the gap between students of color and white students decreased between 1970 and 1990, it then leveled off, and has not improved significantly since 1990 (Howard, 2010). The differences in academic performance among ethnic and racial groups of students are shown in Figure 2.3. The challenge for an educator is how to eliminate this achievement gap. The Children’s Defense Fund (2015), an advocacy group for poor and minority children, reports that many children from families in poverty score lower on measures of cognitive development than affluent children beginning as early as nine months. They enter Pre–K with lower levels of academic readiness. These gaps grow larger as students continue through school. By the 12th grade, 84% of the African American students who are still in school are not reading at grade level, and 93% are not doing math at grade level. Hispanic and American Indian students perform at somewhat higher levels, but still at 21 percentage points less than white students (U.S. Department of Education, 2014). Elimination of the achievement gap will require a deliberate effort by educators to provide some students additional learning time, better instruction, and more resources (Boykin & Noguera, 2011). Recommendations for reform to improve academic achievement have included “reducing class sizes, creating smaller schools, expanding earlychildhood programs, raising academic standards, improving the quality of teachers provided to poor and minority students, and encouraging more minority students to take high-level courses” (Editorial Projects in Education Research Cente, 2011, p. 3). You are likely to be engaged in the work of eliminating the achievement gap, particularly if you teach in a high-poverty school. You may be involved in writing a School Improvement Plan for your school. You will work with other teachers and administrators to analyze the test scores for

your school and hopefully support each other in helping all students learn at higher levels. In schools where the gap has been eliminated, educators have stopped blaming students and parents for low achievement. Instead, they have taken responsibility for ensuring that students develop the expected outcomes (Boykin & Noguera, 2011). The school districts that have made the most progress in closing the achievement gap in recent years have had educational leaders who prioritize the learning needs of the most vulnerable students (Boykin & Noguera, 2011). Having such a positive impact on a group of students should be celebrated. When students aren’t learning, the challenge is to figure out why and what can be changed to improve their learning. Figure 2.3 Performance on Eighth-Grade National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) Reading Tests by Racial and Ethnic Group, 2013

Source: U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences, National Center for Education Statistics, National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). (2014). The Nation’s Report Card. Washington, DC: Author. Source: U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences, National Center for Education Statistics, National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). (2014). The Nation’s Report Card. Washington, DC: Author.

Video Link 2.2

Watch a video comparison of two schools.

Audio Link 2.1

Listen to a clip about the achievement gap.

Video Link 2.3

Watch a video about cultural and ethnic diversity.

Race in the Classroom Race has a profound effect on the life experiences of the U.S. population. The fact that African American and Hispanic students continue to achieve at grade levels behind their white peers has become so normalized that many educators have become comfortable with their underperformance, expecting no better. Even students of color become accustomed to failing grades and may avoid academic pursuits or rigorous courses. When failure becomes so normalized by both educators and students, it becomes extremely difficult to change the outcomes (Boykin & Noguera, 2011). The first step is recognizing the problem. Your job as a teacher will be to confront the ways that racial identity and the stereotype of failure are reinforced and reproduced in your classroom (Steele, 2010).

The inequitable educational outcomes for students of color are a function of the social context—in this case, their unequal access to key educational resources such as quality teachers and quality curricula (Darling-Hammond, 2010). We need to understand “how race shapes the way in which many young people understand their worlds and how the world shapes their understanding of themselves as racial beings” (Howard, 2010, p. 121). Students of color do not always trust teachers from racially privileged groups because those teachers are more likely to not understand the impact of race on their lives (Howard, 2010). Racism’s impacts on interactions in the classroom, the curricula, and school policies have not often been confronted by educators.

Eliminating racism in society and schools requires the involvement and action of citizens from diverse racial and ethnic groups. Wikimedia Commons, Moliverg, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Protest_of_Youth_for_Weste rn_Civilization.jpg

Racism is not a topic easily discussed in most classrooms. Students of color have almost always experienced racism and discrimination, whereas few white students have direct experiences with racism. Discussion can evoke emotions of anger, guilt, shame, and despair. Most students think of the United States as a just and democratic society. Therefore, it may be difficult for them to confront the contradictions that support racism. Nevertheless, we need to confront our own racism and students’ racism to begin to overcome the racial gaps that exist in society.

Ethnic Studies One approach to studying different racial and ethnic groups is ethnic studies, which provides in-depth examination of the social, economic, and political history and contemporary conditions of a group. Some high schools have ethnic studies courses, such as African American, Asian American, Native American, and Latino studies. These courses help fill in the gaps in knowledge about a specific group. If you have little exposure to the examination of an ethnic group different from your own, you should consider taking some college courses or undertaking your own individual study.

Ethnocentric Curricula Another approach to incorporating students’ ethnicity into classrooms are ethnocentric curricula. Some immigrant groups have historically established their own schools, with evening and weekend classes, to teach their children the values, traditions, and language of their native homelands. Today some ethnic groups establish their own charter or private schools with curricula centered on the history and values of their own ethnic group rather than on the dominant Western European orientation of most schools. Some American Indian tribes, for example, have established tribally controlled schools in which the traditional culture provides the social and intellectual starting point. Some African Americans have pushed for Afrocentric curricula to challenge Eurocentrism and to present a more truthful account of black

history. Proponents argue that centering the curricula in the roots of Africa will improve their children’s self-esteem, academic skills, and values, and encourage them to develop a positive African American identity. The African perspective of the world and historical events is at the core of this approach. These schools are now located in a number of urban areas with large African American student populations.

How Do Economics Affect Students and Schools? Schools are often described by their family’s income and wealth, in which more-affluent families have more economic, social, and political resources. Even within a school, students are sometimes classified and sorted by their economic conditions, giving the advantage to students from higher-income families. As the nation has moved away from efforts to desegregate schools, students are increasingly segregated by economic levels with a disproportionate number of Hispanic and African American students in high poverty schools. In Kelly Maschari’s third-grade classroom, these economic differences can become quite clear in the students’ morning meeting when, for example, an affluent student reports that he attended Wimbledon over the weekend.

Economic Diversity of Students The lack of family resources affects the quality of housing and environment in which students live, the food they eat, the way they dress, and the educational resources to which they have access. These economic conditions can also have a great impact on the quality of education they receive. Their schools may not have up-to-date laboratories and technology. Their teachers may not have majored in the subjects they are assigned to teach, and they may have a higher absentee rate than those in schools that serve more affluent communities. With the disadvantages with which these students enter schools, they need the best teachers and a great deal of support from school officials and the community to ensure they learn at the same levels as their more-affluent peers.

Students in Low-Income Families Family members with low incomes may be temporarily unemployed or working at low wages because of a family illness or because they have lost a job as a result of economic conditions. A very small portion of the population is persistently poor as measured by living in poverty for eight or more years. However, there are many working poor who hold part-time jobs or full-time jobs that pay the minimum wage of $7.25 per hour or $15,080 annually, but who still can’t pull themselves out of poverty. Work in minimum wage jobs can be sporadic, and unemployment is unpredictably affected by the economy. Fringe benefits usually are not available, leaving many of these workers without health insurance or vacation time. Poverty differs by age, race, and ethnicity as shown in Figure 2.4. Although the number of whites in poverty is greater than any other group, the percentage of whites in poverty is less than other groups, with a larger percentage of Native Americans being in poverty than any other group, followed by African Americans and Hispanics. Generally, the poverty rate for Asian Americans is near that of whites, although some Asian ethnic groups have high poverty levels. Because families of color earn less than white families, their children are more likely to be impoverished. Thus, the rate of poverty is greater for children of color, with 37% of African American and 30% of Latino children living in poverty, as compared with 11% of white children (U.S. Census Bureau, 2014a). In addition, African American and Latino students are almost six times more likely than white and Asian American students to attend schools with large numbers of students in poverty. As you might guess, a majority of students in city schools attend high-poverty schools, while a majority of suburban students attend low-poverty schools (Kena et al., 2015). Schools classify students as low income by the criteria that make them eligible to participate in the free or reduced-price lunch program. To be eligible for a free or reduced-price lunch, family income must fall below 130% of the federal poverty level, or $31,525 for a family of four in 2015 (U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, 2015). For a subsidized

lunch, family income must fall between 130% and 185% of the federal poverty level, or between $31,526 and $44,863 for a family of four. Half of all public school students were eligible for free or reduced-price lunch in 2012 (Snyder & Dillow, 2015). Figure 2.4 Persons in Poverty by Ethnic and Racial Groups, 2013

Source: U.S. Census Bureau. (2014). Current population survey: 2014 annual social and economic supplement. Washington, DC: Author. Source: U.S. Census Bureau. (2014). Current population survey: 2014 annual social and economic supplement. Washington, DC: Author. Students from low-income families are concentrated in cities and rural areas, but they can be found almost anywhere. When children from lowincome families are the majority of the students in a school, they are more likely to have low test scores, unsafe and unattractive schools, and lessthan-stimulating schoolwork that has a limited relation to their lives. From the beginning of their school career, they are too often not expected to go to college. They are not picked to lead groups and are not encouraged to participate in extracurricular activities. It appears that these students are being prepared for jobs that more-affluent people are unwilling to take.

What does living in a low-income family mean for children and teenagers? For one thing, they are in poorer health than students in higher-income families. They have a greater incidence of vision and hearing problems, especially those caused by ear infections. They lack dental care, leading to toothaches. They have greater exposure to lead in water pipes, which affects their cognitive functioning and behavior. They are more likely to have asthma, especially when living in densely populated neighborhoods. They are less likely to have regular medical care and usually lack health insurance. Their nutrition is often poor. The lack of affordable housing results in their families moving from one school district to another. All of these factors affect school attendance and their ability to concentrate and attend carefully to their work when they are in school (Rothstein, 2008). As a result, students in low-income families are also less likely than those in higher-income families to graduate from high school and pursue postsecondary education. Only half of the students from low-income families are enrolled in a two-year or four-year college immediately after high school, as compared to 81% of the students from high-income families (Snyder & Dillow, 2015).

Deeper Look 2.1

Read about the impact neighborhoods have on education.

Video Case 2.1

Valuing Student Diversity 1. What is the purpose of UT (University of Texas) Elementary School, and what types of diverse students does it serve? What methods are used to ensure that the school meets its purpose and supports the needs of all students? 2. How can teachers use their students’ varied experiences to enhance the teaching and learning process? What instructional methods support the sharing of different perspectives?

Homeless Students The National Center on Family Homelessness reports that 2.5 million children were homeless in 2013; that represents 1 in 30 U.S. children, an increase of 8% over the previous year (Bassuk, DeCandia, Beach, & Berman, 2014). In another report, the U.S. Conference of Mayors (2014)

reported a 3% increase in the number of families experiencing homelessness. Homeless people are not always unemployed: some work at such low wages they are unable to afford housing. Other homeless people have lost their jobs or have become estranged from their families. Homeless women may have left home to escape violent relationships. Homeless teenagers may have left home to avoid abuse and severe family dysfunctions. Public schools must provide educational rights to homeless children and youth. The McKinney–Vento Homeless Assistance Act requires school districts to provide transportation for homeless students to stay in their schools of origin if their parents request it. Enrollment cannot be denied because homeless students do not have their school records, immunization records, proof of residency, or other documents. The school district’s liaison for homeless students is expected to be an advocate for them, helping them access available services in the school system and community. The U.S. Department of Education reports that over a million homeless children and youth are enrolled in school (Paulson, 2014).

Video Link 2.4

Watch a video about working with homeless students.

Middle-Class Families Many Americans identify themselves as middle class. It is a category that often includes everyone who works steadily and is not a member of the upper class. It ranges from service workers to well-paid professionals. This group includes white-collar workers who work in offices as secretaries, administrative assistants, and managers. It also includes many blue-collar workers who are involved in manual labor. Middle-class workers generally have greater job security and better fringe benefits than low-income workers. However, many families live from paycheck to paycheck, not earning enough to accumulate wealth. Both parents often work to make ends meet.

The number of African Americans and Latinos who are in the middle class has increased over the past five decades, but whites and Asian Americans have disproportionately high representation in this group. The upper middle class usually has high educational expectations for its children, expecting them to attend college or receive training after they finish high school. The parents are more likely to be involved with schools and their children’s education than low-income families.

Many students identify themselves as middle class, which generally means that one or both of their parents are working and their family is buying a home. © iStock/Justin Horrocks Families with higher incomes can choose to send their children to private schools or contribute to school funds to pay for art, music, and additional teachers. They not only have computers at home but also ensure that their children have access to the latest technology. When their children are not

learning at the level expected, they hire tutors. Their children participate in enrichment activities such as academic summer camps when they are not in school. Income provides the advantages to ensure that the children of higher-income families are able to achieve at high academic levels and attend college.

Providing Equity in Schools Most students who live in poverty have learned how to live in a world that is not imaginable to most middle-class students or teachers. However, their knowledge and skills do not always fit into the middle-class orientation of schools. Students should see ordinary working people as valued members of society. They should see low-income families as valued, contributing members of the school community, rather than as second-class citizens who are not expected to be involved in their children’s education. Schools that are serious about providing an equitable education to all of their students develop instructional strategies to eliminate the achievement gap between students from low-income and affluent families. Collaborating with other teachers can contribute to ensuring that your students are performing at high levels. At Brent Elementary School, Ms. Maschari reports that she and the other third-grade teachers work closely together for this purpose. She uses much peer-to-peer work, assigning students to groups that are gender and economically diverse so that they can support and assist each other.

Teacher Expectations Sociologists have documented the classification and segregation of students based on their class and race beginning in their first days in school. Most teachers can quickly identify the cultural capital that students bring to school. At the same time, many teachers develop expectations for their students’ behavior and academic achievement. Often unknowingly, they then develop instruction and interactions with their students that ensure they will behave as the teachers expect—a phenomenon called the self-fulfilling prophecy.

If a teacher’s goal is to spend extra time with students who are struggling with academics with the goal of ensuring that they develop the academic skills necessary to move to the next grade, a grouping strategy might be successful. The problem is that too often students identified as having lower academic ability at the beginning of the year end the school year with little improvement in their skills, just as the teacher had projected early in the year. Unfortunately, their lack of academic growth during that year usually follows them throughout their school career. When teachers make such judgments about students based primarily on their social class status, they are preventing them from having an equal opportunity for academic achievement. In these cases, a teacher’s expectations for student achievement lead to the confirmation of the selffulfilling prophecy. The practice is not congruent with the democratic belief that all students deserve an equal education. One of the joys of teaching is to overcome the odds against students whose families are low income by guiding them to academic performance at the same level as their more affluent peers. You will need to expect all of your students to meet rigorous academic requirements regardless of the income of their families. If you require less of low-income students, they may think that you don’t think they are as capable as the other students (Nieto, 2008).

Teachers’ Lounge Students Don’t Care What You Know Until They Know That You Care

© Peter Eley. It has been my experience while teaching middle and high school that students from diverse groups do not care what you have to say until they know that you care. Teaching is getting students to do what you want them to do while having them think it is their idea, because everybody loves their own ideas. Which takes me into my experience I had with two of my middle school students in Henderson, North Carolina. Teaching math to students when it is not their favorite subject can be a bit of a task. I had one student in particular who was having problems, and I tutored him after school. We began to develop a student–mentor relationship that was of significant importance because the student lacked any male guidance. His family welcomed my relationship with the student. As a result, I was granted permission to take the student and his brother for an afternoon out on

the town. We went to the movies and had dinner in a nice restaurant and spent time enjoying each other’s company at my expense. At the time this did not seem to be a big deal to me; however, it was a huge deal to the students. The students became ambassadors for me at the school and model students. The students realized that I really cared about them and that I wanted the best for them. The new challenge was that every student wanted to go to dinner and a movie with me now. You never know what you may be to a student and what need you fill. When you let them know you care, they will allow you to lead them where they need to go. Peter M. Eley, PhD Fayetteville State University Fayetteville, North Carolina

Deeper Look 2.2

Read more about teacher expectations.

Tracking Tracking is an educational strategy that separates students for instruction based on their academic abilities. Students may be placed in a specific education track based primarily on their native language or disability. Students may choose or be assigned to a college, vocational, or general track that determines the courses they take. However, these assignments are sometimes based on teachers’ or counselors’ judgments of a student’s future potential. Some students are placed in gifted programs and others in programs that are clearly designed for low-ability students. SES matters in tracking practices. Test scores, which may be used to track students, are more closely correlated to the education level, or social class, of students’ parents than to their academic potential (Burris, Wiley, Welner, & Murphy, 2008). The same pattern applies to placement of students in high-ability classes. Students in high-ability courses and programs are academically challenged with enrichment activities that improve their intellectual and critical-thinking skills. Courses for students classified as low ability are often characterized as uninviting and boring. They include oral recitation and structured written work that are related to low-status knowledge. In addition, many teachers in these classrooms spend more time on administration and discipline than actually teaching the subject matter, keeping students at the lowest level of academic achievement. These students are most likely to be taught by the least qualified and least experienced teachers in a school. Students from low-income families are also disproportionately assigned to low-ability groups. They also are more likely to be classified as mentally challenged than are their classmates from more-affluent families. Tracking has led to the resegregation of students based on race, class, and language into separate programs within the school. White middle-class students are disproportionately represented in gifted and talented programs, while African Americans, Latinos, students from low-income families, and ELLs are the majority of the students in low-ability classrooms and special education programs. Schools could be accused of discriminatory practice in placing these students in low-ability courses and programs because they are

limiting students’ educational opportunities and potential for later occupational and economic success.

Deeper Look 2.3

Read more about the practice of tracking.

What If Students’ Native Languages Are Not English? Language diversity is valued in most countries of the world. The populations of many European, Middle Eastern, and African countries are bilingual or multilingual. In today’s global world, in which many

companies operate internationally, employees who know more than one language and culture can be an asset to the company, especially in its interactions with other nations in the areas of commerce, defense, education, science, and technology. Bilingualism is also an asset for jobs such as hotel clerks, airline attendants, social workers, nurses, teachers, and police officers who may be interacting with individuals who speak little or no English. More than 60 million residents of the United States speak a language other than English at home (Ryan, 2013). Most of them are recent immigrants from countries around the world. Many of their children will be learning English in school. However, only 10% of the foreign-born population speaks no English; 15% speak only English at home. Of those who are bilingual, 56% speak English well or very well (Gambino, Acosta, & Grieco, 2014). Three in five ELLs speak Spanish. Over the past decade, the percentage of Latino students who speak Spanish at home has been declining, while those who speak English fluently has increased to 68%, due in large part to the decline in immigration and the growth in the number of U.S.-born Latinos (Krogstad, Stepler, & Lopez, 2015). Other languages spoken most often at home by ELLs are Chinese, Tagalog, French, Vietnamese, Korean, German, and Arabic (Ryan, 2013). Between 30% and 45% of the population in California, New Jersey, New Mexico, and Texas speak a language other than English at home, as shown in Figure 2.5. Other than Florida, most southern states have a limited number of non-English speakers. Figure 2.5 Percentage of Population Speaking a Language Other Than English at Home, 2013

Source: Population Reference Bureau. (2013). People ages 5 and older who speak a language other than English at home (5-year ACS). Washington, DC: Author. Source: Population Reference Bureau. (2013). People ages 5 and older who speak a language other than English at home (5-year ACS). Washington, DC: Author.

Teaching English Language Learners (ELLs) Immigrants come to the United States with different levels of education. Almost as many of the foreign-born population hold bachelor’s degrees as the native population. At the same time, 3 in 10 foreign-born adults do not have a high school diploma—three times as many as the native-born population (U.S. Census Bureau, 2012b). Immigrants come from different socioeconomic levels, some entering the country with limited economic resources and some entering with enough resources to invest or begin a business. Their education credentials and economic status in their home countries may give them the social and cultural capital that makes it easier for them to fit into the dominant society (Kubota & Lin, 2009).

The children in immigrant families also have different educational experiences. Some have never been in school and know no English. Metropolitan areas with large numbers of immigrant students may have established special schools or newcomer programs for those students to learn English and something about U.S. culture. Other children have strong educational backgrounds and are fluent in English. Some families work hard to retain the native language from one generation to another, using their native language at home or sending their children to classes to learn their language and culture. They are helped in this process when they live in communities that value bilingualism.

More and more classrooms across the country include students who are foreign born or who have one or more foreign-born parents. A large number of students are Latino or Asian American. © iStock/bonnie jacobs

Bilingual Education

Programs for ELLs vary across school districts, with differences often based on the desires of the immigrant families or politics of the area. Bilingual education, which uses students’ native languages and English in instruction, is the most controversial because it values the native language and supports its use in school. Bilingual programs require teachers or teachers’ aides who speak the native language to ensure students are understanding concepts and developing academic skills while they learn English. The goal of two-way immersion, two-way bilingual, or duallanguage programs is students’ development of strong skills and proficiency in both the home language and English. Students may stay in these programs throughout elementary school (National Clearinghouse for English Language Acquisition [NCELA], 2011). Other programs that focus on students developing literacy in two languages include developmental bilingual or maintenance bilingual education programs. Instruction in these programs is in the home language in the lower grades. Although these students are gradually moved into Englishonly classrooms, they continue to receive support for their language development. Transitional bilingual programs also use the home language for teaching at the beginning of a student’s experience in schools, but the goal is to move students quickly into English-only classrooms (NCELA, 2011). Two other programs are designed to support literacy in two languages. The heritage language and indigenous language programs provide assistance to ELLs with weak literacy skills in their home languages. The indigenous language program supports endangered languages and is used in American Indian, Native Hawaiian, and Native Alaskan communities (NCELA, 2011). Immersion classrooms use both the home language and English for instruction with the goal of students becoming bilingual. Students in developmental or maintenance bilingual programs share the same native language. In two-way immersion and two-way bilingual programs, Englishspeaking students are learning a second language while ELLs are learning English. Some school districts offer other immersion programs in

elementary schools for English speakers to learn and use a second language such as Chinese, French, or Spanish.

Deeper Look 2.4

Read more about ELL approaches.

Understanding and Using Evidence Making a Choice About Where You Teach You are nearly finished with your teacher education program and are ready to look for a teaching job anywhere in the United States. You think you would like to work in an urban area and are interested in knowing whether your diversity knowledge and skills fit with

the population in the school districts you are considering. You find the following table that describes the diversity of the student population in the areas you are considering.

1. Which area of the country has the greatest balance of ethnic and racial diversity? 2. Which area of the country has the fewest students from low-income families? 3. Which area of the country has the largest percentage of English-language learners (ELLs)? 4. Which area of the country would best match your knowledge and skills in diversity? Why?

Video Case 2.2

Bilingual Education 1. What is the role of students’ native language in Mr. Frank’s math class? 2. How does Mr. Frank’s use of Spanish help his students learn math?

English as a Second Language (ESL) English as a second language (ESL) is the most common program used in schools. The home language is not used in ESL; instruction is provided only in English. Sheltered English instruction or content-based ESL programs usually include students from various linguistic and cultural backgrounds in the same class. Visual aids and the home language are used to help students learn English. Students in structured English immersion (SEI) programs are usually all ELLs who are learning English. Other programs for developing English fluency include the pullout ESL or English language development

(ELD) programs. Students are pulled out of the classroom for English instruction that focuses on grammar, vocabulary, and communication skills. In the push-in ESL program, ELLs are in a regular English-only classroom where an ESL teacher or teacher’s aide translates if needed and uses ESL strategies to help students learn the content (NCELA, 2011). Newcomer programs for immigrant students who know limited English use ESL to help students learn English, the content, and the common culture (Short & Boyson, 2012). As the population of the United States becomes more diverse, with larger numbers of people speaking languages other than English, teachers will need to know how to teach ESL. Most universities offer one or more courses on ESL or SEI that could expand your skills and make you more attractive to school districts with growing ELL populations. Speaking a second language that is common in the area in which you plan to teach should also provide you with an advantage when seeking a teaching position.

What Is the Relationship of Gender and Education? Men and women often segregate themselves at social gatherings and participate in gender-specific leisure activities. Most of our friends are probably of the same sex. Boys and girls generally choose different games to play. Sometimes students are segregated by sex in schools or school activities, especially sports. We often hold stereotypical perceptions of ourselves and the other sex. We disproportionately enter different occupations and have access to different financial opportunities. These differences are reflected in what is studied in school, how students interact with each other, and how teachers interact with students. In this section we will explore how education is affected by gender and how teachers can ensure they provide an equitable education for their female and male students.

Differences Between Females and Males

Sex is the term used to identify an individual as male or female based on biological differences, while gender is used for the behavioral, cultural, and psychological traits typically associated with one sex. Physical differences between males and females can usually be determined by appearance alone. Before age eight, boys and girls have similar hormonal levels and similar physical development. During puberty, hormonal levels of estrogen and testosterone change; these hormones control the physical development of the two sexes. However, physical differences between the sexes, such as upper body strength, can be altered with good nutrition, physical activity, practice, and different behavioral expectations (Eliot, 2009).

Teachers see differences in the behavior of most boys and girls in classrooms and on the playground. © iStock/Chris Schmidt Intelligence tests show no differences in the general intelligence between the sexes, but studies have found some gender differences in mathematical, verbal, and spatial skills. Psychologist Michael Gurian, physician Leonard Sax, and other popular writers have been reporting for many years that

differences between boys and girls are due to innate biological differences. They argue that females favor the left hemisphere of the brain associated with intuitiveness and creativeness, while males tend to favor the left, having greater right-hemisphere specialization that supports logical and analytical reasoning and skills. However, neuroscientists have not found these left brain/right brain differences, and they don’t connect the subtle differences that do exist to the differences between males and females (Eliot, 2009; Fine, 2010; Jordan-Young, 2010; Kosslyn & Miller, 2013). Nevertheless, proponents of brain-based differences based on sex have had an influence in schools. They have argued that teachers who know these hemispheric differences have a better understanding of why boys and girls behave the way they do in classrooms (Eliot, 2009; Fine, 2010; Gurian, 2001). They report that teachers design lessons and organize their classrooms based on the way that girls learn, which they argue leaves boys academically behind their female peers. Other researchers attribute most male and female differences to the environment and socialization patterns learned from their parents, relatives, teachers, and peers (Eliot, 2009; Fine, 2010. Boys generally are more engaged in lessons that support active, project-centered learning (Reichert & Hawley, 2010). They are also more stimulated by movement, requiring more physical space than many activities in which girls generally participate. Girls, on the other hand, are generally more social and prefer working together on learning projects. Schools historically reinforce society’s view of gender. Girls are expected to be feminine and boys to be masculine. In school, girls are expected to be quieter and better behaved than boys. Girls are more likely than boys to be encouraged to break out of their stereotypical modes. Many parents today tell their daughters that they can be whatever they want. They play on sports teams including football, are the leaders in many school activities, and attend college at higher rates than boys. Women and girls may struggle to develop a balance between their femininity and their participation in a masculine world. Young men are generally encouraged to be independent, assertive, leaders, self-reliant, and emotionally stable. They are pushed toward these

characteristics, in part, to prevent them from being labeled gay or a sissy, which could lead to harassment by others. As a result, they sometimes go overboard in proving their masculinity (Kimmel, 2009). The problem is that not all males fit the masculine stereotype: some are empathic and caring, which are commonly recognized as feminine characteristics. Some critics of feminism declare that boys have been harmed by all of the attention on the education of girls and women, which they think has led to the lower participation of young men in college. It is true that some young men are not adjusting well, as shown in the statistics on their high rates of suicide, binge drinking, and steroid use; they are also more likely to be victims of homicide and car crashes. Psychologists do not always agree on the reasons why a number of boys and young men seem to be at risk today. Some argue that boys are programmed for a culturally determined masculine identity with little room for divergence. Ms. Maschari indicated that she has observed over her career that girls and boys begin to segregate in the second grade. “By the third grade, they are definitely segregating themselves by sex in the classroom, in the lunchroom, and at recess. I mix them up for group work. When we line up for different activities, I line them up by birthdays and other factors, but never by sex or gender.”

Video Link 2.5

Watch a clip about ESL teaching strategies.

Delivering an Equitable Education for Girls and Boys Teachers are expected to treat all students equally and to encourage academic excellence in all of their students. Whether a student exhibits masculine or feminine characteristics or both, a teacher has the responsibility to exhibit unconditional positive regard for him or her, to recognize the student’s special talents and needs, and to provide a learning environment that fosters acceptance and understanding. Federal legislation governing elementary and secondary education includes Title IX of the Higher Education Amendment of 1972, which makes it

illegal to treat students differently or separately on the basis of gender. It requires that all programs, activities, and opportunities offered by a school district be available equally to both males and females. No longer can courses, programs, or activities segregate boys and girls. You should be concerned about the academic performance of both boys and girls. You should be asking why so few girls are majoring in computer science and engineering in college, and should be developing strategies for increasing their participation in those fields. The fact that boys are not performing as well on reading tests suggests that new strategies for involving them in reading and language arts may be needed to ensure they are reading at grade level or above. You should wonder why boys are not graduating from high school and not enrolling or finishing college at the same rates as girls. Increasing the graduation rates of young men would be another challenge in which you could become involved when you begin teaching. Engaging in activities that keep young men in school and open academic fields such as science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (called STEM) to more girls and students of color is another way to bring joy to your teaching.

Deeper Look 2.5

Read about gender bias in high school math education.

Challenging Assumptions Myth: Teachers interact with all students in the same way regardless of race and gender.

The Research Drawing on 20 years of fieldwork in 11 elementary classrooms in the Midwest and South, a researcher traced the origins of school experiences for students of different races and gender. She also explored the implications of how teachers and students interacted based on their race, gender, and status. White girls had the most positive interactions with teachers. They received frequent praise from teachers for their good behavior and academic work. In addition, teachers chatted with them about personal issues. For the most part, white girls understood the classroom routine and rules, followed the rules, and focused on the teachers.

Black males, on the other hand, had limited interactions with teachers, and those interactions were almost always negative and initiated by the teacher, not by the boys and young men. Teachers tended to monitor or criticize their behavior or academic work. Black boys were much more likely to interact with their peers than with their teachers. White boys and black girls had a more balanced ratio of interactions with teachers and peers. Their relationships with teachers were cordial, but not as close as those of white girls. The researcher concluded that schools do more to enhance than to diminish gender and race differences among African American girls, white girls, African American boys, and white boys. Although teachers do not appear to consciously intend to support white girls more than other students, such practices help ensure inequality in a classroom. Source: Adapted from Grant, L. (2004). Everyday schooling and the elaboration of racegender stratification. In J. H. Ballantine & J. Z. Spade (Eds.), Schools and society: A sociological approach to education (2nd ed., pp. 296–307). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth/Thomson.

How Is Sexual Orientation Addressed in Schools? Discussions about sexual orientation are no longer hidden in society. Over half of the population now views relationships between same-sex couples as morally acceptable (PewResearchCenter, 2015b), and half supports legal gay marriages (Masci, 2015). However, heterosexism continues to exist when people do not accept the right of others to have a sexual orientation other than heterosexual. This behavior can lead to discriminatory practices and harassment. Nevertheless, the legal recognition of gays and lesbians has increased with the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” which did not allow military personnel to be open about their sexual orientation, and now we have the 2015 Supreme Court ruling that marriage between same-sex couples is constitutional. The support for the equal rights of gays and lesbians has grown as cities, states, and school districts expand their policies on equality to include sexual orientation. Even with these changes, some school districts continue to struggle with how to handle diverse sexual orientations in the curricula and in student clubs. Gays and lesbians may continue to face discrimination in housing, employment, and social institutions in some communities. Heterosexism can result in violence against gays and lesbians, which is still tolerated in many areas of the country and in schools. Society’s prejudices and discriminatory practices result in many gays and lesbians hiding their

sexual orientation and establishing their own social clubs, networks, and communication systems to support one another.

Sexual Identity What is sexual orientation? The American Psychological Association (APA; 2008) defines it as an “enduring pattern of emotional, romantic, and/or sexual attractions to men, women, or both sexes” (p. 1), and further indicates that different sexual orientations are normal forms of human bonding. The sexual orientation of the majority of the population is heterosexual or straight, which has become the norm against which everyone else is measured. In a famous study of the sexual behavior of thousands of white adults in the 1940s and 1950s, Alfred Kinsey reported that 10% of the males and 2% to 6% of the females were homosexual (The Kinsey Institute, n.d.). More-recent data indicate that 3.5% of the population identifies themselves as lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender (Keen, 2011). LGBTQ is a popular term used to identify lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer or questioning individuals. The term gay is sometimes used more generically to refer not only to gay men, but also to lesbians and bisexuals. The Q in LGBTQ refers to queer—a term used to negatively label gays and lesbians in the past, but that is now used by younger people as a political term that rejects assimilation into a heterosexual world. The Q can also mean questioning, to include individuals who are not sure of their sexual orientation (Newton, 2014). Transgender persons identify their gender as different from their biological sex. For example, a man may identify as a woman, or vice versa. Crossdressers, formerly labeled transvestites, are heterosexuals who sometimes dress like the opposite sex. Transsexuals surgically change their bodies through surgery to be like the opposite sex (GLAAD, 2015). It is appropriate to address a transgender student as a member of the sex with which he or she identifies. Many LGBTQ adults report feeling different from their siblings or peers from early in life. By the time they reach puberty, most students begin to feel an attraction to the same, opposite, or both sexes. Most students

struggle with their identity during middle and high school. However, LGBTQ students usually have a more difficult time, especially with their sexual identity. They may question their sexual feelings but are not sure if they are LGBTQ. If they show signs of being LGBTQ, even if they are not, they may be subjecting themselves to harassment or bullying by their classmates. During this period, they may feel isolated and might not know to whom they can turn for information and support, especially when their family will not accept their sexual orientation. LGBTQ students comprise a disproportionate percentage of homeless students on the nation’s streets.

Deeper Look 2.6

Read about educational and psychological inequalities for LGBTQ students.

Audio Link 2.2

Listen to accounts of LGBTQ students.

Supporting Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer or Questioning (LGBTQ) Students “That’s so gay” appears to be a common term in the hallways of schools. It is used as a derogatory term against heterosexual students as well as a reference to students perceived to be lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or queer. This name-calling begins in elementary schools and increases as students move through school, but it appears to be most prevalent in middle schools. In her experiences in four different schools, Kelly Maschari found that students begin to call others “gay” with a negative connotation around

the fourth grade. The teachers at her school use these opportunities to confront these unacceptable behaviors at morning meetings with students. She has also found that her current school is very accepting of LGBTQ parents who are warmly welcomed and who actively participate in school activities. Teachers and other educators can play a very important role in eliminating such harassment and bullying in schools as well as educating students to respect all students. Most LGBTQ students fear for their safety in schools (Kosciw, Greytak, Palmer, & Boesen, 2014). If gays and lesbians openly acknowledge their sexual orientation or appear to be LGBTQ, they are likely to be harassed and face reprisals from peers and, sometimes, from school officials. School structure does not always provide the same kind of support to LGBTQ students as it does to other students. LGBTQ students feel more comfortable and safer in schools when faculty and staff are supportive, LGBTQ people are portrayed in the curricula, gay– straight alliances or similar clubs exist, and a comprehensive policy on harassment is enforced (Kosciw et al., 2014). You may know little about this group and have had few or no contacts with LGBTQ people who are out, or open about their sexual orientation. Without a better understanding of sexual orientation, you may find it difficult to work effectively with LGBTQ students or the children of gay and lesbian parents. However, you always have the responsibility to provide a safe environment for students, which includes intervening when students are harassing their peers because of their sexual orientation, gender identification, sex, or other factors.

How Does Religion Impact the Classroom? Religion has a great influence on the values and lifestyles of families and plays an important role in the socialization of children and young people. Religious doctrines and practices guide how and when one worships, but they also guide beliefs about many aspects of daily life, including the roles of men and women, birth control, child rearing, friendships, and political attitudes. Some religions in the United States also promote patriotism, often displaying the American flag in their places of worship. A religious doctrine can also dictate a family’s expectations for teachers and schools.

When the religious perspectives and school expectations differ, numerous challenges arise for educators.

Religious Diversity The United States has strong Judeo-Christian roots. Some Christians believe that God led the European founders to establish this country as a Christian nation. An increase of Asian and Middle Eastern immigrants after the 1960s made the United States more religiously diverse. Mosques and temples have been built in communities that were formerly all Christian. Most urban and suburban areas are home to numerous religious groups and beliefs. Metropolitan areas may have a number of megachurches with thousands of members and their own schools.

The families of students practice many different religions, including Islam. Educators should be sure they do not discriminate against

students whose families practice a religion with which they are not familiar. © iStock/Juanmonino Seven in ten Americans identify themselves as Christian, with Protestants currently representing 48% of the population. Catholicism grew greatly over the past century as Southern and Eastern Europeans immigrated to the United States, and now makes up one-fifth of the population (PewResearchCenter, 2015a). Within all religious groups are liberal, moderate, and conservative or fundamentalist sects. The fundamentalist groups believe that their holy documents (e.g., the Bible, Qur’an, and Torah) are the actual word of their God that must be followed to the letter of the law. Liberal religions, on the other hand, accept the validity of diverse perspectives that have evolved from different historical experiences. One in four people describes himself or herself as born-again or evangelical (PewResearchCenter, 2015a); these people are sometimes referred to as fundamentalists or the religious right. The religious affiliations of the U.S. population are shown in Figure 2.6. Although Jews, Protestants, and Catholics once were expected to marry only members of their own faith, marriage across those three groups is fairly common today. Time will tell whether the borders against intermarriage with members of non-Western religious groups will also be permeable.

Addressing Religion in Public Schools If you teach in an urban or metropolitan area, you can expect to have students from a number of different religious groups. Even smaller Midwestern and Western towns have had an influx of Asian, African, or Middle Eastern immigrants who are bringing their cultural version of Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism to communities that previously had only a few different Christian denominations. Accommodations will be needed in schools to respect the religious diversity in the community. Christian holidays are already acknowledged through

school holidays and the singing of Christian songs at some school convocations. Jewish students will not attend school during Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. Islamic students will fast during the month of Ramadan and are expected to have daily prayers. Policies that prevent the wearing of a hijab or yarmulke discriminate against Muslim women and Jewish men. School officials could involve the parents of their religious communities in providing professional development about their religious traditions and cultures for educators and providing advice for guaranteeing that the civil rights of their children are not violated. Religion is very important to some families and of little or no importance to others. In some communities religion plays a major role in the lives of families, requiring attendance not only on a specific day but also at services and activities throughout the week. Religious stories reinforce the values of the religion in Sunday school, Bible classes, and other organized religious education programs. Parents in these communities may expect schools to reflect those same values, sometimes enrolling their children in private Catholic, Jewish, Islamic, or Christian schools that reinforce their values and teach their religious doctrine. They may decide to homeschool their children to ensure they are not exposed to values they disapprove of, such as lack of respect for teachers, swearing by students, lack of discipline, and exposure to multiple perspectives. Figure 2.6 Religious Preference in the United States

Source: Adapted from Pew Research Center. (2015). Religious landscape study. Washington, DC: Author. Source: Adapted from Pew Research Center. (2015). Religious landscape study. Washington, DC: Author. Students whose religious beliefs differ from the majority in the community may be ostracized in school and social settings. Jews, atheists, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Pentecostals, Muslims, and Sikhs are among the groups whose members are sometimes shunned and suffer discrimination in the United States. Educators must be careful that their own religious beliefs do not interfere with their ability to provide equal educational opportunities to students whose families are members of other religious groups.

Connecting to the Classroom This chapter has introduced you to the students who will be in your classrooms of the future. We have examined the diversity of their group memberships based on ethnicity, race, socioeconomic level, language, and religion. Below are some key principles for applying the information in this chapter to the classroom. 1. The curricula and instructional strategies should be relevant to the lives of students, drawing on their ethnic, racial, and cultural backgrounds and experiences to help them learn. 2. Teachers should have high academic expectations for all of their students. 3. Schools must provide language programs for English-language learners (ELLs) to assist them in learning English and becoming academically competent. 4. Girls and boys can be taught to develop the skills and behaviors that are usually attributed to the other sex. 5. Teachers should intervene when LGBTQ and other students are being bullied. 6. Teachers should be aware of the religious groups to which their students belong and make appropriate accommodations.

SUMMARY This chapter has explored the diversity of students who will be in your future classroom. Six major topics were addressed: Students come to your classroom with racial and ethnic heritages that should be recognized and integrated into the curricula. Students’ families experience very different levels of affluence that can affect their capacity to access resources that are needed for the students to be successful within a specific school context. In some large cities in the United States numerous languages other than English are spoken across a school district. Attitudes about gender roles and responsibilities run deep in society, and teachers must constantly be careful not to reinforce stereotypes that might inhibit a student’s chance of reaching his or her highest potential. Students whose sexual orientation is not heterosexual are often victims of bullying and do not always feel supported in the school environment. Christianity has historically been valued in school, but today’s student population is becoming increasingly religiously diverse, which can

impact the way some topics such as sexuality are addressed and requires a climate that is supportive of students of all faiths.

Class Discussion Questions 1. The curricula of many schools privileges European American culture and history. How can a teacher ensure that the cultures and histories of other students in their classrooms are incorporated into the curricula? Why should all students know about the cultures and histories of groups other than their own? 2. Over half of K–12 students are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch, indicating that their families have inadequate incomes. What impact does poverty have on the education of students? Should schools be charged with ensuring that the children of lowincome families achieve at the same level as more-affluent students? Why or why not? 3. More than one in five students has one or more foreign-born parents, many of whom speak a language other than English at home. Schools generally use bilingual education or ESL to help students learn English. Which program do you think more effectively serves the need of students and families? Which strategy is more cost-effective for school districts? 4. Females today are attending college at higher rates than males. What are the reasons for this unequal participation in higher education? What could schools do to increase the participation of male students? 5. Many LGBTQ students feel very isolated in schools because teachers, students, and counselors do not understand them and provide little or no support for them. What should be the role of a teacher and other school professionals in supporting the psychological and emotional development of LGBTQ students? 6. Religion can influence what families think should be taught in schools. In some religious communities evolution and sexuality are taboo topics. How will you know how important a role religious groups have in the community in which you are teaching?

Test your understanding of chapter content. Take the practice quiz.

Key Terms achievement gap 49 achievement opportunity 49 Afrocentric curricula 52 adequate yearly progress (AYP) 50 annual measurable objective (AMO) 50

assimilation 64 born-again 66 civil rights 66 color blindness 49 confidence interval 50 cultural capital 56 culture 44 disability 44 equity 71 ethnic studies 52 ethnicity 52 ethnocentric curricula 52 evangelical 66 gender 44 heterosexism 64 indigenous 45 lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer or questioning (LGBTQ) 65 McKinney–Vento Homeless Assistance Act 55 pan-ethnic 45 race 44 racism 46 refugees 47 self-fulfilling prophecy 56 sexual orientation 44 socialization 62 socioeconomic status (SES) 44 stereotype 49 tracking 50

Strengthen your understanding of these key terms with mobile-friendly eFlashcards.

Self-Assessment What Is Your Current Level of Understanding Today’s Students? One of the indicators of understanding is to examine how complex your thinking is when asked questions that require you to use the concepts and facts introduced in this chapter. Answer the following questions as fully as you can. Then use the Complexity of Thinking rubric to self-assess the degree to which you understand and can use the ideas presented in this chapter. 1. How can you bring the cultures of your students into the classroom? 2. What impact does the socioeconomic status (SES) of students’ families have on teachers’ expectations for the academic performance of students? 3. What is the teacher’s responsibility for teaching students who are not authorized to be in the country? 4. How can boys and girls be damaged with education that focuses on the stereotypical roles of females and males? 5. What can teachers do to help eliminate the bullying of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer or questioning (LGBTQ) students? 6. What are some ways in which the religious diversity of a community can impact a school?

Student Study Site

edge.sagepub.com/hall2e Review → Practice → Improve Get the tools you need to sharpen your study skills. Access practice quizzes, eFlashcards, video, and multimedia.

Field Guide for Learning More About... Today’s Students To further increase your understanding about today’s students, do one or more of the following activities.

Chapter 3 Addressing Learners’ Individual Needs

© iStockphoto.com/fotostorm

Questions to Consider 1. In what ways do you think Mrs. Donald sees each student as exceptional? 2. What tips did you pick up about how to teach to all the students in a class? 3. Based on Mrs. Donald’s job interview experience, what did she say that could help you in preparing for your first interview? 4. Mrs. Donald is striving to maintain a balance between being a teacher and having a life outside of school. At this time, how good are you at doing this?

Teacher Interview Brandy Donald

© Brandy Donald

Brandy Donald is in her second year of teaching at Vista Heights Middle School in Saratoga Springs, Utah. She teaches seventh-grade Utah history, including a gifted section. She also teaches a class called Student Success. Q: What is the Student Success class about? A: In Student Success we are catering to the needs of seventh-grade students. There is a huge jump from elementary school, where you have one teacher who knows you, and then you come to seventh grade, where you have to keep track of eight different teachers and keep everything organized. This last summer two other teachers and I collaborated with the counseling department to develop this class. We talk about everything from using a planner, to time management, to testing strategies in different classes. It’s really been an awesome course! Q: As a second-year teacher, how did it come about that you are teaching a gifted class? Typically this assignment is reserved for the most senior teachers. A: It was part of my interview. “If you want the job you will get the endorsement [in the Gifted and Talented program].” In my interview one of the biggest focuses was on how my teaching was related to differentiating. I really like to find ways for every student to be successful, whether they are at the top, or the bottom, or somewhere in between. Q: You are teaching a wide range of students. How do you differentiate your teaching? A: In my instruction I differentiate process in terms of how I deliver the lesson and how I deliver the information, maybe by looking at different styles for presenting the information and by varying it within my class. My hope is that it will connect with one student—that that one student is going to find some way to really tap into our curriculum and the content by my way of presenting it. I like to differentiate product, whether it is an in-class assignment, or through an assessment, so that they can show me what they have learned. I want my students to have an understanding of how history makes a difference in the grand scheme of things. This is hard for seventh graders. So I like to make my assessments very authentic. They tend to be more project based than the more typical paper/pencil test. Q: How do you think about each student being different, or in what ways do you see each student being exceptional? A: Across my classes I have both ends of the spectrum. I think each student comes with a unique set of skills and experiences and things to offer. When I teach, I really want to connect with that. If I just teach to the middle, I am missing a whole lot that is within each student. For example, in my 260 students this year I have 42 with IEPs [Individualized Education Programs]. They have different skills within their IEPs. My job is to find ways to include them in what’s going on in class; it’s important for them to be an active part, rather than excusing them from parts of the lesson. Q: What brings you joy in teaching? A: I am always waiting for the moment when students make a connection to something in their own life. You know, history is interesting. There are a lot of great stories, but my

philosophy in teaching history is that I want to make it matter to my students. When I see students making the connections, that is what makes me happy. Also, you see so many kids that just hate school. I think it really takes making that personal connection with whatever you are doing in class to make them enjoy the class. Q: What advice do you have for future teachers? A: There are going to be moments when you are stressed out. Moments when you are challenged, or you are not quite sure how to handle something. Moments when you might think, “Why am I doing this?” or “Why did I sign up for this job?” You have to go back to that place when you had thought in your head you wanted to become a teacher. Remember what motivated you to pursue this path in the first place. Second, I think it is important that you become involved in your teaching, but you still need to be a well-rounded person. I am still a new teacher, but I tell first-year teachers to try not to take work home every night. In the end you can burn out. You will not be an effective teacher if there is not a place where you are a person outside of being a teacher. For example, I am a runner. I run half marathons. I don’t place: I just do it for fun.

Learning Outcomes After reading this chapter, you should be able to do the following: 1. Summarize both the different ways that students develop and the implications of their individual needs for increasing their learning. 2. Describe at least four ways to distinguish students in terms of their academic ability. 3. Describe the major categories used by schools to identify and categorize students with disabilities. 4. Explain the responsibility school and teachers have to effectively serve students with disabilities. 5. Identify strategies for working with students that are exceptional in other ways, including gifted and talented, struggling, and at risk. 6. Examine implications for teaching and learning that can occur when you see each student as exceptional in his or her own way.

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Introduction What were your thoughts when you first read the title of this chapter? Did you think something like, “Yeah, sure, another simplistic education slogan”? Or did you think something like, “Well, I suppose in some way(s) each student can be thought of as having individual needs”? Thinking about student learning in terms of how each student is unique or exceptional is essential to becoming an exceptional educator. As Mrs. Donald reflected in her interview, exceptional educators use their insights into how each student learns to continually adapt instruction, thereby increasing the learning of all students. Note also that she finds joy in seeing her students make connections between what she is teaching and their lives. As you will

discover toward the middle of this chapter, she also sees the humor in the antics of middle school students. In this chapter we will introduce a variety of ways of viewing each student as being exceptional. Some of these ways come from research, some are based in laws, others are based on characteristics of students, and a few will be drawn from interesting ideas about how to best facilitate all students learning. Keep in mind that these really will be “introductions.” Later on in your teacher education program and as your career unfolds, you will learn more about different ways of seeing each student as exceptional. The key objective for this chapter is to help you begin developing a repertoire of ways to see each student as unique. As you will hear often, teachers are supposed to differentiate instruction. This means customizing your teaching in ways that facilitate learning for each of your students. One important challenge for you will be determining the basis for differentiating. Will you look at only students’ past grades? Will you consider their family backgrounds? Do you think that it makes a difference if the subject is reading, mathematics, or science? What about their performance in your class? Some students will grasp new ideas quickly, and others will struggle. Which indicators will you emphasize as you investigate how each of your students is exceptional?

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Video Link 3.1

Watch a video about differentiated instruction.

Do All Students Develop in the Same Way? Teaching middle school is really funny. I find myself laughing constantly—such a contrast from teaching high school. There are times when middle school students are just goofy! They don’t get what is going on. They fall out of their chairs. I don’t know how teachers could stay in middle school if they didn’t see the humor. —Mrs. Donald

In her interview, Mrs. Donald described some of the behaviors that she sees as characteristic of middle school students. High school teachers and teachers of elementary school will offer different descriptions of how they see students at their level of schooling. Each of these stereotypes will emphasize certain characteristics. However, as with all generalizations, you need to be careful when applying them to individual students. At the same time, to what extent do you think these descriptions of typical students are valid? What these descriptions reflect is a developmental model of how children grow and how they learn. In other words, there are predictable phases and stages to child development that represent another way to see each student as exceptional. In other words, teachers need to adapt instruction in ways that are developmentally appropriate for each student.

Stages of Cognitive Development In your psychology courses you will study different models and theories about how thinking develops as children grow up. Probably the model that you will be most familiar with is that of Jean Piaget. In his model the way children think changes in major ways as they develop, from infancy through adolescence. Two of his main ideas are important to consider here: maturation and activity.

Maturation According to Piaget, the way that thinking changes as a child grows older is genetically programmed. Parents and teachers cannot have much effect on this programming. Providing safety and keeping children healthy are important supports, but the ways children think will develop at the pace that is set biologically.

Deeper Look 3.1

Read more about the cognitive stages of development.

Activity Children learn by interacting with their environment. Infants, for example, are limited in their ability to interact due to not having developed muscular control and having limited eyesight. As their neuromuscular system develops, their interactions with their environment become more dynamic and their thinking changes as a result. As you should recall from your psychology courses, Piaget identifies four stages of cognitive development: sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational, and formal operational. Within each stage, the way in which children reason and think is different. It is important to keep in mind that Piaget sees that all children will go through these four stages in sequence.

They will not skip a stage. Also, there are age ranges associated with each stage.

Sensorimotor Stage (0–2 Years) This is the stage when infants rely on their basic senses to learn. Seeing, hearing, touching, tasting, and smelling are the main sources of information. At the earliest part of this stage infants think of objects as only existing when the object is present. Later on in this stage children are able to purposefully interact with objects in their environment. These are physical interactions. In other words, they can “reach out and touch something.”

Preoperational Stage (2–7 Years) Being able to recall what happened in the past, keeping track of information, and planning for the future are important parts of thinking. These skills have to be learned. These are mental processes, not physical ones. Developing the ability to use words and gestures is part of the preoperational stage. Learning words that represent objects happens during this stage. The tendency is to focus on one element only, such as height and not width. At this stage children’s thinking is mainly self-centered, inasmuch as they often hold the assumption that others feel as they do.

Concrete Operational Stage (7–11 Years) The indicators of students at this stage include their coming to understand that changing the shape of a material still keeps the material the same. They also understand that such changes can be reversed. Another aspect of student thinking at this stage is the ability to classify, such as placing cities within states and states within countries. Furthermore, they can see different ways to classify objects such as by shape or by color.

Formal Operational Stage (11 Years to Adult)

At this stage students continue to have all of the ways of thinking that they developed during the earlier stages. Now they can imagine what might happen. They can do deductive reasoning: “If college graduates earn more money, then I should go to college.” They can think inductively, such as constructing generalizations: “The kids in theater and band are doing things besides going to subject classes.” At this stage they can do what we call “thought experiments”: they can imagine what an action or activity would entail and what would happen if it were to take place.

Human Brain Development There are other developmental models that we could consider. A useful contrast is to turn to the findings from neuroscience research. Not that long ago this area of research had little that teachers could apply in their classrooms. Now, the topic of brain development has significant implications for thinking about teaching and learning. The findings from neuroscience research also represent new ways to see each child as exceptional. The basic metaphor in neuroscience for talking about thinking and learning is called brain architecture. At its simplest, we are talking about how the brain is wired. It turns out that brain architecture is not just a matter of genetics. Researchers have established that characteristics of developing brain architecture in young children are heavily shaped through interactions with the environment and personal experiences. Another basic finding from the studies is that there are certain developmental stages or sensitive periods where certain experiences have specific effects on how the brain develops. With infants, for example, basic sensory, social, and emotional experiences are necessary. Furthermore, at each sensitive period, development of different parts of the brain is more affected. As stated by the Center on the Developing Child, “The basic architecture of the brain is constructed through an ongoing process that begins before birth and continues into adulthood. Early experiences affect the quality of that architecture by establishing either a sturdy or a fragile foundation for all of the learning, health and behavior that follow” (Center on the Developing Child, n.d., p. 1).

Different Neural Circuits Develop at Different Ages Brain architecture is composed of neural circuits. Interestingly, these circuits are organized in hierarchies. In other words, some neural circuits have to be in place before others can develop. Also, the circuits within each hierarchy process certain kinds of information. For example, one hierarchy has the set of circuits for analyzing visual information. Another set of neural circuits processes auditory information. There are other circuits for learning a language, planning next steps, and interpreting emotions. Within each hierarchy those that process lower-level information develop earlier. Again, within the process of brain development there are sensitive periods, and for different parts of the brain these periods come at different ages. In other words, the development of particular neural circuits occurs at different ages. For example, low-level circuits such as analysis of sensory stimuli develop around the time of birth. High-level circuits such as those that process complex information develop much later. The research findings related to brain architecture have been organized around three mental capacities. The first to develop are the neural circuits related to visual and auditory interactions. Second is development of networks related to learning and speaking languages. The third area of learning has to do with higher-order thinking and problem solving. A visual summary of the findings about development of brain architecture in relation to these capacities is presented in Figure 3.1. Notice how significant the early years are for the developing brain. Figure 3.1 Human Brain Development

Source: Charles A. Nelson, University of Minnesota (2000). Source: Charles A. Nelson, University of Minnesota (2000).

Impoverishment Effects Can Be Long Lasting The findings from brain research document that when the environment for early development of the brain is impoverished the effects are long lasting (National Scientific Council on the Developing Child, 2012). When there is not a positive and appropriately stimulating approach to social, cognitive, and language development, neural networks may not develop fully or in the same ways. This risk is especially problematic during the sensitive periods. At those ages, the neural networks are growing even more rapidly. If there is extreme stress, for example, the functioning and architecture of particular neural circuits can be altered. The result can be that the brain does not process basic information as well or as completely. In a hierarchical model, if the foundation is not strong, the higher functions will be less efficient, or perhaps will not work well at all. When limited or incorrect information is being produced at the lower levels, then the higher levels of brain functioning may not receive complete or accurate information. This can result in higher cognitive functions not working efficiently.

The Brain Has Plasticity Contrary to what was thought for a long time, the brain architecture and its neural circuits continue to adapt throughout adulthood. In other words, even when there was not an optimal environment during the sensitive periods, there is a continuing capacity to learn. However, at these later times the experiences have to be customized more carefully and targeted toward the particular neural circuits. Another way to think about this is that the architecture of each student’s brain is exceptional. When teachers strive to address each student’s way of functioning, more learning will be possible. This is not always easy, but teachers most certainly need to understand that learning always is possible and learning can be a lifelong process.

Implications of Developmental Models for Teaching and Learning Hopefully you are seeing some of the similarities across the developmental models. Each has phases. Each has a predictable sequence and assumes that these sequences cannot be skipped. Development is related to chronological age, and development is based in interactions with the environment. Also, there is extensive research behind each model.

Contrary to what many people have believed, the adult brain has the capacity to continue to learn. © iStock/Melhi Often policymakers, administrators, parents, and even some teachers will start pressing for ways to speed up a child’s development. The story is often told that when Piaget was questioned as to how to do that, his response was to label it as “the American question.” Regardless of the developmental model, the experts will state that little can be done to accelerate development. What they will emphasize is that children who have caring, supportive, and rich environments in their early years will be ready for school and will progress well. These developmental perspectives offer important ways for teachers to see each student as exceptional. Each student is developing at his or her own rate based on experience and age. Past experiences affect development, and if those experiences included toxic stresses, such as extreme poverty or

abuse, then the brain architecture will be different (National Scientific Council on the Developing Child, 2012). As a teacher you need to appreciate that your students will bring different cognitive, emotional, and social capabilities to school based on their past experiences. Your task is to understand where each of your students begins and to differentiate your instruction in ways that build from there. Do not assume that any of your students cannot continue to develop. They may be ahead or behind in terms of developmental perspective, but, as the neuroscience findings indicate, our brains have plasticity. It is our task to provide a supportive and rich instructional environment so that each student can continue to develop.

Video Link 3.2

Watch a video about stress and development.

What Are Some Ways of Distinguishing Students in Terms of Academic Ability? Obviously, students can be differentiated based on academics, advanced or not. There are some other ways, for example, I think students can be exceptional socially: Some kids know how to interact with adults. They are great with other kids, and really get along with others. They tend to do well on my group projects. I don’t know if this is recognized at school a lot. Typically, they are expected to sit down, be good, and listen. —Mrs. Donald For better or worse, most teachers probably first think about students being exceptional in terms of their intelligence. They may think of some students as being smarter than others. This really is too simplistic a view. Think about your own academic ability and that of some of your classmates. Some will be better with language arts while others will be better with math or science. Each has strengths in terms of learning certain subjects. There will likely be some other areas where learning is more difficult. Simplistically, we can talk about these differences in terms of intelligence. However, as we describe next, the meaning of the term intelligence is complicated.

Sometimes an effective strategy for increasing learning is to group students with similar interests and assign them a special project. © iStock/nadya Lukic In the past there was a tendency to see intelligence as a single score on a special test. For example, when the authors of this textbook were in school we had to take an intelligence quotient (IQ) test, which was the dominant way at that time of determining a student’s ability to learn. Neither we nor our parents were likely to be informed of the results, but schools would group students based on their IQ scores. We and our parents would speculate about our IQ score based on what we thought of the other students in the same class. Today scholars and teachers consider multiple ways to think about the meaning of intelligence. It can refer to how easy it is for particular students to learn new material. Or it could refer to how much a student knows. Other aspects of intelligence could refer to creativity and problem solving, or one’s ability to be reflective about one’s learning.

Intelligence as One Ability Over the years psychologists have examined intelligence in many ways and in relation to many types of tasks. Those who view intelligence as a single ability refer to it as general intelligence. This ability entails information processing and would be used with all types of cognitive tasks. However, for any particular tasks there will likely be specific abilities, such as language development, memory, and auditory perception. General intelligence as it relates to learning in school is measured with standardized tests. The story of how these tests became a part of our system of education dates back to the early 1900s. The Minister of Public Instruction in Paris wanted to determine a way to identify students early on who would need extra help in their schooling. In response, Alfred Binet developed a battery of tests for students between the ages of 3 and 13. Students’ scores on these tests could then be compared with how well other students of the same age had done. The label of IQ or intelligence quotient was added when the tests were revised at Stanford University, becoming known as the Stanford–Binet Intelligence Scales. IQ then became a comparison of a student’s score with that of others in the student’s age group, with the score of 100 being the average. Interestingly, in its original forms this test was administered orally, rather than by having students read and write. In general, a higher IQ score does correlate with higher achievement in school. Contrary to what you might think, when the number of years of education and IQ scores are compared with accomplishments as an adult, the correlations are not very high. Other abilities can play a major part in success in the real world.

Video Link 3.3

Watch a video to explore the Stanford-Binet IQ test.

Multiple Intelligences (MI) As you can quickly see, the construct of intelligence can be very complicated. More than 70 specific abilities have been identified by research psychologists. For teachers, a more useful approach is the Multiple Intelligences (MI) theory of Howard Gardner. Gardner theorized that there are seven abilities or intelligences (Table 3.1). Each person will have strengths in some abilities and weaknesses in others (Gardner, 2011). Gardner’s theory has not been accepted widely by psychologists. However, teachers can use the seven intelligences as a useful framework for seeing each student as exceptional in one or more ways. Students will vary in the degree of ability they have in each of the seven areas. Just as Mrs. Donald

pointed out in the interview for this chapter, students will not be equally successful in learning if only one, or two, types of instructional strategies are used.

Musical ability is one of Gardner’s multiple intelligences that teachers can use to increase student learning. © Thinkstock images/Comstock/Thinkstock You can begin by thinking about each student in your class and which of the multiple intelligences are their strengths. As Mrs. Donald observed, when she has a class with more bodily/kinesthetic students she needs to make sure to use instruction and assessment strategies that get them up and moving around. There are several simple-to-use tests of MI that can be found easily on the Internet. Several of these are free for you to use, as long as you are not copying them for publication. You will immediately see the logic behind each test question: for example, asking whether you have music going on in

your head, or if you like to be physically active. Two words of caution in regard to these tests: First, there is little research evidence to support their validity, and second, the responses are simple ratings along a continuum, from low to high. In your teaching, you can more accurately check your students’ intelligences through interviewing and observing them at work and at play.

Deeper Look 3.2

Read more about multiple intelligences.

Video Link 3.4

Watch a video about multiple intelligence theory.

Video Case 3.1

Multiple Intelligences and Instructional Strategies 1. In what ways does Brinden Wohlstattar incorporate kinesthetic learning activities into her instruction? What are the advantages of using these strategies? 2. How does Lisa Sigafoos incorporate visuals into her teaching? What are the benefits of using these strategies?

Implications of Academic Abilities for Learning and Teaching Clearly intelligence and academic ability are important factors for teachers to consider. But be careful not to think about intelligence as one simple idea or score on a test. In terms of Gardner’s multiple intelligences, each of your students will have a different profile. Many will be excellent at speaking

and writing (Verbal/Linguistic), some will be good at understanding mathematics and science (Logical/Mathematical), and others will be fully engaged with music (Musical/Rythmic). Your challenge will be to devise instructional approaches that take advantage of the rich diversity of all your students. Do not teach as your authors regularly find teachers doing: students seated in a block, the teacher standing and talking at the front, short teacher questions followed by right or wrong student answers, and students then completing desk assignments. This might be all right once in a while. Unfortunately, we see too many teachers using only this approach and doing it the same way every day. Exceptional students should have exceptional teachers that take into account student differences.

Understanding and Using Evidence Using Multiple Intelligences to Develop an Instructional Match Although there are criticisms of Howard Gardner’s MI model, it provides a way of thinking about the importance of teachers matching their instructional approach to the different ways that students learn. There are several free questionnaires on the web that can be used with students to determine which of the multiple intelligences they prefer.

Learning Styles of Students in One Class

Part I: Study the data presented in Table A with this question in mind: 1. What do you see as the overall distribution of students in terms of their learning styles?

Do not read farther until you have developed your answer to the question.

Part II: Read the rest of this feature only after you have developed your analysis of the MI distribution in Table A. One way to summarize the student information is to count how many of the students had high and low scores for each intelligence. For example, in Table B, how many students scored high (4 or 5) and how many students scored low (1 or 2) on each intelligence?

Matching Instruction to MI The underlying importance of using the MI model is to have teachers think more carefully about the extent to which their instructional strategies match up with their students’ learning styles. When there is a match, there should be greater learning. Now that you have studied the students in Table A, consider the following questions. 1. In developing several weeks of instruction, which styles would you want to strive to match more and which less? 2. What instructional strategies would you use to have a greater match? Do not read farther until you have developed your answer to these questions. *********************

Matching Instruction to MI Scores One place to start your lesson planning would be to look for those intelligences where the students scored lowest. Of the eight students, six scored lowest on Musical/Rythmic and Intrapersonal, which would strongly suggest that matching instruction to these intelligences would be less likely to be successful. Five students scored highest on Verbal/Linguistic and four scored highest on Visual/Spatial. Having lessons that are based in reading, writing, and talking would match up. In this case, having students active and moving around would seem to be less important. Another important consideration is the subject being taught. These students would be ready for language arts and English classes. However, if these students were in a math class, there would likely be difficulties since only one indicated that she was Logical/Mathematical. It would be very important to take advantage of the higher scores on Visual/Spatial by using many manipulatives, charts, diagrams, and pictures.

This discussion is only meant to be illustrative. In your teaching it will be important to be aware not only of how your students score in terms of intelligences, but also how you score. For example, for the students presented here, if you are predominantly Logical/Mathematical you would need to be careful not to have your main approach to instruction always be based in this intelligence.

Who Are Students With Disabilities? In my 260 students this year, I have 42 with IEPs [Individualized Education Programs] in my general classes. Kind of a lot to deal with. They have different skills within their IEPs. Finding ways to include them in what’s going on in class and for them to be an active part of it, rather than excusing them from parts of it. I think that something that is best practice for IEP students is best practice for all students. So, I really try to teach with that in mind. I am not just making sure they get into the lesson: I am trying to make it the best for all students. There are students who learn in different ways. I think there are lots of ways they can get to the same results. —Mrs. Donald Thirteen percent of the school population has an identified disability, which is defined as a long-lasting condition such as visual or hearing impairment or a condition that substantially limits basic physical, emotional, or mental activities (National Center for Education Statistics [NCES], 2015). The nation’s Individuals with Disabilities Education Act of 1990 (IDEA), originally enacted by Congress as the Education for All Handicapped Children Act of 1975, was established to make sure that children with disabilities had the opportunity to receive a free and appropriate public education. The law has been revised over the years, with the most recent amendments passed by Congress in December 2004 as the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act (IDEIA). IDEA requires that students with disabilities be educated with regular students whenever possible and in as normal an environment as possible. IDEA guides how

states and school districts provide special education and related services to 6.4 million eligible children between the ages of 3 and 21. All teachers are expected to implement the Individualized Education Program (IEP) for each student with identified disabilities in their classrooms. The IEP is developed by parents, teachers, special educators, and other specialists such as a school psychologist or occupational therapist, and indicates the accommodations and special services that must be provided to that student. IEPs will be updated annually. Providing services to these students usually involves a team of professionals and assistants, depending on the severity of the disability. The special educator may team-teach a class with a regular teacher or serve as a resource teacher who works with students on the development of skills. Students with severe disabilities such as physical conditions that require feeding tubes should be assigned a teaching or health assistant to help provide the necessary accommodations.

Students with disabilities will likely need accommodations at least some of the time. © iStock/huePhotography

Identifying Students With Disabilities You may be asking yourself, “How does a student get identified as needing special education services?” That process is defined in the IDEA and must be carefully followed. First, a teacher or other education professional can refer a student for an evaluation. Often, a student who is not making progress, even after several different strategies have been tried (see the information on Response to Intervention later in this chapter), is referred for an evaluation. A parent who is concerned about his or her child can also request an evaluation verbally or in writing—the school may not do the assessment before the parent has given permission. The evaluation must be completed in a reasonable amount of time after the referral has been made. The child must be assessed in all areas of the suspected disability. For example, a child who may have a visual disability would have the appropriate type of vision assessment. A child who may have a learning disability would take assessments designed to evaluate that disability. Once all the assessments have been completed, a group of professionals along with the child’s parents weigh the results and determine if the child meets the definition of a disability as outlined in IDEA. If the team decides the student meets the criteria, then the student is eligible for special education and related services. Related services refers to services such as speech-language therapy, psychological services, school nurse services, transportation, and/or occupational therapy that are necessary to help a child benefit from special education. Within 30 calendar days after the determination is made, an IEP team must meet to write an IEP team for the child. To do this, a team of educators, related service personnel, and the parents meet. The student can also be a part of this team if appropriate. The team meets at a time agreeable to the parents and to the school and discusses the child’s assessment results, the

child’s progress in school, and any other relevant information. Based on this discussion, the team develops and writes the IEP that includes annual goals for student progress. (See a section later in this chapter for more information about what is included in the IEP.) If the parents do not agree with the IEP, they may go through an appeal process. The school is responsible for making sure that everything listed in the IEP is carried out. The school must measure the child’s progress toward the annual goals and share that information with the parents.

Video Link 3.5

Watch a video about students with disabilities.

Categories of Disability School professionals categorize children with disabilities to determine the most appropriate services for them when they are students. Figure 3.2 shows the number of students being served for the different disabilities. Nearly two in five students receiving special education services have a specific learning disability, which makes it difficult for them to read, write, or compute. The second largest group of students receiving services (about 20%) consists of those with speech or language impairments. This section provides a very brief introduction to the categories with the largest number of students. You should take at least one course during your teacher preparation program to provide an overview of these disabilities and understand the accommodations necessary to help students with disabilities learn.

Learning Disabilities Students with learning disabilities usually comprehend the material being studied, but it takes them more time or they need a different strategy to access the information. The problem is that they can’t understand or use spoken or written language easily, which affects their ability to listen, think, speak, read, write, spell, or do mathematical calculations. These students are in regular classrooms with accommodations, which are purposeful additional supports or adjustments in instruction. Their IEP will specify the accommodations to be used in the classroom and in testing situations. In mathematics, it could allow the student to use a calculator. Student work might be modified with fewer questions or a shorter reading assignment. Extra time may be required to complete an assignment, or the student could be allowed to use a computer for writing assignments.

Speech Impairment Speech impairment is a communication disorder. A student might stutter or be unable to produce certain words or sounds. Some students cannot process language (i.e., they can hear directions but cannot repeat them),

preventing them from following the teacher’s directions for an assignment. Students may be able to comprehend at the same levels as other students, but they may not be able to put their thoughts into words due to difficulties with word retrieval and recall. They may have trouble understanding directional prepositions such as under and above. These students should be receiving support from a speech pathologist. In the regular classroom, teachers may have to allow additional wait time for the student to process the question and to respond to it. Just because these students take extra time for processing or speaking does not mean that they do not comprehend and will not perform well academically. Figure 3.2 Percentage Distribution of Children Ages 3–21 Served Under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA, Part B, by Disability Type: School Year 2012–13)

Source: Kena, G., Aud, S., Johnson, F., Wang, X., Zhang, J., Rathbun, A., Wilkinson-Flicker, S., & Kristapovich, P. (2014). The condition of education 2014 (NCES 2014-083). U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Washington, DC. Note: Deaf-blindness, traumatic brain injury, and visual impairments are not shown because they each account for fewer than 1% of children served under IDEA. Due to categories not shown, details do not sum to total.

Source: Kena, G., Aud, S., Johnson, F., Wang, X., Zhang, J., Rathbun, A., Wilkinson-Flicker, S., & Kristapovich, P. (2014). The condition of education 2014 (NCES 2014-083). U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Washington, DC. Note: Deaf-blindness, traumatic brain injury, and visual impairments are not shown because they each account for fewer than 1% of children served under IDEA. Due to categories not shown, details do not sum to total.

Intellectual Disability Students with this disability have significant problems in cognitive functioning and in using socially appropriate behaviors for their age. The most severely affected of these students participate in life skills classes to prepare them to function independently as adults. The majority of these students are classified as mildly intellectually disabled and spend most of their school time in regular classrooms. The IEPs for these students require work modified to skill level, more repetition of work, and shorter time periods for work, with breaks built into their schedule.

Emotionally Disturbed Students who are emotionally disturbed exhibit behaviors that impact their ability to learn, and that cannot be explained by other intellectual, sensory, or health factors. They have trouble maintaining appropriate interpersonal relationships with their classmates and teachers. They may always be unhappy or depressed. They may develop physical symptoms and fears associated with personal or school problems. The behaviors sometimes manifest themselves in outbursts in the classroom. These students’ behaviors may be evaluated by professionals who may indicate the need for therapy. Many of these students have experienced abuse or family problems, or another traumatic incident that has affected their behavior. Students with severe behavior problems that interfere with their learning

and the learning of their classmates may be removed from classrooms until they are stabilized.

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) Rather than being a narrow set of factors that can be easily classified, the autism label represents a range of factors and variations in intensities that are referred to as a spectrum. Autism is a developmental disorder that appears in the first years of life. Parents may detect something when their two-year-old has difficulties with social interactions and/or with verbal and nonverbal communication. The child may be slow to develop language and may not play with others. Autism is related to abnormal development of the brain. The causes are not understood at this time, although there are some indications that genetic factors are important. Although vaccines are widely talked about, there is no research evidence that they are a cause of autism. An early diagnosis is important, and treatment programs are intensive. If school-age children have atypical irritability or aggression, they may need to take a prescription drug. Teachers need to work closely with parents; if the student is in a treatment program, the teacher needs to be sure to know about it and to use complementary strategies in the classroom.

Teachers’ Lounge Abi Speaks Teaching children puts forth new adventures, delights and challenges every day. Finding and utilizing the best curriculum and instructional materials for children is critical— particularly as they mature and become fixed in their ways and habits. It can indeed be difficult for any of us to learn new material and new ways, but for a child with ASD [autism spectrum disorder] who is functionally nonverbal— the word difficult might well be replaced with impossible.

© Julie J. Conn I teach a class specifically designed for providing intensive instruction to children with ASD. My students exhibit a range of interference with communication, social skills, and academics. Abi, diagnosed with ASD and functionally nonverbal, radiated facial expressions of sheer joy when she saw digital photo stories I created comprised of her classmates’ photos and voices. The digital stories utilized creative photoshopped pictures of the child displayed in a storyboard format. The child recorded the story line (which used words from Abi’s reading vocabulary) over the pictures to produce a digital story that she could view and hear. It is important to understand that the child must be able to speak into the microphone to create these verbal digital stories! At the end of the third year of working on many words with the now 10-year-old Abi, she could see and say (with some interference help) the words horse, a, car, and ball. I upped

the ante to get a few more words from Abi by collecting photos of some of her favorite items and people. I took pictures of Abi, her toy dog Pete, her mother, and a few other animals that had made their way to the class’s show-and-tell (a bunny, a horse, and a skink, which is a type of lizard). This is where I must tell you that Abi’s mother had never heard Abi call her Mom, or any other name, for that matter. The closest Abi had come to saying Mom was an “mmm” sound! We worked day after day on trying to have Abi say the correct word with each picture. I promised Abi she could make a photo story if she would keep working hard to voice out and pronounce the words. Finally, the day came when I thought I could get a controlled voice from Abi! I arranged the photos in no particular order in the digital photo story web tool and sat Abi in front of the microphone. She looked at each picture and excitedly spoke one by one: “me,” “Momma,” “Pete”! The first three words were absolutely beautiful! She continued to do her best to say “bunny,” “horse,” “lizard,” “skink,” and “The End.” We projected the story on the whiteboard screen, and the whole class watched as Abi spoke! Abi watched the children and was excited at their reactions. What an amazing postproduction party we had! Abi went home from school. In the course of the evening she looked at her mother, and said, “Momma.” I know this because her mother, in tears, immediately called to share the historic event! Abi’s mother had waited more than ten years to hear that word! “Never give up the dream.” As a teacher you are charged to find just the right ingredients to make sure each child grows and flourishes! Abi’s photo story can be seen at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w5GNEZRiOmE. Julie J. Conn Exceptional Children Sugarloaf Elementary

Other Disabilities These categories include students who are blind, deaf, deaf/blind, or who have attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), physical impairments, seizure disorders, or cerebral palsy. The number of students in these categories has more than tripled since 1991 (NCES, 2014). This growth may be due to the greater move toward inclusion of all students with disabilities in regular classrooms. Another reason may be the increased knowledge and research that have led to more diagnoses of many disabilities, especially ADHD. These students should be part of the regular classroom as much as possible. Students with the most severe disabilities

may receive much of their instruction in a special education classroom and join students without disabilities at lunch and during specials such as music, art, and physical education. The multiple disabilities included in this group are more likely to be determined by medical evidence than by other forms of evaluation.

How Do Schools Serve Students With Disabilities? Students with disabilities will be in your classroom. A critical factor in working with them effectively is to remember that they are more like regular students than unlike them. However, you are likely to have to make accommodations to promote their learning. Some will be challenged to learn quickly, while others will have been formerly identified as having some type of disability. They will have a formal IEP. Students with IEPs may have extra support, such as an aide. There also will be a special education resource teacher with whom you will consult regularly. The school should have special educators available to advise you on the implementation of students’ IEPs. One of the problems is that most schools have not been designed for some of the needed accommodations. Whiteboards are too high and desks too low for students in wheelchairs, and ramps are not always available. Computers, amplification devices, books in Braille, and other educational resources will provide students with disabilities the opportunity to learn at the same level as other students.

Inclusion Inclusion is the integration of students with disabilities into the regular classroom. The goal is to have students with disabilities in regular education as much as possible with as much interaction with the regular teacher as possible. Students with disabilities and without disabilities are in the same class, but they do not always do the same work, depending on the nature and severity of the disability. Teaching and medical assistants may be assigned to work on skills development and accommodations with the students with disabilities in the classroom. Special educators may provide services to the students at defined times during the school day.

About 95% of school-age students with disabilities in 2012–13 were enrolled in regular schools. In full inclusion, students with disabilities and other special needs receive all of their education in the regular classroom; they are never found in segregated settings with only other students with disabilities. In reality, three in five students with disabilities spend most of their school days in regular classrooms, receiving special instruction or services from special educators, a speech-language pathologist, a school nurse, or a school psychologist. Students who are most likely to be placed in segregated classes are students with intellectual disabilities and students with multiple disabilities (NCES, 2015). However, students should not be pulled out of the regular classroom during language arts and mathematics lessons. For example, if students are pulled out during reading instruction to be tutored in reading, they are not getting more reading instruction. Instead, they are receiving alternative reading instruction. Because music, art, and physical education classes also provide the opportunity to develop social skills with students without disabilities, students with disabilities are almost always integrated into these classes. Some people question whether there is a negative impact on general education students when students with disabilities are included in their classrooms. In an analysis of more than 100 research articles focused on this issue, one group of researchers found that in the overwhelming majority of cases (81%), there were either positive or neutral effects for students without disabilities (Kalambouka, Farrell, Dyson, & Kaplan, 2007). In a recent study, Fruth and Woods (2015) found that there was no significant difference in the performance of students without disabilities in inclusive classrooms than in noninclusive environments in reading, science, and social studies. Interestingly, students without disabilities scored significantly higher in noninclusive math classes.

Deeper Look 3.3

Read about preservice teachers’ preparation for inclusion.

Audio Link 3.1

Learn more about inclusion in schools.

Individualized Education Programs (IEPs) Earlier in this chapter we described how students are identified as needing special education services and described the process for developing an IEP. The purpose of an IEP is to set reasonable learning goals for a child, and to clearly state the services that the school district will provide for the child. Because it is individualized, each IEP is unique, but all IEPs contain certain types of information, including (but not limited to) the following: The child’s present level of educational performance (sometimes called PLOP or PLP). This section describes how the student is performing in school and includes information on districtwide and statewide testing. It explains how the disability impacts the student’s

ability to learn the general education curriculum and handle functional activities such as socializing. Annual goals for the child. Team members decide what they think the child can reasonably accomplish in a year. These goals should be realistic and measurable. The special education and related services to be provided to the child, including supplementary aids and services (such as a communication device or speech therapy). A description of the accommodations or modifications that will be provided to the student. Accommodations are changes in how a child shows what he has learned. Modifications are changes in what is taught to or expected of a student. (For more information about accommodations and modifications, see the next section of this chapter.) How much of the school day the child will be educated separately from nondisabled children or will not participate in extracurricular or other nonacademic activities such as lunch or clubs. IDEA requires participation at the fullest level possible. This is called the least restrictive environment (LRE). How (and if) the child is to participate in statewide and districtwide assessments, including what modifications to tests the child needs. When services and modifications will begin, how often they will be provided, where they will be provided, and how long they will last. How school personnel will measure the child’s progress toward the annual goals and how they will inform parents of their child’s progress. When a student turns 16, the IEP must include a plan for postgraduate transition. The transition plan outlines the services that will be provided to the student to help him or her graduate from high school and achieve post–high school goals. A student’s IEP is reviewed by the IEP team at least once a year, but it can be reviewed more frequently if the parents or school asks for a review. The same process for the initial development of the IEP must be followed when it is reviewed.

At least every three years the child must be reevaluated. This evaluation is often called a triennial, and includes the same kinds of assessments used in the original determination evaluation. The purpose of the triennial is to find out if the child continues to be a “child with a disability,” as defined by IDEA, and what the child’s educational needs are. However, the child must be reevaluated more often if conditions warrant or if the child’s parent or teacher asks for a new evaluation.

Video Link 3.6

Watch a video of an IEP meeting.

Accommodations and Modifications

A critical component of special education is the individualization of instruction to meet the specific needs of each student. Different terms are used to describe changes that may be made—accommodations and modifications are the most commonly used terms to describe ways that instruction may be changed so that children with disabilities can be successful. These terms are often used interchangeably, although there are some differences in their meanings. In general, an accommodation refers to a change that helps a student work around or overcome a disability. The change is in how a child does his or her work at school, not in what is being taught. For example, a student who is deaf may have an interpreter in the classroom, signing so that the student always understands and is a part of what is happening in the classroom. A modification, however, refers to changes in what a student is taught or expected to learn. For example, a modification for a student with a mental impairment could be changing an assignment to make it less demanding and more appropriate for the student’s ability level. Modifications or accommodations are generally made in the following five areas: Scheduling. For example, Giving the student extra time to complete assignments or tests, Allowing the student to take frequent breaks, or Breaking up testing over several days. Setting. For example, Working in a small group, Working one on one with the teacher, Providing special lighting, or Allowing the student to use a separate room or place to study. Materials. For example, Providing audiotaped lectures or books, Giving the student copies of teacher’s lecture notes, or Using large-print books, Braille, or books on CD (digital text). Instruction. For example,

Using more than one way to demonstrate or explain information, Reducing the difficulty of assignments, Reducing the reading level, Using a student/peer tutor, or Providing study guides or review sheets. Student Response. For example, Allowing answers to be given orally or dictated, Using a word processor for written work, Using sign language, a communication device, Braille, or native language if it is not English, or Using a modified answer sheet. What is most important to know about modifications and accommodations is that both are meant to help children improve their learning.

Parental Involvement We know that one of the most effective means of helping students succeed is to engage families in their student’s education. This is even more important when a student has a disability. Parents of students with disabilities must be involved with school professionals in the process of determining the best treatment for their children. Classroom teachers need to work closely with all the parents. In a survey of parents of special education students, parents indicated that, for the most part, they were satisfied with their students’ educational experiences, especially with the special education services received and the efforts made by their schools to keep them informed (Newman, 2005a). Families of most students with disabilities were very involved in supporting their children’s educational development at home, especially through homework support—more so than parents of students without disabilities. Parents’ involvement with the school included attending meetings, parent– teacher conferences, supporting classroom activities, and volunteering. Many families of youths with disabilities hold high expectation for the children’s future success, which has been shown to relate to higher engagement and achievement among these students (Newman, 2005b).

Audio Link 3.2

Hear about parental involvement in schools.

Video Link 3.7

Watch a video about parent and family engagement in education.

Disproportionate Placement Continuing concerns exist about the overidentification of students with disabilities that is based on the students’ ethnicity or family background. For example, students receiving special education services are disproportionately male, African American, Latino, American Indian, English language learners (ELLs), or whites from low-income families (NCES, 2010). Of students in special education, 15% are African American as compared with 6% who are Asian American (NCES, 2014). White and Asian American students are overrepresented in gifted classes (Yoon & Gentry, 2009). Educators should monitor their consideration of making referrals of students to be tested for placement in these classes to be sure

that there is a clear learning need and that there is not an underlying bias of some sort.

Response to Intervention (RTI) When you visit classrooms, it is likely that you will see students performing at different levels; some will be struggling. There will be a variety of reasons—maybe they have had a lot of absences, maybe they have learning difficulties, maybe they are ELLs—and maybe they haven’t had consistent teaching. For whatever reason, they are beginning to fall behind. A strategy called Response to Intervention (RTI) or Response to Instruction (RTI) has been implemented in many schools as a strategy for identifying these students and to help them before they get too far behind. This process can also prevent many of these students from being identified as needing special education services when that is not the case. The RTI process begins with screening of all children in a regular classroom. Interventions are provided to struggling learners at increasing levels of intensity (often called tiers). Progress is carefully monitored and based on individual student response to the intervention. In the earliest or lower tier of RTI, many students who may be having some difficulties will be given small interventions. Most of these students will improve and no other interventions are needed. However, if they don’t show progress, a more intensive set of interventions will be applied. For those small number of students who still do not show progress, additional interventions will be administered. Often, but not always, these will be done through special education services. Although there are many ways to implement RTI in a school and classroom, its purpose is to make sure that each student is evaluated individually, that struggling students are identified early, and that all students receive what they need to be successful in school. We will describe RTI more fully in Chapter 13.

What Are Some of the Most Common Ways of Categorizing Students? Before I got my teaching job at Vista Heights, I was out of a job for a year. History teaching jobs are hard to come by. In the meantime, I got a job doing what they call academic coaching at another junior high. That is where I got to work with students more on a one-on-one basis. If they were failing their classes, I would pull them out. I would help them figure out what it was in their habits or their previous schooling that was preventing them from getting good grades. —Mrs. Donald Another all-too-frequently used strategy for characterizing students is to label them as being representative of a certain stereotypic group: “She should be in the GATE [gifted and talented education] program.” “He is homeless. You know he’s living in a car!” Other students will be labeled as at risk, or as having limited English proficiency, or for having an IEP. All too often these labels are used as rationalization for a student not doing well in school. At the same time, these labels represent another set of categories that can be useful in considering ways that each student is exceptional. Let’s review some of these labels in relation to how they can help us see each student as exceptional.

© Martha Campbell The following is a brief introduction to some of the major categories. Others, such as ELL, have been introduced in other chapters, so we won’t return to them here. As your teaching career unfolds, you will discover that

your colleagues, as well as administrators, researchers, and policymakers, are always creating new stereotypic categories. Be careful not to be trapped into seeing any of these as more than superficial generalizations. In other words, while learning about some of these commonly used categories you need to be mindful of not using them as excuses for why some students are not learning. One of the authors of this text had an experience related to this type of simplistic labeling. While studying implementation of a standards-based approach to teaching mathematics in one of the U.S. Department of Defense school districts (based in Germany), he heard teachers refer to “those Abrahams children.” Several teachers went on to exclaim, “Well, you know those kids can’t learn this way.” Not knowing if these children were from a particular part of Germany, or who they were, the author asked a colleague to explain who/what were Abrahams kids. It turns out that there is a type of armored vehicle that is called the Abrahams tank. Some teachers had decided that the children of the military personnel who worked with these tanks were not as able to learn through a standards-based approach. They were categorized as being less able to learn simply because of the work of their parents.

Socioeconomic Status (SES) as a Way to See Each Student as Exceptional Teachers need to be very careful to not have low academic expectations for students because their families are poor. Although there are identified characteristics of low-, middle-, and high-income families as a group, teachers should be very careful in applying these stereotypes to individual students. From the very first day of their school experience, expectations are set. Too often, for example, the middle- and upper-class kids are expected to go to college. The same expectation is not presented to poor students, or those who have recently arrived from another country. They are not picked to lead groups and are not encouraged to participate in extracurricular activities. It appears to be an unspoken assumption that these students are being prepared to take the jobs that most other people are unwilling to take.

Each student brings a unique set of knowledge and experiences to the classroom that can be used to enrich learning. © iStock/Aldo Murillo At the same time, there are some very real differences in students based on class and culture. The excellent teacher seizes on these differences as keys for helping each student learn, rather than as reasons to discount each student’s potential. This is not meant to say that students will not have deficits: they most certainly will. This is true regardless of class and culture. Students of higher socioeconomic status (SES) will have learning challenges, as will students from lower SES. It is the job of the teacher to identify needs, deficits, and keys to learning for each student and to address these in ways that lead to each student learning the most. Several of the themes about differences based in social class and culture are highlighted next.

Gifted and Talented Education (GATE)

One of the major challenges facing each teacher, school, and community— as well as the nation—is how to enhance learning for the brightest students. In a recent synthesis of surveys of teachers reported by the National Association for Gifted Children (n.d.), the pattern is clear. The more able children are not receiving the learning opportunities they need. Four major themes were identified: 1. Academically advanced students are not a priority at their schools. 2. Curriculum is not appropriately challenging for advanced students. 3. Teachers are not trained to meet the needs of advanced students. 4. There is a lack of accountability and reporting. Responses to some of the survey items illustrate the seriousness of the problem. For example, “Seventy-seven percent of teachers agree that getting underachieving students to reach proficiency has become so important that the needs of advanced students take a back seat.” This condition is likely a direct consequence of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (2002), which focused schools singularly on bringing up the test scores of low-achieving students. Schools were not sanctioned if the performance of students at grade level did not increase. Only 10% of teachers report that “advanced students are likely to be taught with curriculum and instruction specially designed for their abilities.” Here is another opportunity for you as a teacher to have joy in your teaching. Be sure to implement instructional approaches that engage and challenge the gifted students in your class. What do you think happens when gifted students are not challenged? Surprisingly, many of them drop out of school. Researchers have identified several predictors for gifted student dropout (Landis & Reschly, 2013). Study the Challenging Assumptions box to learn about the findings from these studies.

Video Link 3.8

Watch a video about gifted and talented students.

Challenging Assumptions Are gifted students at less risk of dropping out?

The Assumption Much has been written about the risk of students from lower SES backgrounds dropping out of school. They have more limited vocabulary. They are likely to have less support from family members. Expectations will be lower about the possibility of their going to college. Gifted students certainly are smart enough to do well in school, so it would seem that they are less likely to drop out. Of those that do drop out, are their reasons the same or different from the reasons for the less academically able? Researchers have identified some common experiences of gifted students who later drop out of school (Landis & Reschley, 2013). These students report being bored in school; they are often put in classes that are not challenging and filled with busy work that is

“intellectually insulting.” They report they sleep in class, do a poor job on homework and class assignments, and are likely to skip class and have higher absentee rates. It is not surprising that these students also have more behavior problems and spend time with other students who drop out, and who use illegal drugs and alcohol. Many students feel as if they don’t fit in at school.

Implications The first very important implication for teachers is to not assume that just because one of your students is bright, she or he will not be at risk of dropping out. In some ways the indicators of being at risk that have been identified for regular students seem to apply for gifted students. Developing supportive relationships, knowing family backgrounds, and establishing a classroom climate that is safe will be effective for all of your students. Source: Landis, R., & Reschly, A. (2013). Reexamining gifted underachievement and dropout through the lens of student engagement. Journal for the Education of the Gifted, 36(2), 220–249.

Struggling Students Students have so many things they are dealing with. Maybe sometimes I know, maybe sometimes I don’t. When students are having trouble at school, it is not always due to academics. There could be a lot of other things going on in their lives. If teachers don’t recognize that, or don’t think about that, it is almost a disservice to their students. They are people too. Yes, they are kids, but they are also people. They have emotions, feelings, and things they have to deal with. —Mrs. Donald There will be times as a teacher when you will have a student who should be learning, but is not. This can be perplexing and frustrating. Based on what the student has done in the past, you are certain that she or he should be doing well now, but something has changed. Students can be struggling for many reasons. If adjusting instruction doesn’t work, then you need to look farther afield.

Some students struggle due to not having the required prior knowledge. Students who are new to the school, or new to your classroom, may not know how things are done here and struggle. In other cases a family situation such as a parent losing a job can be a cause. Students from lowincome families may struggle not only because they are poor, but perhaps also because they are being pressured by fellow students from more economically well-off families. At some time most students will struggle. When you detect that a student is struggling, you should strive to find out what’s going on.

All students will struggle at times. Teachers need to be ready to reach out with support and encouragement. © iStock/monkeybusinessimages Effective teachers believe that all students can learn and do not give up on students. You will have to be careful not to stereotype the academic ability of students based on their race, SES, gender, or the presence of a disability.

At the same time there are some very real differences in the experiences of students based on the gaps in the opportunities they have been provided. A good teacher seizes on these differences as keys to helping each student learn, rather than as levers that discount a student’s potential. Most students will face some academic or other challenges as they progress through school regardless of their cultural memberships. It is the job of the teacher to know when students are struggling and to intervene as soon as possible to help them get back on track.

The Importance of Vocabulary A major theme in neuroscience is the critical importance of the first five years in a child’s development (see Figure 3.1). Researchers in other fields have identified related patterns that are important indicators of a child’s cognitive development that also are indicators of their readiness for school. One of the most important of these is vocabulary. The findings from studies about the size of vocabulary of young children are summarized in Table 3.2. The overall patterns and themes that emerge from these studies are profound. Children in extreme poverty families are exposed to significantly fewer words than are children in working-class families. The number of words heard doubles again for children in professional-class families. Keep in mind that these studies are for groups of children. The findings may, or may not, apply to each of the students you teach, even if they fall in a particular economic category. Look at the last column in Table 3.2. The accumulating effect is that across the first four years of life, children from higher economic classes generally hear millions of words more than their peers from low-income families. This is a characteristic of how each of your students is exceptional that requires you to develop in-depth understanding about how best to design instruction. Please keep in mind that the implications of these differences apply all the way through high school. It is not only teachers in elementary schools who need to consider size of vocabulary. Secondary teachers also need to be aware of differences in vocabulary size and be sure to address development of academic vocabulary within each lesson. Based on these data, one important question is, “What could society and educators do to

dramatically increase the vocabulary of students who have not had opportunities to develop the vocabulary that is necessary for academic success in schools and the economy?” Take a close look at Table 3.2. The significant differences in the quantity of words heard is not the only pattern in the data. Depending on family economic status, there are significant differences in what is said to children. Distinctions are made between affirmations—offering positive comments and supports—and prohibitions—that is, rebukes, or telling the child not to do something. Notice how the proportions of affirmations and prohibitions change across the three family statuses. The quantity changes, but the real significance is that the ratio changes—prohibitions are a relatively small proportion of the words heard by children in the professional families. We need to ensure these patterns do not continue in our interactions with students in classrooms.

Source: Adapted from tables in University of Oregon. (n.d.). Big ideas in beginning reading. Center on Teaching and Learning, University of Oregon, Eugene. You might think that even if some students begin school with a more limited vocabulary they will catch up. Unfortunately, the vocabulary gap based on family status does not shrink as students move through elementary school. Instead it increases. It is estimated that a child’s vocabulary doubles between grades 3 and 7. The problem is that if some third-grade students begin the year with a vocabulary size that is half of that of others, doubling it does not lead to their catching up. Instead, they are falling farther behind.

An obvious implication from the data presented in Table 3.2 is that you will need to be cautious in making predictions about the size and type of vocabulary your students will bring to your classroom. Regardless of family status, your students will each have heard a different quantity of words. They also will have heard words of different quality. It will be very important for you to estimate the size of vocabulary each of your students brings to class. Those of you who plan to teach in middle and high school cannot escape the vocabulary gap and its consequences. Students who leave elementary school with half the size of vocabulary of their peers will most certainly have trouble keeping up when they are in high school. Without adequate vocabulary size, students cannot solve mathematics problems, read literature, or engage in safe science laboratory investigations. All teachers need to post key vocabulary for each lesson and need to continually work on reducing the vocabulary gap. Here is an example of a successful strategy used by one high school: One year in a high school in Douglas County, Colorado, all of the teachers agreed to work together on increasing the vocabulary size of all their students. A list of words was established for each week, and all the teachers engaged in helping students understand and use the words. They did this because the previous year students scored lower on the verbal part of the SAT than the staff thought they should. What do you think happened? Yes, the following year SAT verbal scores were up.

Audio Link 3.3

Learn more about programs for underachieving students.

Video Case 3.2

Addressing Learners’ Individual Needs 1. Make a list of at least 20 different strategies these teachers identified for addressing all learners. 2. What are indicators of understanding these teachers look for in their students? 3. What can teachers learn from parents that will help their students learn?

Video Link 3.9

Watch a video about the vocabulary gap.

Students at Risk Another major grouping of students is those who are at risk. Behind the label is the suggestion that for one reason or another these are students who may fall behind in learning, have fallen behind, and/or are at risk of dropping out of school. For you as a teacher, this is another way that some of your students may be exceptional: they are at risk of dropping out. The reasons come right back to the ways outlined in this chapter and the importance of seeing each student as exceptional. For example, students from low-income families are more likely to be at risk. Students who move a lot and do not stay in one school are at risk. Students in schools where there is not physical and/or cultural safety are at risk. Very bright students

may be bored with the level of assignments. Family issues, threats in their communities, missing meals, and health problems also can place students at risk. A key time of risk is when there are transitions from one school to the next. The move from elementary school to junior high/middle school is a risky time, as is the transition to high school. One of the authors was working with a high school in California that was able to identify 108 students who disappeared between the spring of eighth grade and the following fall’s beginning of ninth grade. No one had any idea what had happened to those students. This anecdote illustrates a related major concern: the high school graduation rate. Depending on which statistic is used, across the United States one-third or more of the students who begin high school fail to graduate. However, do not assume that only secondary teachers are responsible for preventing kids from dropping out. As you will read here, it is in the elementary and middle school years where much of the problem begins.

Dropping Out: Early Warning Indicators Many opinions are offered to explain why the graduation rate is not increasing, and many solutions are proposed for fixing the problem. Most of these address some characteristic of schools (“High schools are too large”), blame someone else (“Well, if they had learned to read in elementary school we wouldn’t have this problem”), or advocate a particular solution (e.g., small learning communities, homeschooling, more/less technology). The contributing factors can be different for each student; however, for students in general there are several predictors that you should keep in mind.

Sixth-Grade Students at Risk. Researchers at Johns Hopkins University have identified four indicators that predict a student’s potential to not graduate on time. The study was done by examining the records of students in the Philadelphia public schools. The

records of the students were studied from the time they were in sixth grade until one year after high school graduation (Neild & Balfanz, 2006). The researchers identified four indicators that if in place for sixth-grade students would likely lead to their not graduating from high school on time: Attending school 80% or less of the time Receiving a poor final behavior mark Failing math Failing English You might think that students would need to score poorly on a combination of these four indicators to be at risk. However, the researchers concluded that a sixth-grade student with any one of the four indicators has only a 10% to 20% chance of graduating high school with his or her peers.

Deeper Look 3.4

Read about factors related to students dropping out of high school.

High School Students at Risk. Recent research shows that ninth grade is a make-or-break year—as stated earlier, this is an important transition year. More students fail ninth grade than any other grade in high school, and the students who are held back are more likely to drop out. Research in large urban school districts has shown that there are two powerful indicators of whether a student will complete high school (Heppen & Therriault, 2009). The first is course performance, including course credits earned and course grades. For example, first-year high school students in Chicago Public Schools are considered on track if they earn at least five full-year course credits and earn no more than one F in one semester in a core course. On-track students are more than three and

a half times more likely than students who are off track to graduate from high school in four years. The second most powerful indicator is attendance rate. Even moderate levels of absences (one to two weeks in the first semester of high school) were associated with lower rates of high school graduation. The biggest risk factor for failing ninth grade is the number of absences during the first 30 days of high school (Heppen & Therriault, 2009).

First-Grade Students at Risk. Identification of indicators of students at risk of dropping out are now being identified as early as the end of first grade. For example, the Montgomery County (Maryland) school district has examined data related to students who were in the district’s schools from first grade to high school graduation. For the class of 2011, they identified 523 students who had dropped out (West, 2013). They identified four indicators: Overall GPA of 1.2 (a grade of D) Below-grade level in reading and/or math Suspended one or more times (in or out of school) Absent from a class three or more times Keep in mind that these are data from a more-affluent school district. In schools with more poverty, more ELL students, and fewer school and community resources, each of these factors is likely to be even more impactful. An important implication is that as early as first grade, teachers have a responsibility to be sensitive to the risks of their students dropping out in the future. Reducing the risk of students dropping out is not something that can be left solely to high school teachers and administrators.

District and State Early Warning Systems. A number of states, as well as many schools and school districts, are now tracking these kinds of indicators to develop an early warning system to identify students who are at risk of dropping out. With this information,

teachers and administrators hopefully can intervene in effective ways to make it more likely that all students will graduate from school.

Twice Exceptional (2e) Yes, there are many factors and categories that teachers can use to see each of their students as exceptional individuals. In Chapter 2 and throughout this chapter, concepts, models, indicators, and research findings have been introduced for seeing each student as an individual. More than likely each student represents a unique combination of these factors and categories. One such case is the student who is gifted in one area, such as mathematics, and at the same time is behind in reading, or can’t sit still. These students are twice exceptional or 2e. They are academically able in some areas, and they also have an identifiable disability. Often teachers fail to understand that just because Sarah is quick to understand a science concept doesn’t mean that she can easily manage her attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

What Implications for Teaching and Learning Arise From Seeing Each Student as Exceptional? The concepts, descriptions, and study findings we’ve discussed in this chapter make it clear that students can be exceptional in many different ways. Each of these descriptions and categories can be helpful guides for teachers to teach in ways that greatly increase student learning. At the same time, overuse of labels and making simplistic generalizations can be harmful. We always need to keep in mind that generalities will not nicely fit each individual student. For example, gifted students can be at risk, and ELL students can excel. There are many possible factors that can contribute to each student succeeding or failing to achieve at grade level and with each subject. Also, just because a student is experiencing one or more of the risk factors does not guarantee she or he will be a failure. You as the teacher will be making the difference. You as a teacher need to use all of the indicators, possible disabilities, SES, GATE, performance in earlier grades, and your own observations and assessments to identify the

different ways that each student is exceptional. Regardless of their entering profile, it is your job to devise ways to match instruction with each student’s ways of learning. Outstanding teachers will be aware of each student’s potential, as well as any at-risk indicators. They will use all of these concepts and insights as information to help construct a classroom learning environment that is safe and centered on everyone’s learning. One way to think about your classroom is to consider its climate (Thapa et al., 2013). Climate studies measure the practices and norms. For example, are there many specific rules for students to follow, or do students have more autonomy? Are there consistent applications of rules, or is there very relaxed interpretation of rules and expectations? A related term for describing the overall feel of a classroom or school is culture.

Culture of the Classroom Each classroom has its own feel. Even a quick walk-through leaves an impression of the role of students and teachers, and what is important in this classroom and the school. What is displayed on the bulletin boards, the seating arrangement, the sounds, who is talking, and what they are talking about are indicators of the role of students and the importance of learning. These characteristics are related to school and classroom climate.

Indications of What’s Important Some classrooms will be overflowing with posters, charts, bulletin boards, and book displays. Other classrooms will be barren. Before judging these different classrooms, it is important to discover the meaning behind each. One easy starting point for understanding the full classroom is to examine the source of the displays. Are the displays primarily the teacher’s? Or are they primarily the work of the students? The meaning of the fullness will be different depending on the answer to this question. You could also check to see which subject(s) is represented. In elementary schools aspects of language arts most certainly will be on display. But is there equal representation of mathematics? Are there any indications of science or the performing arts?

In many high school classrooms there are apt to be only a few posters or charts on display. Here, too, what about student work? In the science classroom are there clear signs related to lab safety? Are there any symbols to suggest that one content area can be related to another? For example, are there writing activities in physical education, or do English classes connect with mathematics problems?

The Meaning in the Symbols There are many other aspects of classroom culture. Another that is important has to do with norms of student behavior. Is the teacher addressed as Ms., Mr., Mrs., Dr., or by first name? Speaking of symbols, how is the teacher dressed? Jeans and scuffed-up shoes give one meaning. Men wearing ties and women dressing professionally yield a very different meaning. When one of the authors was teaching high school science, all the science teachers wore white lab coats. There could be lots of meanings and interpretations related to this symbol.

Teachers must be vigilant in their monitoring for safety in their classrooms and throughout the school. © Jupiter images/brand X pictures/thinkstock

Important Classroom Characteristics The research related to classroom culture offers some guidance to teachers. As you would expect, certain characteristics of the classroom environment are associated with higher levels of student learning. Classrooms that are perceived to have greater cohesion, clear goals, and less disorganization and conflict are associated with greater student learning (Freiberg, 1999). Interestingly, these characteristics of classroom culture appear to be more important for low-income students, which again points out the interconnectedness of all the factors.

Safe and Caring Classroom Environment Another important consideration for you as a teacher will be safety in your classroom. There are two major components to classroom safety: physical and cultural. Physical safety is about the potential for students (and you as a teacher) to be injured. Accidents can happen at any moment. Teachers need to organize their classrooms in order to prevent injuries. They also need to be prepared to respond if an injury occurs. Begin by checking your classroom for the placement of wastebaskets, electrical cords, uneven carpet, open desk drawers, situations where students might be tempted to climb, stacks that could fall on students, and access to dangerous materials such as scissors. As a teacher you are responsible for the physical safety of your students. There is another type of classroom safety that you may have not thought as much about—cultural safety. Cultural safety is based in the unique background and experiences that each student brings to the classroom. A classroom is culturally safe when each student feels safe in terms of being

who he or she is. There is shared respect, there is learning together, and the teacher and students listen to each other. There are several elements that you can employ in developing cultural safety. One obvious method is to incorporate instructional strategies that reduce language barriers. With so many students coming to school speaking languages other than English, an important step is to use strategies that do not isolate them. Leaving non- or limited-English-speaking students out of instruction has to be avoided. Instead think about strategies that can take advantage of the other language. For example, engage yourself and your students in learning the other language by listing key vocabulary on the board in both languages. Have other students help the limited- English student to understand and accomplish instructional tasks. Other elements to consider in ensuring cultural safety include anticipating and respecting religious differences, holidays, and the many different symbols of respect and disrespect. As you should be aware, in different cultures the same action or symbol can have very different meanings. For example, in some cultures eye-to-eye contact is avoided. In others you do not touch a person with the left hand. In the Chinese culture teachers are held in very high regard. The dates of major holidays will be different. All of these values and related symbols can be important resources for you to help each student learn.

Bullying Can Come in Two Ways Another component of the classroom environment is the many ways that students can be victims of bullying. You probably already have in mind the first way that bullying occurs, which is some threat to physical safety. We have become more aware of incidents such as students hitting and shoving others, and their damaging books and clothing of other students. There also are the unsafe toilet areas and the gang fights after school. However, don’t forget about the other major type of safety—cultural. Students can be bullied based on their clothing, their limited skill in speaking English, or their being “too white” or too much of a “geek.” Jocks

often bully band members, or vice versa. When any of these types of bulling occur, students will feel less safe, and less learning will take place.

Implications of Class and Culture for Teaching and Learning Each of your students in some ways will be exceptional within each of the elements of culture and the various situations that have been introduced in this section. As a teacher you will need to establish ways of respecting these differences while at the same time reflecting on how each can be used as a resource to help each student learn. In other words, as a teacher one of your tasks is to create a learning-centered classroom culture. This means that the students feel safe physically and in terms of their culture. The learningcentered classroom culture is one of respect. In the learning-centered classroom there is a shared belief in the importance of having all students learn. Table 3.3 provides a list of suggestions that you can use to check on the extent to which the culture in your classroom is learning centered.

An Example of Using Student Experience One neat example of linking students’ cultural background to instruction can be seen in the movie Stand and Deliver (Musca & Menéndez, 1988). This movie is about an exceptional high school math teacher, Jaime Escalante. Mr. Escalante was teaching algebra in a high school in East Los Angeles. An important instructional tactic is to use metaphors. In other words, to use something in the students’ background of experiences that can be connected to the content of a lesson. In the movie Mr. Escalante is explaining negative numbers. He uses the metaphor of going to the beach and lifting up a handful of sand. This leaves a hole in the sand, and he has the equivalent amount of sand in his hand. In other words this action illustrates minus one. This metaphor works with these students since there is a cultural match. The students have had related experiences (going to the beach), and it is an accurate representation of the concept being taught. Too often teachers use examples and metaphors that their students have not experienced. One that

may help illustrate the problem of mismatches with you is the platypus. Assuming you have never seen a platypus, how big do you think one is? The size of a medium-sized dog? Bigger still? Or do you think platypuses are very small? Actually they are much smaller than most think, perhaps 12 to 18 inches long. The point here is that you need to carefully select examples and metaphors so that they match the background and knowledge of your students.

Constructing a Learning-Centered Environment Is an Important Challenge Developing a classroom culture that facilitates positive relationships between students and teachers, and between students, is a process. Classrooms that are learning centered have been constructed through the efforts of the teachers and the students. Yes, it begins with the teacher, but it also requires engagement of all the students. As a teacher, you will bring content knowledge and skill in instruction to your classroom. Your students will bring their skills, interests, and aspirations. They also will bring a wealth of experiences as well as their worries. Overall, see each student as

exceptional in his or her own way and set expectations that each student will be a successful learner in your classroom.

CONNECTING TO THE CLASSROOM In this chapter, we described a number of ways to address the individual needs of students. Below are the major topics discussed in this chapter. 1. For all ages the brain is plastic and can change through experience. 2. Teachers should understand that there are multiple ways to think about intelligence. 3. Teachers should be familiar with the different types of disabilities and implications for learning and teaching. 4. The interventions and accommodation for students with disabilities will be critical in helping students with disabilities learn at high levels. 5. Vocabulary development should be a key component of lessons for all students, and especially students from low-income families.

Summary The major theme in this chapter has been the importance of seeing each student as an individual and exceptional in some ways. Key themes follow: Developmental models can be used to see each student as exceptional. Neuroscience is providing ways to understand how the architecture of the brain relates to learning. There are multiple forms of intelligence. Many different categories, labels, and concepts can be used to describe students. Each of your students will represent a unique combination of these categories. Some students will have identified disabilities. Do not use the various concepts and labels to judge students poorly. Use the unique ways each student is exceptional to design and match instruction so that all of your students are learning.

Class Discussion Questions

1. A sampling of the different ways that students can be categorized as exceptional has been introduced in this chapter. Which of these can be used to describe you as an exceptional student? 2. What do you see as implications of the various developmental models for the organization of the curriculum, the design of instruction, and the structure of schools? In other words, are schools and the curriculum organized in ways that reflect what is known about child development? 3. What have you seen teachers do to establish classroom cultures that are physically and culturally safe? 4. What do you see as implications for you as a teacher of the various factors associated with students dropping out of school? What can elementary and secondary school teachers do to compensate for the potential harmful effects of these factors? 5. In this chapter, one of the topics was developing an understanding of the risk factors associated with lower SES families. What do you know/think about possible risk factors that would be more closely associated with students from high SES families?

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Key Terms accommodations 92 activity 78 affirmations 99 at risk 100 brain architecture 79 cultural match 105 cultural safety 104 developmental 77 developmentally appropriate 78 differentiate 77 general intelligence 82 inclusion 90 Individualized Education Program (IEP) intelligence quotient (IQ) 82 learning-centered 104 least restrictive environment (LRE) 92

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maturation 78 modifications 92 multiple intelligences (MI) 82 physical safety 103 prohibitions 99 response to instruction (RTI) 94 response to intervention (RTI) 94 specific abilities 82 stereotypes 77 transitions 100 twice exceptional (2e) 102 values 104 vocabulary gap 99

Strengthen your understanding of these key terms with mobile-friendly eFlashcards.

Self-Assessment What Is Your Current Level of Understanding and Thinking About Addressing Learners’ Individual Needs? One of the indicators of understanding is to examine how complex your thinking is when asked questions that require you to use the concepts and facts introduced in this chapter. Answer the following questions as fully as you can. Then use the Complexity of Thinking rubric to self-assess the degree to which you understand and can use the organization ideas presented in this chapter. 1. Use several of the concepts introduced in this chapter to describe ways that you see yourself as exceptional. How have teachers used, or ignored, these factors in relation to your learning? 2. Risk factors have been identified as strongly predictive of students not graduating from high school. What are implications of these factors for instruction and different levels of schooling? 3. Two developmental models of student learning were introduced in this chapter. What are some of the implications of these with regard to organization of the curriculum and

design of instruction? 4. You can expect that you will have several students in your classroom who have a recognized disability. In order for you to be effective in instruction, what will you need to know about the way each of those students is exceptional?

Student Study Site

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Field Guide for Learning More About... Addressing Learners’ Individual Needs To further increase your understanding of the different ways to see each student as exceptional, engage in the following field activities.