Summary of the Evaluation of the Dewitt Wallace-Reader’s Digest Fund's Pathways to Teaching Careers Program

by DeWitt Wallace-Reader’s Digest Fund, Beatriz Chu Clewell of The Urban Institute and Ana María Villegas of Montclair State University

 

SECTION 1: INTRODUCTION

The purpose of this report is to present the cumulative findings from the six-year evaluation of the Pathways to Teaching Careers Program supported by the DeWitt Wallace Reader’s Digest Fund.

The report is organized into five sections. The introduction places the Pathways program within the current policy context, and then provides an overview of the Pathways initiative.

Section 2 describes the evaluation methods. The two subsequent sections present the evaluation findings.

Section 3 describes program outcomes, while Section 4 highlights Pathways strategies that proved successful in recruiting new candidates into teacher education, preparing them for teaching, and supporting them through program completion and the attainment of teacher certification.

The final section gives the conclusions of the evaluation as well as the implications for policy that can be drawn from the study.

The Pathways to Teaching Careers Program

Cognizant of the critical shortage of well-prepared teachers for urban and rural schools, the DeWitt Wallace-Reader’s Digest Fund launched the Pathways to Teaching Careers Program in 1989. The goal of this $50 million national initiative was to increase the number of well prepared and fully certified teachers, especially candidates of racial/ethnic minority backgrounds, working in high need public schools.

The Structure of the Initiative

The Pathways initiative was composed of four program strands, each targeting a different population. The strand structure provided organizational cohesion to this comprehensive initiative.

Precollege Strand

A precollege strand targeted middle school and high school students. The overriding goal of this effort was to cultivate an interest in teaching careers on the part of program participants.

The Fund supported one project in this strand. Morgan State University, in collaboration with the Baltimore City Public Schools and several institutions of higher education in the area, was awarded a grant to design and implement a comprehensive precollege program.

This effort involved the following activities: recruiting African American students from middle schools and high schools into the program; establishing a formal eighth grade course to expose students in up to 30 middle schools to professional careers in teaching; establishing an elective teacher preparation course at the 12th grade level in 20 Baltimore schools; establishing a magnet school for teaching in Baltimore City Public Schools; and developing links between and among selected institutions of higher education, the school district, and MESA (Mathematics, Engineering, Science Achievement) programs for the purpose of interesting precollege students in becoming teachers. Undergraduate Strand

A second strand targeted traditional undergraduate students with the goal of interesting them in becoming teachers and earning teaching certificates.

As part of this effort, Barnard College received funding to work with the Consortium for Excellence in Teacher Education, a group composed of 16 private liberal arts colleges in the Northeastern United States with teacher education programs. Specifically, this program aimed to identify and recruit undergraduates from the participating colleges and to interest them in teaching in urban middle schools.

As lead institution, Barnard College was responsible for providing program participants with supervised field placements in New York City middle schools; offering them an intensive four-week summer program in New York as well as credit-bearing seminars in New York on teaching students at the middle level; implementing follow-up activities at individual college sites and in New York City; and linking program participants, middle school students, and middle school teachers via a telecommunications network.

Paraprofessionals and Non-Certified Teachers Strand

The strand targeting paraprofessionals and non-certified teachers was the most encompassing of the four. These efforts aimed at identifying and recruiting paraprofessionals and non-certified teachers working in public schools (e.g., emergency-certified teachers, noncertified substitute teachers, and teachers working outside their areas of certification), and offering them scholarships and other support services in order to obtain bachelor’s or master’s degrees and/or meet other requirements for full state certification.

In return, participants agreed to continue teaching in the public schools for a specified period of time after program completion.

The strand consisted of three clusters of grantees.

The Northeast and Midwest Expansion, composed of 10 programs, was coordinated by Bank Street College.

The Southern Expansion, involving 11 programs, was coordinated by the Southern Education Foundation.

The third cluster included five independent projects that reported directly to the Fund.

Peace Corps Fellows Strand

The fourth strand included 14 projects, all of which were coordinated by the Peace Corps Fellows/USA Program. The aim of this strand was to identify and support potential teacher candidates from among returning Peace Corps volunteers (RPCVs).

The projects placed selected Fellows in full-time salaried positions in urban and rural school districts, and provided a two-year graduate level program leading to teaching certification and a master’s degree.

To summarize, what is referred to in report as the Pathways to Teaching Careers Program was national in scope, although concentrated mostly in the South, Northeast, and Midwest regions of the United States. It was composed of 40 individual projects (11 in the Southern Expansion, 10 in the Northeast and Midwest Expansion, 5 independent sites, and 14 Peace Corps Fellows programs).

It also included three coordinating agencies (SEF, Bank Street College, and the Peace Corps Fellows/USA Program). The evaluation study detailed in this report thus focuses on the 40 projects comprising the two most comprehensive Pathways strands--paraprofessionals and non-certified teachers, and RPCVs. Because the projects implemented by the two lead institutions—Morgan State University and Barnard College—were vastly different from the others in terms of goals, target population, and support strategies, they were evaluated separately. The role of the Pathways evaluation team concerning those two efforts was largely one of providing technical assistance on evaluation matters to staff from Morgan State College and Barnard College. All subsequent references to the "Pathways Program," or "Pathways Scholars/Fellows" refer solely to the 40 projects evaluated.

METHODOLOGY

The evaluation of the Pathways to Teaching Careers Program took place over a six and a half year period beginning in 1994.

The evaluation was divided into three components: summative, process and formative.

The summative component focused on determining the overall success of the Pathways program in: a) meeting its numerical goal of recruiting nontraditional individuals, including those of racial/ethnic minority background into teacher preparation programs; b) retaining participants through program completion and certification, and ensuring that they worked in targeted districts after completing the program; c) preparing effective teachers; and d) producing teachers who are more likely than their national counterparts to remain in teaching.

The process component documented how the programs at the 40 Pathways sites were implemented.

This information enabled the evaluators to determine the features of the Pathways model that were most important to its success.

The formative component provided timely feedback to individual programs as well as the Fund as to how well programs were progressing toward proposed goals.

Another purpose of the formative evaluation was to guide the Fund in designing future teacher recruitment and preparation activities.

The report focuses primarily on the summative component of the evaluation as the results of the process component have been published in a separate document, Ahead of the Class: A Handbook for Preparing New Teachers from New Sources.

The Summative Evaluation

This component was designed to collect data over a six-year period that would answer the following questions:
• Did the Pathways Program meet its overall recruitment goals?
• Have Pathways participants remained in the Program through completion and certification?
• Once they have completed the Program, do they work in targeted districts?
• Are Pathways graduates good teachers?
• Do Pathways graduates remain in teaching longer than the typical novice teacher?

To answer these questions, data were collected data (mainly through the use of surveys) from participants, program staff, teaching supervisors, and principals. Performance assessment data were also collected by evaluation staff.

Analysis and Use of Survey Data

Survey data in the DeWitt Wallace-Reader's Digest Fund Database were analyzed using descriptive statistics to produce tables and spreadsheets on evaluation outcomes which were reported to the Fund on an annual basis in the evaluation reports. The Fund disseminated these evaluation results to the coordinating agencies for distribution among the programs.

RESULTS

1: Did the Pathways Program meet its overall recruitment goals?

The Pathways Program's numerical recruitment goal was to enroll 2,200 individuals. By the end of the AY 1999-2000, the Program had recruited and served 2,593 participants, exceeding its recruitment goal by 393, or 18 percent.

2: Have Pathways participants remained in the Program through completion and certification?

Once they have completed the Program, do they work in targeted districts?

Of the three groups, the emergency-certified/substitutes had the highest attrition rate (21 percent) and the Peace Corps Fellows had the lowest (12 percent).

A large proportion of Pathways graduates entered teaching positions in targeted, high-need districts. Data disaggregated by status show that paraprofessionals were the most likely of the three groups to teach in targeted districts.

Ninety-one percent of paraprofessionals taught in targeted districts, while 82 percent of Peace Corps Fellows and 75 percent of emergency-certified/substitute teachers did so.

Of those who did not teach in targeted districts, the majority were employed as teachers in urban or rural school districts.

3: Are Pathways graduates good teachers?

The data show that completers of the Pathways Program perform better in their classrooms and schools than the average beginning teacher. They especially excel in creating a classroom environment. They also outperform the typical novice teacher in their familiarity with students; in creating methods, activities, and materials; in encouraging students to extend their thinking; in building professional relationships; and in communicating with parents/guardians.

The data also suggest that Pathways completers may need additional support to better understand how any given lessons build on past instruction while simultaneously paving the way for future learning.

4: Have Pathways graduates been retained in the teaching profession?

Eighty-eight percent of Pathways (or 712) respondents were employed in a full-time job in education three or more years after completion, while 12 percent (or 100) were no longer involved in education.

Not all of the Pathways graduates who remained in the education field for three years were regular classroom teachers, however. Of the Pathways three-year graduates remaining in education, 86 percent (or 610) were employed in a regular classroom teaching position.

Fourteen percent (or 102) held other jobs in education.

Of those not employed in regular classroom teaching positions, the majority were administrators, while the remainder held some other position in education, served as resource staff for other teachers, and worked as non-teaching specialists, support staff, and coaches.

Examples of “Other positions in education” included: guidance director, school psychologist, science consultant, bilingual diagnostician, bilingual lead teacher, Reading Recovery teacher, and professor of teacher education.

Minority group members were more likely to have remained in education than their White counterparts. Paraprofessionals and emergency certified/substitute teachers were much more likely to have remained in education than Peace Corps Fellows.

What Percentage of Pathways Graduates Remained in Teaching after Three Years?

Seventy-five percent (or 610) of Pathways graduates who had completed their programs three or more years before the follow up survey date were still teaching.

In addition to this group, 51, or 51 percent of those who reported not being in education at the time of the survey, had entered and remained in teaching for at least three years after completing the Pathways program.

The total of these two groups (661) represents the percentage of Pathways Graduates responding to the follow up survey who were in teaching for at least three years after completion of the Program: 81 percent.

Where Are Pathways Teachers Working?

While the majority of Pathways graduates still in teaching after three years work in urban areas (78 percent), paraprofessionals and emergency-certified/substitute teachers are much more likely than Peace Corps Fellows to be teaching in urban schools. One reason for this disparity is that the Peace Corps Fellows strand, unlike the other strands, focused on preparing and certifying participants to teach in both urban and rural areas.

Despite this focus, Fellows are teaching in suburban schools at double the rate of their Pathways counterparts, and even when the percentage of Fellows who are teaching in both urban and rural schools are combined, the representation of Fellows (75 percent) teaching in targeted locations is below that of the other two groups.

Seventy-three percent of Pathways three-year graduates who are still in teaching have elementary school level assignments. When data are disaggregated among participant types, however, differences in assignment level emerge.

Graduates in the paraprofessional and emergency-licensed/substitute teacher groups are much more likely to work at the elementary level than Peace Corps Fellows, more than half of whom teach at the secondary level.

Of Those Not in Education, What Are They Doing?

Almost half (47 percent) of Pathways graduates who were not employed in education at the time of the survey reported that they were working in an occupation outside of education, while 21 percent responded that they were caring for family members.

Seven percent were pursuing advanced degrees in an education-related field, and 6 percent were seeking advanced degrees in a non-education-related field.

Two percent reported that they were retired.

Seventeen percent reported other reasons, which included being unemployed and starting a business.
Ninety-two percent of these Pathways graduates had worked in education as teachers after receiving certification through the Pathways program; 6 percent had not, and 2 percent had worked in education, but not as a teacher.

To summarize, a large proportion of Pathways graduates who completed the Program three or more years earlier at the time of the follow up survey, were still in teaching. They were retained in the teaching profession at a rate considerably higher than the typical beginning teacher. The data show, therefore, that Pathways graduates do remain in teaching longer than the typical beginning teacher.

Additionally, a high percentage of the teachers who were still in teaching continued to work in elementary schools in urban districts.

Of those who completed the Pathways program three or more years ago but were not in teaching at the time of the survey, almost half were working in an occupation outside of education. Of these, a very high percentage had been in teaching, but left the profession for reasons that included pregnancy/childbearing, pursuit of another career, a family or personal move, a school staffing action, taking courses to improve career opportunities in the education field, and going on sabbatical. Few respondents seem to have left teaching because of dissatisfaction with the profession itself or because of the prospect of a better salary and benefits in other careers.

FACTORS CONTRIBUTING TO THE SUCCESS OF THE PATHWAYS PROGRAM

The process evaluation enabled researchers to identify four factors that contributed to the successful outcomes attained by the Pathways Programs:

• a strong partnership between a teacher education program that prepared participants and one or more high-need school districts that employed them;
• careful recruitment and selection of program participants;
• a rigorous, innovative, and culturally sensitive teacher education curriculum,
• varied types of support for Pathways candidates while they pursued college degrees as well as teaching certificates.

A Strong Partnership

Each of the 40 sites in this evaluation entailed a partnership between a teacher education program and one or more school districts in its service area.

In fact, the Fund made such partnerships a requirement for applying for a Pathways grant.

Specifically, the Fund expected that representatives from the partnering institutions at each site work collaboratively in planning and implementing the program.

Although differences were observed across the sites regarding the nature of the partnerships, several features stood out.

Successful partnerships officially began when a planning committee was formed for the purpose of designing the program. The authors found that the composition of this committee was critical to its success.

Such a committee typically included: the person who was slated to oversee the Pathways program activities at the college/university; faculty who were likely to teach courses for program participants; a representative from the office of the dean of education at the partnering college/university; a representative from the partner school district’s personnel office who had access to information on local demand for teachers; and principals from the partnering districts.

The major tasks of the planning team were:

• assessing the district’s need for qualified new teachers,
• establishing realistic recruitment goals, choosing the pool or pools from which to draw the new teacher recruits,
• developing a recruitment plan,
• conceiving the program of study,
• devising the academic and social supports participants were apt to need as they progressed through the teacher education pipeline.

Once the program entered the implementation phase, the planning team was usually replaced by an advisory group. The new group performed two overall functions: monitoring the progress made by the program toward the established goals and advising program staff on how best to deal with emerging issues.

Among the issues most frequent addressed by the advisory groups were:

• how to deal with participants who lacked the expected number of transferable credits;
• how to enable participants who were working full-time to complete the required student teaching practicum without salary interruption;
• what to do about participants with marginal academic performance;
• and how to facilitate the hiring of program completers.

Advisory groups met formally two to four times yearly, but program personnel informally consulted with their advisors as often as needed.

To flourish and succeed, partnerships require time and attention. Time pressure on everyone involved can make it difficult to schedule necessary meetings. Frequent turnover among school personnel, especially in urban districts, can cause communication problems as well as disruptions on program committees.

Six characteristics were identified that helped to resolve these problems and promoted program success:
(a) a history of collaboration between the partner institutions;
(b) open and frequent communication between representatives from the partner institutions;
(c) an accurate needs assessment that enabled the planning team to articulate clear priorities and precise program goals;
(d) a program director/coordinator who commands strong respect in the district;
(e) program goals that are compatible with the mission of the participating teacher education institution; and
(f) high-caliber program participants.

Careful Recruitment and Selection of Program Participants

A second factor that promoted program success was careful recruitment and selection of participants.
Site staff were well aware that the success of their programs depended largely on the candidates selected for participation. This awareness led them to recruit and select program candidates carefully.

Recruiting and Selecting Candidates from School Employee Pools

To ensure a large applicant pool, the Pathways programs publicized information about their existence. They disseminated information about the program in a variety of ways, including newspaper ads, radio announcements, posters in target district schools and communities, flyers sent out to schools and community agencies, newsletters sent out regularly to potential participants either by the district itself or professional unions to which the target employees belonged, and word of mouth.

School district staff with access to personnel information systems and data played a central role in recruiting program participants. These staffers were able to identify potential Pathways applicants for the partnering teacher education program staff, who then sent out individualized recruitment letters. At many sites, this collaboration extended to the school level.

District or program staff asked principals to identify paraprofessionals and uncertified teachers whom they believed would be well suited for Pathways training and assistance. Some sites invited experienced teachers to nominate candidates for participation.

Recruitment efforts typically culminated in a series of sessions or workshops that gave detailed information about the program to people from the target pools who had expressed interest.

These informational meetings were intended to help potential applicants understand clearly what the program offered them, including the type of preparation they would get, the support they would receive, and the financial assistance that would be available.

Potential participants were also helped to understand what the program expected of them in return. This process involved giving them a realistic picture of the time commitment required for program-related activities, the rigor of the courses, and the commitment to teach in the target district for a specified period of time following program completion.

While variations in the selection of candidates across the Pathways sites that targeted paraprofessionals and uncertified teachers were noted, an overall pattern emerged.

Optimal selection typically occurred in three stages. The initial stage served to screen applicants. Application materials (including background information, copies of college or university transcripts, scores on standardized tests, written essay describing the candidate’s interest in teaching and career goals, and letters of recommendation) were evaluated concurrently for compliance with criteria for admission into teacher education at the partner college/university and for other program-specific participation requirements (e.g., being of a racial/ethnic minority group, having an interest in teaching one of the high-need subjects in the district).

Applicants who met criteria for admissions into teacher education (or were close to meeting those criteria) and also approximated the profile of the participant sought by the program were invited to the college/university for a visit and further assessment.

The campus visit constituted the second selection phase. During these visits, applicants participated in one or more interviews, and in some cases were also asked to produce writing samples. Applicants’ performance during the interviews and the quality of the writing samples were assessed.

Selection decisions were made during the final phase using information gathered through phases one and two. A salient feature of programs in the Pathways network was their use of both traditional and nontraditional criteria to select participants.

Although traditional predictors of success in postsecondary education, such as grade point averages and scores on standardized tests, provide important information about applicants, they can also seriously under-predict the potential of many nontraditional candidates, including paraprofessionals and uncertified teachers, particularly those from racial/ethic minority backgrounds.

Conventional selection criteria also ignore the unique strengths that these two target pools bring to the teaching profession, including their personal knowledge of the racial/ethnic minority communities they represent.

Aware that conventional selection criteria disadvantage nontraditional applicants, Pathways staff supplemented those criteria with nontraditional indicators of success that provide a fuller picture of applicants’ strengths.

Among these indicators were:
• recommendations from principals, experienced teachers, and other individuals living in the communities served by the partnering school districts; length of teaching experience in the target district;
• performance in individual and/or group interviews; expressed commitment to teaching in urban and rural settings;
• intention to continue teaching in the target district after securing a teaching certificate;
• motivation to succeed, as evidenced by drive and determination when faced with obstacles;
• ability to work with others toward productive ends; leadership qualities;
• residency in an urban or rural community;
• level of maturity; orientation toward social and community concerns,
• and skills in a second language.

One overall finding merits discussion. Our data clearly show that a program benefited considerably when district and school staff were actively involved in the identification, recruitment, and selection of participants.
Such involvement facilitated communication between the program and potential applicants and generally increased the size of the applicant pool, allowing site personnel to select high quality candidates. It also sent a strong message to applicants that their school districts viewed the investment of time and energy they put into the program favorably. Equally important, when they played a central role in the selection of program participants, district staff had a strong incentive to hire Pathways completers for teaching vacancies.

At a minimum, involvement of districts and schools in the selection process entailed their giving input into the criteria used to select participants. However, the more successful sites involved both district staff and principals from partnering schools in the screening, interviewing, and selection of candidates.

Recruiting and Selecting from the Pool of Returned Peace Corps Volunteers

While recruitment and selection of candidates from outside the partner school district expands the talent pool from which to fill teaching vacancies, it also can present an initial obstacle to recruiters.

This was the case with the RPCVs population served by 14 of the Pathways programs. Because recruits were expected to be in full-time teaching positions while they completed their course of study, considerable effort was required to coordinate the placement of these candidates with their recruitment and selection for the program.

Much of the recruitment of RPCVs was done by the Peace Corps/USA Fellows Program in Washington, D.C, the coordinating agency for the sites that targeted this population.

The coordinating agency used its tight-knit communication system of country directors and its direct access to volunteers to inform potential participants about the availability of the Pathways programs and to generate interest in them.

Several programs supplemented this centralized recruitment mechanism with a strategy of sending information about their own local efforts directly to country directors of the Corps. To this end, those programs prepared informational packets that included a description of the course of study and support services offered, a description of the partnering districts and its job opportunities, and application materials.

A key factor that contributed to a sometimes uneven flow of applications from RPCVs was the individual program’s ability to place recruits in full-time teaching positions upon admission into the program.

Uncertainties surrounding student enrollments and budgets for the coming school year often prevented districts from making an early commitment to place candidates. Programs unable to make this commitment were apt to experience difficulties with recruitment.

Two approaches were used by sites to select candidates from the RPCVs pool.

Some sites chose participants for the program before they had been hired as teachers by the partner district. This approach involved three selection phases.

In the initial phase, applicants’ materials were evaluated to determine compliance with admission into the teacher education program and other requirements for employability as emergency-certified teachers in the target district.

• Among the factors considered in this evaluation were: successful completion of Peace Corps service;
• prior teaching experience; background in subjects that received hiring priority in the target district;
• possession of a bachelor’s degree;
• grade point average; scores on selected standardized tests;
• quality of writing sample, and evidence of personal commitment to teaching.

As part of the second phase, applicants who met requirements were selected for participation on the condition that they find a teaching position before or soon after beginning the program of study. In the final phase, conditionally selected RPCVs were helped to find teaching position by site personnel. Once placed, they were formally admitted into the Pathways program.

The second approach used to select RPCVs involved choosing participants only after they secured teaching positions in the target districts. This approach was also comprised of three selection phases.
During phase one, applicants’ materials were evaluated in a manner similar to that used in first approach. In phase two, applicants who met the specified requirements were helped to find placements as teachers in the partner districts.

To facilitate the search, sites typically invited candidates for interviews. Whenever possible, candidates were also scheduled to take the state-required tests for emergency teaching certificates during those visits.

In the final phase, only those candidates who had been hired as teachers by the target district were selected for participation in the program.

Regardless of the approach used, the placement of candidates in full-time teaching positions was a major challenge for programs to overcome, especially at the outset. The more successful sites solved these difficulties, at least in part, by paying careful attention to returned volunteers’ interests and preparation in subject areas of highest demand in the partner districts. Direct involvement of school principals and district staff in selection decisions was crucial.

A Rigorous, Innovative, and Culturally Sensitive Teacher Education Curriculum

The teacher education curriculum is a third factor that contributed to the success of the Pathways Program. The teacher education curriculum leading to full certification was the vehicle for developing and enhancing the dispositions, knowledge, and skills needed by program participants to successfully teach students in the partner districts.

Most programs reported modifying their curriculum to reflect current thinking on effective teaching in a multicultural society and to build on participants’ strengths while addressing their unique needs.

A review of the content of the teacher education curriculum used by the Pathways sites revealed several important themes, one of which was the value of diversity. Research shows that teachers who view cultural differences as problems to be remedied will generally not make accurate assessments of children’s strengths and limitations.

An attitude that presumes children of color suffer automatic deficits invariably leads teachers to emphasize what students cannot do, rather than what they are capable of doing well.

To build on the many strengths all children bring to class, teachers must demonstrate respect for cultural differences. The Pathways programs consistently reinforced the value of cultural diversity throughout the teacher education curriculum.

The curriculum was designed to cultivate participants’ knowledge about cultural differences as a way of preparing them to teach children from diverse backgrounds effectively.

This preparation involved helping participants understand the concept of culture and guiding them through an exploration of their own cultural identities. It also entailed requiring participants to learn about the history and literature of the major cultural groups represented in the partnering districts.

Though differences were found in the views of teaching and learning promoted by the various Pathways sites, there was general agreement among program staff that students learn best when teachers help them build bridges to learning.

One of the goals of the Pathways preparation, therefore, was to develop among participants a variety of bridge-building strategies for use in their own teaching. Examples of these strategies are selecting materials that are relevant and interesting to students, and clarifying new concepts by using examples or analogies drawn from students’ everyday lives.

Many of the programs also developed participants’ ability to involve students’ families in school-related activities.

One objective of many of the Pathways sites was to prepare program participants to serve as role models for their students. Thus, explicit discussions about the qualities of an effective role model were integrated throughout the coursework.

Many of the professors in the programs also aimed to serve as role models for participants, teaching them by example about the benefits students can derive from such relationships.

Another theme in the Pathways curriculum was that of making clear to participants the connection between theory and practice. To accomplish this, participants were asked to carry out frequent field experiences in the classrooms in which they taught either as paraprofessionals or teachers.

Participants were also encouraged to bring to bear on their academic courses their wealth of knowledge about teaching derived from their experiences. Course instructors also reported that, to the extent possible, they grounded theoretical discussions in the context of participants’ everyday practices.

If students are to attain high levels of achievement, teachers must not only have strong pedagogical skills but also a deep grounding in subject matter knowledge. In keeping with this principle, Pathways sites consciously aimed to provide participants with a deep understanding of subject matter.

To this end, many reported having extensive and rigorous course requirements in general education and the liberal arts, as well as in academic majors.

Changes in the teacher education curriculum were not limited to course content. Instructors at a number of sites used innovative instructional practices as well.

These included the use of participant journals to reflect on their teaching, cooperative learning, group projects, analysis of teaching cases, learning by discovery, performance assessment to document breadth and depth of candidates’ learning, and service learning in community settings.

Most of the Pathways sites also modified the structure of the curricula to meet the needs of their participants. For example, nearly all sites reported expanding the number of courses offered during evening hours, weekends, and summer sessions so that participants could continue working during the weekdays throughout the school year. Several sites offered selected classes in the partner districts to make their programs more accessible to participants. A few sites gave participants credit for their wealth of teaching experience. Equally notable, most of the programs serving paraprofessionals developed creative strategies to enable these participants to continue earning a salary while they completed student teaching.
Support Services for Candidates

Because the Pathways participants tended to be older, to have families, to have been out of college settings for some time, and to work full-time, they experienced stress atypical for most teacher education students. To help participants cope with stress while they pursued teaching certificates, and in most cases undergraduate or graduate degrees as well, the programs offered a network of supports.

The main support services provided by the Pathways programs were orientation, academic advising/monitoring, academic tutoring, preparation for certification exams, supervision of field experiences, mentoring, counseling, family support, cohort-building, and financial support. A brief description of each of these services follows.

Orientation

Orientation typically began soon after participants were admitted to the program. The two main functions of this service were: to familiarize new enrollees with the program’s goals and expectations; and to introduce them to the host institution and the teacher education program, including program and institutional support services available for their use.

Some programs’ orientation sessions lasted only a few hours or days at the beginning of each semester, while other programs made orientation part of a credit-bearing class that went on throughout the first semester. In other cases, orientation was embedded in the recruitment and selection process.

This service was of particular importance for RPCVs because it was the main source of their knowledge about the school districts where they would teach and their chief opportunity to learn about the teaching profession before assuming full-time jobs in it.

Peace Corps programs often offered their orientation in the summer. These sessions gave participants an introduction to the geographic area, the host institution, and the program. Usually, participants also received preparation in pedagogical techniques, including classroom management and instructional planning.

Academic advising/monitoring

All programs provided some type of academic advisory services focused on course selection and sequencing. In some sites advising was done by program staff, in others by faculty or host institution staff, and in still others by both program and host institution staff. Some sites offered group as well as individualized advising.

A few programs embedded advising into seminars that discussed issues such as required courses, manageable course loads, and potential difficulties. Because programs for RPCVs tended to mandate a set course sequence, most provided very little advisement.

Almost all programs monitored participants’ progress semester by semester. Transcripts and grades were reviewed to judge whether the academic program was being followed and how the participants were faring in it. At several sites, program staff met periodically with participants to discuss past or potential problems.

Participants with academic difficulties were referred to support services provided by either the program or the institution. A number of programs asked faculty who taught Pathways students to report during the semester on their progress in class, so that problems could be addressed before it was too late.

Academic tutoring

Programs for paraprofessionals and uncertified teachers offered academic tutoring on an as-needed basis to both individuals and groups.

Sometimes participants used academic services offered by the institution hosting the Pathways program. These institutional services included: regularly scheduled workshops that were designed to develop skills in math, writing, critical thinking, test-taking, studying, time management, and use of the library; and labs or learning centers that participants could use on an as-needed basis to get individual help with math, writing, and other subjects.

Some Pathways programs hired in-house tutors when they saw the need for one.

Preparation for certification exams

Almost all programs for paraprofessionals and uncertified teachers provided test preparation assistance.

These services varied widely in intensity, from comprehensive programs to one-time workshops lasting no more than three hours. Some sites embedded test-taking skills into their teacher education courses. Others organized groups of students to help one another prepare for the tests. Most of the training activities focused on test-taking skills. Such assistance was especially important for paraprofessionals who had been away from a college setting for several years and who had not taken standardized tests in a long time.

Supervised field experiences

Paraprofessionals in the Pathways Program generally participated in two types of supervised field experiences, the most intensive of which was student teaching. As is customary, student teachers were supervised daily by their cooperating teachers and periodically by university faculty.

Supervision sessions were intended to provide student teachers with feedback on their teaching performance and to offer suggestions for improvement purposes. At many Pathways sites, paraprofessionals also received periodic feedback on their classroom performance from the certified teachers they assisted. Uncertified teachers and RPCVs frequently received supervision from program staff who visited participants’ classrooms to observe them teach.

Subsequently, they provided feedback on the observed performance. Occasionally, supervisors would model a teaching strategy. Because most RPCVs had relatively little teaching experience, they benefited considerably from this support service. Nearly all Peace Corps sites reported offering participants intensive inclassroom supervision, particularly during their initial year of teaching.

Mentoring

Many Pathways programs provided mentors for their students. The role of the mentor was to give feedback and support on classroom teaching, resources, and materials, as well as advice on negotiating the educational system. Mentors in these programs might be teachers, program staff, retired school personnel, or program alumni.

Several factors must work together to ensure high-quality mentoring.

In general, mentors should be carefully selected and matched to mentees; they should be paid or given release time for mentoring; they should undergo mentor training; and other program staff must monitor the frequency and quality of mentoring contacts.

Counseling

Because most participants juggled the demands of full-time jobs, family responsibilities, and coursework, they were under constant pressure.

Spending many hours away from home to complete coursework and participate in other project-related activities, participants (especially females) often found that spouses and other family members came to resent the program. For some participants, especially paraprofessionals, their participation in the program threatened the stability of relationships with spouses, many whom lacked formal education past high school.

Access to counseling was essential for students in these unusually stressful situations. Most counseling services provided to Pathways participants were available through the host institution’s counseling center, although program staff also listened sympathetically to problems.

Family support

To ease the pressure at home, Pathways programs sponsored family support activities such as reimbursement for child care, family socials, activity days for families, awards dinners that invited families, and workshops for spouses.

Some sites included participants’ families in orientation activities to introduce them to the goals of the program, discuss its demands or requirements, and enlist their support for participants. Because paraprofessionals and uncertified teachers tended to be older and to have substantial family-related responsibilities, programs serving these populations listed family support activities as a vital service.
Peace Corps programs, however, did not place as much emphasis on family support activities, largely because RPCVs tended to be younger and single for the most part.

Cohort-building

Cohort-building--that is, encouraging a community of professional and personal colleagueship among program participants--can help graduates begin to develop their own support networks. This sense of cohort group began with the orientation experience that all programs implemented. Several programs also grouped students together in first semester courses--especially in the Peace Corps cluster--to further promote group support.

Other strategies used by the programs to cultivate the sense of colleagueship included arranging regular meetings and social activities for students in the same cohort.

Financial support

For program students who were substitute teachers and paraprofessionals who typically hold low-paying jobs, financial assistance with tuition was a must. To retain in and attract to teaching people who already have a bachelor’s degree and who are creative and competent, like the participating uncertified teachers and RPCVs--financial incentives in the form of tuition assistance were needed as well. Pathways programs provided funding to cover at least two-thirds of tuition. This financial assistance was a critical factor in making the Pathways Program successful.

Support Services for Completers

After participants completed their programs and obtained a teaching certificate, three additional supports helped to smooth their transition into the teaching force.

Placement in teaching positions

Programs serving paraprofessionals were faced with assisting their graduates in finding teaching jobs in targeted school districts. Some Pathways sites provided guidance for participants in negotiating the district bureaucracy and procedures.

This guidance included preparing them for interviews and helping them with paperwork. Sites also maintained informal communication with district personnel to learn about job openings and ensure that program graduates were considered for those jobs. Involving school district staff on project advisory councils facilitated the hiring process for program graduates.

Induction services

Pathways programs frequently invited graduates to participate in seminars, workshops, and meetings that contributed to their professional development and support. In their first year of teaching, graduates also received informal assistance from programs, which encouraged them to consult Pathways staff about questions or problems they might have.

Occasionally, program staff observed graduates’ classroom teaching and offered feedback.

Many Pathways completers also benefited from induction services provided by the host institution to all its graduates and/or by the school district or teachers’ union to all beginning teachers in the district. In addition to seminars, workshops, and beginning teacher institutes, induction services occasionally offered the assistance of mentor teachers and additional supervision by the principal.

Involving alumni in Pathways-related activities

Some Pathways programs continued to involve their alumni in activities such as meetings, seminars, orientation, and social functions. Alumni were often encouraged to act as mentors for current program participants and recent graduates.

Analysis of the data revealed several principles for constructing an effective support services network for nontraditional teacher education students:

• Support services should match participants’ needs, while acknowledging and building on their strengths.
• Support services should be monitored (and revised when necessary) to ensure that they are offered as needed:
• Whenever possible, programs should use or augment support services already offered by the host institution.

To summarize, the success of the Pathways Program is due largely to a partnership approach in which programs of teacher education work collaboratively with school districts to produce new teachers. Important factors are:
• careful recruitment and selection of program participants;
• a structurally innovative teacher education curriculum that prepares participants to work effectively with a diverse student population,
• and a network of supports designed to retain participants through program completion and certification.

CONCLUSIONS AND POLICY IMPLICATIONS

1: Did the Pathways Program meet its overall recruitment goals?

Enrollment data show that, in terms of numbers of participants recruited, the Pathways Program exceeded its recruitment goal by almost 20 percent.

Another recruitment goal was to enroll a nontraditional, diverse set of candidates, especially those from minority backgrounds. A comparison of the demographic characteristics of Pathways participants compared to those of a national sample of newly prepared teachers reveals that Pathways recruits were much more likely to be members of racial/ethnic minority groups and more likely to be older than their national counterparts.

In fact, in terms of potential contribution to the national pool of new teachers, Pathways increased the racial/ethnic diversity of the pool by almost 15 percent, compared to the overall increase of 4 percent.
In general, the Program was not as successful in recruiting a higher percentage of males than is present in the national sample of beginning teachers, although one component of the Program was highly successful in this regard.

The findings suggest that the pools of paraprofessionals and non-certified teachers are good sources from which to recruit candidates of color for teaching. The returning Peace Corps volunteers pool is a good source from which to recruit male teachers.

2: Have Pathways participants remained in the Program through completion and certification?

Once they complete the Program, do they teach in targeted school districts?

At the conclusion of the evaluation, 93 percent of all Pathways participants had exited the Program, with 19 percent of these having dropped out and 81 percent having completed Pathways.

Seven percent of all Pathways participants remained in the pipeline, most of these paraprofessionals who typically require much more time to complete certification requirements than the other two types of Scholars/Fellows.

The 81 percent completion rate is much higher than the 60 percent national completion rate for teacher education students. The careful selection of program participants and the structure of support services available to them may have contributed to these higher retention rates.

More than 80 percent of Pathways graduates entered teaching positions in schools located in the high-need districts that had partnered with the Pathways Program. This is a high proportion by any standard. Of those graduates who did not work in targeted school districts, more than three-fourths worked in urban or rural districts. This may reflect the effectiveness of the non-binding contracts that most Pathways Scholars/Fellows were required to sign as a condition of participation in the Program.

It may also be an indicator of the Program's success in recruiting and selecting candidates who were committed to teaching in high-need areas. In addition, the close partnerships established between Program sites and target districts surely facilitated the hiring of Pathways graduates into areas where they were needed.

3: Are Pathways graduates good teachers?

Teaching effectiveness data in four domains of teaching as well as overall, collected for graduates of the Pathways Program at three different points in time from three independent sources consistently support Pathways graduates' effectiveness as teachers.

Data comparing the teaching performance of Pathways teachers with that of typical novice teachers further show that Pathways graduates are perceived by both their supervisors and an independent assessor to be more effective teachers than typical novice teachers in their schools.

Particularly noteworthy was the participants’ ability to create an environment for student learning, the teaching domain that attained the highest rating across all three data sources.

This domain includes the ability to create a climate that promotes fairness, to establish and maintain rapport with students, to communicate challenging learning expectations, to establish and maintain standards of behavior, and to make the physical environment safe. The participants’ overall teaching effectiveness may be related to two key Program factors, their careful recruitment and selection, and the rigorous pedagogical training they received in the program.

4: Do Pathways graduates remain in teaching?

Of Pathways graduates who were followed up three years or more after they completed the Program, 81 percent had remained in teaching for at least three years. The 81 percent three-year retention rate exceeds the national three-years in teaching retention rate of 71 percent for beginning teachers reported by Ingersoll (2000).

Again, this favorable outcome may be related to the process the programs used to select participants as well as to the non-binding agreement signed by participants to remain in teaching for a specified period of time.

Summary

The evaluation findings, therefore, lead to three conclusions regarding the effectiveness of the Pathways Program:

• Pathways has surpassed its numeric and diversity recruitment goals.
• Pathways participants have achieved a higher completion rate than traditional teacher education students.
• Once they complete the Program, Pathways graduates teach in targeted school districts or urban/rural districts at extremely high rates.
• Pathways graduates are perceived by their supervisors, principals and others to be more effective as teachers than the typical beginning teacher in their schools.
• Pathways graduates are more likely to remain in teaching for at least three years than the typical beginning teacher.

Policy Implications

The following policy implications can be drawn from the conclusions of this evaluation study:

Recruiting new teachers from nontraditional pools is an effective way of increasing the national supply of teachers. The Pathways experience has demonstrated that there is a large pool of nontraditional individuals to draw from who have the desire and ability to become effective teachers for urban and rural high-need districts. Federal, state, and local policies should support programs that recruit from nontraditional pools as a way of increasing both the number of teachers for high-need areas and the diversity of the teaching pool.

Paraprofessionals represent a rich source of potential teachers. This group, if selected carefully and given appropriate support, are as likely as other nontraditional groups to complete a teacher education program and become effective educators. Two additional benefits derived from focusing recruitment efforts on paraprofessionals are that (a) they are more likely to teach and to remain in teaching in high-need districts than their other nontraditional counterparts and (b) they are more likely to be members of racial/ethnic minority groups. Federal, state, and local initiatives to increase the teaching force should include paraprofessionals as a large part of these efforts.

The Pathways model, which provides a program of preparation and support specifically tailored to the nontraditional groups being served, is an effective and affordable approach to increasing the teaching force in terms of both number and diversity. This model, which is thoroughly described in another report, Ahead of the Class: A Handbook for Preparing New Teachers from New Sources, can be described as an alternate pathway to teacher preparation and certification rather than an alternative certification program. Because evaluation findings have demonstrated its effectiveness, it merits wide replication on national, state and local levels.

Recruiting more candidates of color into teaching could help stabilize the teaching force in urban school districts. If selected carefully, enrolled in teacher education programs that work in partnerships with urban schools, and given appropriate preparation, candidates of color are likely to choose to teach in high need settings and to stay in their positions longer than the average new teacher. Federal, state, and local initiatives that aim to improve the conditions of urban and rural schools should give attention to recruiting and preparing more teachers of color.

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