Q&A: UC Berkeley prof on teacher collaboration and the future of LA schools
Teachers in charter and pilot Los Angeles public schools collaborate with and trust each other significantly more than teachers in L.A. Unified's traditional large public high schools, according to a new report from University of California researchers.
"There was so much trust and acceptance that teachers eagerly observed each other and gave coaching hints and came up with new ideas and units for kids," said Berkeley professor Bruce Fuller, who leads the L.A. Teacher Ties Project, a joint venture between scholars at Berkeley and UCLA to study teacher stability and motivation in Los Angeles schools. "That’s kind of interesting because there’s lots of controversy over teacher evaluation."
Released last month, the report notes significantly higher feelings of collective responsibility toward students and their school among teachers in charter and pilot schools than teachers in traditional Los Anglees Unified public schools. Charter schools and pilot schools are both managed on site, operating with more independence from central administration.
The project, funded by the Spencer Foundation and theUniversity of California Educational Evaluation Center at UCLA, issued web-based surveys to teachers and administrators in 25 L.A. Unified schools. The roster included 10 charter schools, 10 pilot schools, 2 traditional schools, and 3 so-called Reed schools, where teachers were granted legal protection from layoffs in order to slow turnover in the wake of the settlement of Reed, et. al vs. the Los Angeles Unified School District in 2011. Teachers answered questions about collaboration, motivation, their perception of their school’s cohesion, and named the colleagues they went to for guidance.
Across school types, teachers sought each other out more for advice on how to address students with problems rather than on the practice of teaching itself.
The study found school principals set higher expectations for teacher collaboration, Q&A: UC Berkeley prof on teacher collaboration and the future of LA schools | 89.3 KPCC: