PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

The mission of the IUE’s professional development program is to foster culturally responsive teaching practices for educators from urban districts across the state and for other districts serving educationally marginalized students. The vision of the program is that the experiences of educationally marginalized students across Wisconsin will be positively affected by educators’ growth in culturally relevant teaching practices. This mission and vision are accomplished through 1) onboarding of cooperating

teachers and school administrators, 2) statewide annual equity conferences for education professionals, and 3) coursework and continuing education in culturally relevant pedagogy.

ONBOARDING SESSIONS

Each semester, the IUE holds an onboarding session for cooperating teachers and administrators who will support IUE teacher candidates. The onboarding session informs students and administrators of the logistical and contractual aspects of participating in the IUE with their partner school district. It also provides a foundational training on culturally relevant pedagogy (CRP), which enables students to enter their practicum with a knowledge base about CRP.

The first onboarding session, held in August 2020, was a 5-day series in which participating teacher candidates and their cooperating teachers used daily morning professional development sessions to learn research-based teaching practices, engage in collaborative planning, and examine student data

with the goal of applying culturally relevant practices to their schools and classrooms. The next school year, the morning professional development component was revised based on the following feedback from IUE interns and their cooperating teachers: • Since IUE interns attend eight (8) mandatory CRP cohort sessions throughout the semester, the week-long PDA was too lengthy for cooperating teachers and interns • The PDA was competing with the school district’s mandated professional development that occurred each year in the weeks leading up to the start of school • Facilitating a 5-day academy would be difficult to replicate in the spring semester since cooperating teachers would be teaching full time • Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, there was no opportunity to practice CRP with students because of restrictions placed on face-to-face interactions

Subsequent onboarding sessions were consolidated to 2-hour sessions and expanded to include administrators as well as cooperating teachers and students. The onboarding included the following topics: • Overview of the IUE • Culturally relevant teaching practices • Best practices for observations and feedback for interns • Problem-solving and having hard conversations • Expectations of cooperating teachers and others supporting the teacher candidates

ANNUAL EQUITY CONFERENCES

The IUE has held three virtual annual equity conferences since 2020. Each of the conferences has focused on an important and relevant issue related to bias and culturally relevant teaching practices. The conferences have been highly attended and recordings are made openly available on the IUE’s YouTube channel and its UWM webpage. • Fall 2020 - Culturally Relevant Pedagogy: Education in the 21st Century. Speakers included

Gloria Ladson Billings (UW-Madison), a parent and student panel (Racine Unified School

District), Andre Bennett (Racine Unified School District), Denise Ross Page (Institute for Urban

Education), and Reggie Jackson (Nurturing Diversity). • Fall 2021 - Walking in Our Shoes: Understanding the Perspectives of Teachers of Color.

Keynote speaker, Dr. Lynnette Mawhinney (Rutgers University), and a group of educators who represented teachers of color. • Fall 2022 - Unconscious Bias: Knowing What You Don’t Know. The keynote speaker was

Milwaukee County Municipal Judge Derek Mosely.

2020 2021 2022

Annual Equity Conference Fliers

COURSEWORK AND CONTINUING EDUCATION

• Professional Development Series. During the 2021-22 academic year, the IUE developed a 3part Professional Development School Year Series - “Amplifying Voices: Speaking Up and

Speaking Out for Children”. The series was designed to share insights about educational disparities from the perspective of educators and families affected by them. The series was created to share on demand with school districts, higher education classes, and individuals needing continuing education credits. Each session was approximately 1-hour and was supported by a facilitator’s guide that could be used independently or in conjunction with a facilitator from the IUE. All sessions, which were pre-recorded as panel discussions and first offered in the 2022-23 school year, presented perspectives on disparities in urban education including: • Disparities in Special Education: This session discussed inconsistencies and damaging effects of special education referrals, qualifications, and provision of services for students of color including the underrepresentation of students of color who truly need special services and overrepresentation of students of color with perceived behavior issues in special education

• Disparities in School Discipline: This session discussed the impact of inequities in classroom and school district discipline including disproportionate disciplinary actions that target Black students as well as the effects of Zero Tolerance policies implemented in the 1980s and 1990s. • Literacy and Social Justice: This session discussed the need for equitable practices in reading instruction including increasing literacy for students from diverse racial and ethnic groups in

Wisconsin and discussions about how reading is a form of social justice for educationally marginalized communities. • Future School Year Series: In 2023-24, the school year series will include additional sessions on gifted education, student stories, reading instruction, and STEM. Sessions will be monetized, marketed, and distributed with the goal of increasing revenue to supplement IUE student fees for supervision.

TRAILER FOR THE IUE’S PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT SERIES

• Second Certification in Special Education. In 2019, the IUE Executive Committee voted to have the IUE develop a second certification in special education as part of its overall mission and vision to impact high-need and critical teacher shortages. However, a survey of and discussion with faculty from most UW-System Special Education Programs suggested that developing a new program was not useful because the existing programs were sufficient. Instead, sharing information with IUE teacher candidates about the need for special education teachers and the availability of existing programs would be more helpful. Based on this feedback, the IUE engaged in the following activities to promote special education teaching opportunities in urban school districts: • Convened a committee of special education faculty from UWM, UW-Oshkosh, UWParkside, and UW-Stout to plan and implement outreach activities related to special education teacher candidates

• Developed and taught a graduate level course for UW-Oshkosh that focused on culturally relevant teaching in special education in Summer 2022 • Discussed disparities in special education and the special education offerings at UWOshkosh and the IUE with high school students at the 2022 Wisconsin Educators Rising Conference • Recruited special education and ESL teacher candidates for internships in partner districts

• Graduate Course Development. The IUE Director (Denise Ross) and a Graduate Student

Researcher (Jamie Holifield) developed and taught a new course focused on culturally relevant teaching practices for UW-Oshkosh special education graduate students. The 4credit course, offered in Summer 2022, was Special Education 775: Inclusion, Equity, and Issues of

Disproportionality. The course focused on the consideration of diversity and equity in public education, and how educational leaders can enable schools to address and promote these aspects of their school through the selection and implementation of curriculum, pedagogical practices, and an inclusive climate as well as by the utilization of pupil services staff and community agencies.

Eight graduate students attended the course.