The following article was selected from the Internet Edition of the Chicago Tribune. To visit the site, point your browser to http://chicagotribune.com/. ----------- Chicago Tribune Article Forwarding---------------- Article forwarded by: Michael Lach Return e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Article URL: http://chicagotribune.com/news/metro/chicago/article/0,2669,ART-49703,FF.html ---Forwarded article---------------- City teachers rate training as ineffective By Michael Martinez Most Chicago Public Schools teachers are being poorly served by the staff development programs designed to make them better educators, according to a study released Tuesday. The report by the Chicago Annenberg Challenge and the Consortium on Chicago School Research found that teacher training here remains "a mixed bag" that is "largely a fragmented and individualistic activity." In Chicago, professional development for teachers is frequently held during an afternoon, typically on a Friday after students are dismissed early, and the principal rounds up the faculty in the school auditorium to hear an expert's lecture—sometimes with teachers grading papers instead. In the study, more than two-thirds of elementary teachers and almost 80 percent of high school teachers surveyed in 1999 found their training sessions to be of minimal, low or moderate quality. That means most teachers said their professional development—which costs tens of millions of dollars a year—lacked key elements to make it effective, such as follow-up and adequate time to evaluate new teaching techniques, the study said. In addition, 48 percent of principals surveyed said a lack of knowledge and skills among teachers were "somewhat of a roadblock" to school improvement, and 16 percent said such a situation was "a serious roadblock." "It is pretty staggering. There is a lot of work to do," the study's lead author, Mark Smylie, said about the teachers' responses, including how roughly a fourth said training had little, if any, professional quality. "There is no doubt that there is some wonderful stuff going on there, but there undoubtedly is a lot of stuff out there that is not very good. One challenge to principals as well as the system is to look at providers of professional development and ensure they provide a high quality experience to teachers," said Smylie, a professor of education at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Added Ken Rolling, executive director of Chicago Annenberg Challenge: "We think the data is serious enough to warrant a very serious look at professional development in Chicago." Chicago school officials disputed some of the study's findings, saying the "moderate" rating given by teachers could also mean average quality and not necessarily bad. Schools chief Paul Vallas offered his own survey of principals conducted by telephone Monday. That survey showed 70 percent of 365 principals surveyed disagreeing with the statement that teachers' lack of knowledge and skills were a major roadblock to their school's improvement. And 60 percent of principals agreed that the system's professional development at their school in the past year was excellent, Vallas said. Vallas added that Smylie's study showed professional development programs improved overall from 1997 to 1999 as more teachers gave the highest rating—about a third of elementary teachers and a fifth of high school teachers in 1999. To the system's credit, the study said teacher training was better in elementary schools on academic probation than those not on probation. That finding, Vallas said, validated Mayor Richard Daley's takeover of the city's 601 schools because schools are placed on probation by the central office. "Here you have a report that concluded you need greater centralization and standardization for better professional development, and the irony of that conclusion is that this report is commissioned by an organization that supports greater decentralization," Vallas said, referring to the consortium. The study urged more training of interactive instruction, which places less emphasis on lecturing and more on discussion, hands-on activities and problem solving. Other consortium studies released Tuesday said the use of interactive instruction instead of traditional didactic teaching has provided bigger test gains even in some of the city's worst schools. Improving teaching will be critical as reading scores in Chicago have flattened out at some age groups, the studies said. -- This is the CPS Science Teacher List. To unsubscribe, send a message to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> For more information: <http://home.sprintmail.com/~mikelach/subscribe.html>. To search the archives: <http://www.mail-archive.com/science%40lists.csi.cps.k12.il.us/>
