US PREP LEARNING TOUR
-EL PASO, TX-

Learning Tour Objectives: 

• Develop an understanding of the teacher preparation program work at the University of Texas El Paso
• Experience various aspects of the transformed teacher preparation models to include yearlong clinical teaching experiences, partnership/governance meetings, improvements to coursework and instruction, and redesigning college of education roles and responsibilities to ensure all candidates are receiving high-quality training
• Develop an understanding of the strategic staffing initiatives and how districts reallocated funds to support resident stipends
  

November 9, 2021

7:30 - 8:30

Breakfast & Welcome to El Paso - Hotel Paso del Norte,  Black Jack Pershing Ballroom

8:35 - 9:20

Board busses and drive to schools

9:30 - 10:30

Campus Learning Walks to observe residents in action

10:30 - 11:00

Board busses and drive to El Dorado HS

11:10 - 12:15

Observe a Governance Meeting

12:15 - 1:30

Lunch & Partnership Panel: UTEP & Socorro ISD

1:30 - 2:30

Board busses and drive to UTEP

2:45 - 4:10

Choice Breakout sessions (Choose 2)   

Session A: The Site Coordinator, The Glue  Meaningful relationships with PK-12 schools are the cornerstone of our program. For us, that means we need to be visible, we need to be responsive to school district needs and to the needs of our mentor teachers, our teacher candidates, and we need to embed ourselves in the culture of the school. In order to do that, we invest in a position we consider absolutely critical to our success - the Site Coordinator.  Participants will develop an understanding of the role of the Site Coordinator and how this role allows us to prioritize quality programming.   

Session B: Residency Pathways At UTEP, we cohere around a set of quality standards for our teacher preparation program. All candidates will go through a yearlong residency, all candidates will have a selected and trained mentor teacher, all candidates will have a trained site coordinator and all of our district partners will have quarterly governance meetings to ensure the partners have a voice in shaping the teacher preparation program. This session will discuss all of our teacher preparation pathways and how they all ensure candidates have access to high-quality training.   

Session C: Constructing Coherent, Aligned Curriculum through Routine Data Dialogue Structures  As a teacher preparation program, we need to assume professional responsibility for novice teacher performance, but what does this look like in practice? At UTEP, we have scheduled routine opportunities to come together  to engage in data dialogues around teacher candidate performance.  These data dialogues on candidate performance have resulted in changes to our coursework and instruction as we continue to work towards the development of a cohesive and aligned program.   

Session D: Developing and Retaining High-Quality Mentor Teachers  Research points to the importance of high-quality mentors in a teacher preparation program, but how do you achieve this? How do you carefully select mentors and train them so that they are effective coaches of teacher candidates? How do you determine whether they are positively impacting teacher candidate practice? In US PREP, teacher​ ​candidates​ ​work​ ​in​ ​partner​ ​districts​ ​alongside​ ​experienced,​ ​intentionally​ ​selected, and trained mentor​ ​teachers​ ​who​ ​are​ ​committed​ ​to​ ​the​ ​professional​ ​growth​ ​of​ ​their​ ​teacher​ ​candidates.   

Session E: Leading, Scaling, & Sustaining: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly  What are the leadership moves that yielded successful transformation outcomes? How do you budget to sustain the changes? Dean Tanabe will share his story from pilot to scale and the leadership moves he made to support the change efforts.

4:10 - 4:30

Reflection & Closure

4:45 - 5:00

Board busses and return to hotel

5:00 - 7:00

Networking Reception, UTEP Presidential Address, and Dinner - Hotel Paso del Norte,  2nd Floor Mezzanine and Black Jack Pershing Ballroom

November 10, 2021

8:00 - 8:30

Breakfast and Welcome - Hotel Paso del Norte,  Black Jack Pershing Ballroom

8:30 - 9:00

Building the Foundation of Community Engagement and Commitment - Coffee Chat with Amy O’Rourke and Stephanie Otero

9:00 - 9:30

Strategic Staffing with Residents

Why aren’t residencies the standard? Many residency programs offer critical financial support for teacher candidates, but result in the program being so expensive that it can serve only a limited number of candidates. Due to non-sustainable financial models, residencies have proven difficult to scale, which means that district hiring demands cannot be met. In US PREP, coalition members are working to make residencies THE STANDARD. To ensure candidates have access to the residency pathways, educator preparation programs and their district partners are working hand in hand to reallocate school funding to accomplish the following objectives: 

1. Residents will fulfill instructional needs of schools and impact PK-12 students who have been historically underserved
2. Increase access to high-quality resident pathways to build and sustain a strong teacher pipeline
3. Diversify the teacher pipeline through strategic recruitment and preparation of prospective teachers
4. Intentionally scaffold, plan, and develop residents to ensure long-term teacher effectiveness
5. Develop and incentivize highly effective mentor teachers
6. Reallocate existing budgets and roles to sustainably fund paid residents and mentors

9:30 - 9:40

UTEP Case Study: Building Sustainable Teacher Residencies through Strategic Staffing Models Independent Review

9:40 - 10:40

Strategic Staffing in Socorro ISD & Panel 

10:40 - 10:50

Break

10:50 - 11:50

Team Time - Optional TEA TCLAS Breakout Session

11:50 - 12:00

Closure

12:00 - 1:00

Lunch