Two years in, and the
CSU Center for Transformational Educator Preparation Programs (CTEPP)
Transformation Lab is hitting its stride. The first cohort that launched the Lab in 2021 is now ready to share with the world what it has learned, where they are focusing their impact, and how they are making a difference. They are doing this in the form of a collection of
Change Packages.
Change packages are descriptions of improvement projects meant to provide practical examples to help others tackling similar problems avoid common pitfalls and to accelerate a pathway to improvement. A campus team or group of teams are ready to document their work in a Change Package when they have made measurable progress towards their aim and have high confidence that one or more of their interventions will be successful if tried elsewhere.[1]
Cohort 1 spent two years in the TLab examining data, identifying parts of their systems where equity gaps occur, and going deep on targeted barriers, processes and programs. Each change package tells the story of their improvement journey, why they chose to focus where they did, and what happened along the way.
Supervising for Equity
Team Bakersfield examined their process for supporting candidates through their traditional clinical preparation pathway and discovered some unwanted variation by race. They redesigned how supervisors are trained and supported to provide high-quality, equitable feedback across all three credential areas and successfully improved completion rates for Black candidates.
Quality Feedback on DEI Prioritized Skills
Cal Poly Humboldt wanted to know if their candidates were receiving feedback on DEI prioritized skills during their clinical preparation. They reviewed random samples of feedback forms to identify gaps, and redesigned focused supports and training for clinical supervisors.
Improving the Diversity of the Teacher Candidate Pipeline
Cal State Northridge examined their admissions pipeline data, disaggregated by race to identify where they needed to strengthen outreach and support to generate more BIPOC applicants into their programs and through to completion. “High-touch" follow-up practices successfully helped to increase application rates of BIPOC candidates.
K-16 Partnerships for Latinx Teacher Candidate Hiring and Retention
Cal Poly San Luis Obispo discovered an equity gap in the number of Latinx candidates they prepared who were being hired and retained in county schools. They launched a partnership with their county human resources professionals to examine data together and develop ways to jointly address the gap.
What Now?
The work of transformation is a marathon not a sprint. Cohort 1 teams will continue as part of the TLab community and work to maintain their routines, monitor and scale improvements, and leverage what they have learned to tackle new equity imperatives. Cohort 2 is studying the change packages provided by cohort 1 and will be selecting similar or identical changes to test in their local contexts. In turn, they will produce change packages in the spring of 2024 to complement and expand on this initial collection.
For More Information
For more information, please contact:
Project Directors: Dr. Bre Evans-Santiago ([email protected]) and Dr. Kevin Taylor ([email protected])
Principal Investigator: Dr. Shireen Pavri ([email protected])
Dr. Ginger Adams Simon, TLab Lead ([email protected])
[1] Bennett, Brandon (2020). Special Delivery: Change Packages.Quality Progress Magazine Vol. 53 Issue 1. Retrieved from: https://asq.org/quality-progress/articles/special-delivery?id=2531b2c3224240b6ab4b6b6309ff76d7