PHARR, Texas -- Decorated nameplates, soda cans and markers littered the tables at Pharr-San Juan-Alamo Southwest High, where— instead of children -- 60 anxious adults sat and noisily completed their assignment.
But all of them—each a new hire at PSJA or IDEA Public Schools suddenly hushed, hands raised, mimicking the group facilitator’s wordless request for silence.
Their attention was of the utmost importance as the inaugural class of the Rio Grande Valley Center for Teaching and Leadership Excellence.
“This is a direct effort to use our local assets to invest in our local assets,” said Audrey Hooks, chief human assets officer at IDEA, a high-performing charter district that has drawn some ire from local school leaders loathe to competition.
“Here we have two districts, with very unique needs, looking to prove best practices in teacher effectiveness,” Hooks said. “If things work for us, and we see commonalities to raise performance in our classrooms, this could probably blossom into something universal.”
Funded by a competitive, $5 million Investing in Innovation grant from the U.S. Department of Education, the RGV center aims to turn every PSJA and IDEA teacher—new and veteran—into a classroom powerhouse.
To do that, the two very different districts have morphed the intensive, five-week training camp developed by Teach for America, or TFA.
But that AmeriCorps-like program has absorbed both praise and criticism for preparing inexperienced teachers outside the traditional halls of colleges of education.
“The spirit of the project is really, truly looking at the individual needs of teachers as rooted in the achievement of their students and providing a host of resources,” like accessible coaches, said Robert Carreon, executive director of TFA RGV.
“Help those teachers be better leaders regardless of if they are trained through the ‘traditional’ route,” he said. “The bottom line is: Are our students learning?”
On top of the enviable federal grant, this partnership garnered financial support from education reform heavyweights like the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Carnegie Corporation and Communities Foundation of Texas.
That’s because the RGV center represents the Valley’s initiation into a national trend for district-charter collaboration since the alternative schools first appeared on the education scene 23 short years ago.
“What you’re seeing is a set of pioneers that say, ‘These (charters) are public schools, and instead of treating them like pariahs, we should be learning from them,”’ said Parker Baxter, who heads the Center on Reinventing Public Education’s district-charter compact project.
Through the Gates Foundation, that project selected nine collaborations—similar to IDEA, PSJA and TFA’s—that attempt to close the achievement gaps of poor and minority students.
“This is the next generation of charter schooling,” Baxter predicted, “a real shift from a district competition model to what you might call this portfolio model.
“What you want is not a great school system, but a great system of schools,” he added.
And that goal is clearly evidenced at the RGV center, where banners and participant-drawn posters declare great teachers are enough to close the achievement gap.
“This is larger than PSJA,” said Leonore Tyler, PSJA’s director of the partnership. “We’re looking to create an entire culture—a Valleywide demand—for great teachers.
“You only see it so spottily in PSJA being such a large district (so) the logistics for expanding will take a lot more planning and time,” Tyler added. “But we need a common language, built from within, of how lesson planning and great education should be done.”
One of 120 teachers in the RGV center’s first cohort, Orlando Rios rubbed his eyes as he stepped outside for a breath of fresh air, taking a brief break during a long session on “backwards planning.”
That technique requires teachers to first set high student goals, create assessments structured specifically to test those targets and then plan a lesson to reach them.
“It’s a lot to absorb,” said Rios, who graduated from the University of Texas-Pan American last fall and begins his teaching career at San Juan Middle School later this month.
“I come from a family of teachers, but this is all new to me,” Rios said. “I would have done everything to hit the ground running. But these are tools I’m much happier to have on Day One.”
Despite having seven years on him, Lynda Soto, a new hire at IDEA’s San Benito campus, shared his sentiment.
“I’ve learned this all from experience,” Soto said, picking up a hefty binder packed with material for the tireless, weeklong training.
“But if I had this in the first year, it would’ve been so helpful,” she said. “If someone invested these five days in me seven years ago, I’d be that much greater a teacher.
“I wouldn’t have had to waste so much time wondering if my kids got it. I would’ve been able to guarantee they already did.”
The new Rio Grande Valley center for Teaching and Leadership Excellence will focus on five primary program areas to ensure a “great teacher in every classroom and great principal in every campus.”
1. Recruitment Selection
Better recruitment and selection models
Teacher for America ,or TFA, supported
Follow up for four years
2. New teachers
Summer NewTeacher Institute
Intense instructional coach support
Modeled off TFA’s summer training
3. Experienced teachers
Clearly define career paths
Institute to address veteran teachers’ needs
4. Teacher leaders
Groom veteran teachers for leadership roles
Develop rigorous leadership selection process
5. Principals/ Asst. principals
Individualize plans for school leaders and their teams
Full-time internship program for promising school leaders
