The teacher is education’s first-line service-delivery provider. That which gets in the teachers’ way, to a large extent gets in the child’s way. The SALT survey provides school communities with a great deal of information about what might facilitate the progress of school improvement.

Time

Teachers report that the principle obstacle to reform is a chronic lack of time.
See SALT Survey Teacher chart #29

• When teachers were asked to choose from a large list of possible obstacles to implementing reform, they answered resoundingly: a lack of time. At least a third of the teachers reported as moderate or major problems: a lack of adequate team planning time, lack of time for implementation, lack of professional development time for staff, and difficulties in obtaining release time for planning and/or professional development were major problems. At least 25% more teachers identified these issues as a moderate problem in every instance.

School committees will need to find creative ways to get more teacher time into the school day. They will need to work with teacher contracts to adjust schedules. Schools can reorganize the existing school day. Block scheduling, for example, reduces the time students spend passing between classes and frees it for other purposes. The practice of looping, or giving teachers two-year assignments, has been shown to make better use of the time over the summer and to eliminate the getting-to-know-you period in the fall. Creative scheduling of specialists can help to coordinate free time among core teachers for common planning time. Many RI schools do not use the after school time for school purposes at all.

Teacher Preparation

Teacher preparation is not always adequate.
See SALT Survey Teacher chart #3

Being certified in a certain area is one indicator of being prepared to teach in that subject. Happily, the vast majority of Rhode Island math teachers are certified in math. At the high school level, this number reaches 98%.

Reading, however, appears to be different in that only 63% of our reading teachers are certified in the area. At the middle and high school levels, this percentage drops to approximately 55%. Secondary teachers tend to be certified in English which usually involves little formal preparation in how to teach and enhance reading skills, especially how to address these skills with middle and high school students. Outside of English language arts, very few secondary teachers have had any formal preparation in teaching reading skills.

Professional Development

With the intense changes in both the demands and practices of education itself and in the larger social context, the need for professional development has never seemed greater. RI teachers report that in many instances they do not feel prepared to meet the challenges. Clearly teachers – of all kinds – need help with learning techniques for teaching reading and most teachers need much more help with standards.

Also, RIDE is working with the Center for School Leadership (CSL), housed
at Rhode Island College, as well as teachers unions and other partners to
provide sustained professional development around teaching to standards.
The CSL is a consortium of the RI Association of School Administrators, RI
Association of School Principals, RI Association for Supervision and
Curriculum Development and the RI Association of School Committees.  A
series of professional development activities are being offered this year
to help teachers, administrators and communities understand the high
standards RI has set for its children, and to develop curriculum,
instructional strategies and support systems in line with these challenging
standards.

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