Effective Professional Development

According to a Research Brief found at http://www.rand.org/pubs/research_briefs/RB9526/index1.html traditional teacher qualifications such as years of experience and teacher educational level have little influence on student achievement.

Although I feel we need to consider this research which even supports Dr. Martin Haberman's STAR teacher theory I feel that it is still extremely important that our Esperanza educators continue to grow professionally. After all, who would want to go to a doctor, dentist, or any other professional who was not staying educated on the new state of the art findings. One of the problems in the education field is that teachers are often rewarded--higher pay and/or positions--based only on the fact that they have jumped through the right hoops, not that they have results because of applying what they have learned.

For these reasons we want to be extremely vigilant on how we design professional development for our Esperanza educators and how we reward them.

Words Were All We Had

I finished reading Words Were All We Had by María de la Luz Reyes. The narratives by eleven different Latinos touched my heart as they told how they were able to become biliterate against the odds.

Not only did the stories touch the heart but they also taught some important lessons for us as Esperanza educators and stakeholders. One lesson had to do specificially with the kind of educators our scholars need. It became apparent that a Spanish speaking teacher--even if she/he is Hispanic-- is no guarantee that that teacher will create a child-centered learning environment that is respectful and caring. Even they can exhibit deficit views.

Not only is "authentic caring" crucial for educators, but educators must also be able to challenge these young bilinguals to reach their potential. These are two characteristics an educator cannot fake. Even very young children can "read" a teacher.

The lessons learned from these narratives reinforce Dr. Haberman's STAR educator principles. This is why it is so important we have Esperanza educators who are predisposed to work well with this population whether they are Hispanic/Latino or not.

The Most Powerful Predictor For Success

http://www.deseretnews.com/article/700138197/Teachers-at-top-schools-cite-collaborative-efforts.html?s_cid=fb_share

The above is a link to an article published by the Deseret News on May 23, 2011 about the top ten and lowest ten performing schools in Utah. The schools that performed the worst attributed their scores to high poverty, high mobility, high percentage of minority students (mostly Hispanic), high numbers of students who are English Language Learners. Five of these schools came from the same school district. The Executive of Curriculum and Instruction of this district said that no other district that even comes close to the demographics of their district.

We at Esperanza will be intentionally addressing similar issues because of the population we want to serve. It is extremely important that we not blame the victim which has become an accupational disease of education according to Dr. Martin Haberman in his book Star Teachers: the Ideology and Best Practice of Effective Teachers of Diverse Children and Youth in Poverty.

The most important reason, according to Haberman, that STARs want to learn more about their students' out-of-school lives is they want to make learning more meaningful and relevant rather than a reason as to why they can't teach them. How a teacher explains and thinks about these issues is the most powerful predictor of his/her success in teaching diverse children.