Reading Apprenticeship: The Value of Teacher Leaders for Program Impact

• In Event: Distributed Leadership to Sustain Literacy Learning for Teachers and Adolescents: Lessons Across Time and Contexts

Abstract

Purpose
High-quality teacher professional learning is known to have five characteristics: content focus, active learning, coherence, sustained duration, and collective participation. However, a downward trend in school district funding and time allocations for teacher PD led this team to develop a blended model. Reading Apprenticeship Across the Disciplines (RAAD) included the first randomized controlled trial of a less time-intensive, cross-disciplinary, blended (live and online) professional development model at the middle school level. It also supported the refinement of new supports for capacity building via teacher leader development and partnerships with regional service providers.

Theoretical Framework
Although there is considerable evidence that the big five characteristics of high-quality teacher professional learning improve instructional practice and learning, other research suggests that other factors the translation of these characteristics into effective instructional practice. Indeed, Desimone (2015) points to the role that school leadership plays in teachers’ willingness and motivation to integrate PD learning into practice.

Methods and Data Sources
Extensive evaluation activities assessed the project’s impact and improve implementation, including: (1) a randomized controlled trial (RCT) to examine teacher practice change (survey data) and student achievement (standardized ELA assessment data; 40-school sample from California, New York, Texas, and Wisconsin); (2) a Formative Assessment study which examined all 500+ schools in all states and included: (a) a case study of a large urban district; (b) surveys of all teachers and focus groups with Teacher Leaders; and (c) an analysis of online professional learning communities designed to support teacher practice over the school year.

Results
The RCT found significant positive impacts on some teacher literacy practices, including modeling of collaboration and differentiated instruction, and that high participation in the PD correlated with high implementation. The formative assessment study found that over 85% of the participating teachers (n = 1,333) rated in-person institutes as effective or highly effective for their learning; online PLCs were less helpful than face-to-face PD. Teacher and student uptake of Reading Apprenticeship practices differed by subject areas. The ELA teachers modified their practice more than STEM teachers. Teacher Leaders had stronger uptake and impact. Teacher Leaders were school site teachers who attended additional PD and built relationships with their school colleagues, one another across school sites, and with their Regional Partner. They participated in about five days additional PD than the average teacher, and the formative assessment work and RCT both found that Teacher Leaders and their students reported more frequent implementation of Reading Apprenticeship routines.

Significance
RAAD’s model of high-quality teacher professional learning illustrates one effective way to support improvements in instructional practice when working within school districts’ current PD landscape. School leaders, in this case, Teacher Leaders, can serve as distributed leaders to support school districts seeking to improve literacy teaching in middle schools.

Authors

• Mary Stump, WestEd

• Jenell Krishnan, WestEd

• Linda D. Friedrich, WestEd