A Middle School Endorsement Beats the Odds to Aid Urban Schools

Vincent A. Anfara, Jr., Sheila Rosenblum, & Robert J. Mahar

When the Philadelphia School District found it difficult to attract qualified teachers for its urban middle schools, it joined forces with Temple University and the Philadelphia Education Fund to develop a middle school preparation program to recruit, educate, and hire skilled, dedicated teachers.

The preparation and retention of quality middle level teachers continues to be a major concern throughout the United States. Recent indictments leveled against middle schools highlight the issues regarding preparation of teachers who are knowledgeable about the middle level concept, expert in subject content, and responsive to the needs to young adolescents. While a number of states have revised their instructional teacher certification to reflect elementary, middle, and high school levels; many still retain a certification code dictating a choice between elementary or secondary licensure. Pennsylvania is representative among those states where prospective teachers typically select a preparation program that leads to either elementary or secondary certification. While Pennsylvania has recently created a middle school certificate (grades 5-9), which overlays the still existing elementary and secondary code, teachers continue to be allowed to work in middle schools with either an elementary or secondary certificate. A certification code that ignores or marginalizes the middle level sends a subtle, but strong, message as to the validity of unique preparation for the successful teaching of young adolescents.

During the fall of 1998 the School District of Philadelphia (6th largest in the nation) faced opening school with over 100 vacancies at the middle level. In a front page news story, the Philadelphia Inquirer cited three reasons for this situation: (a) teachers who shun the middle school and transfer to other levels as quickly as the opportunity presents itself, (b) a state which does not require middle level certification to teach at the middle level; and (c) universities and colleges that have not encouraged elementary or secondary education majors to try teaching in a middle school.

In response to this dilemma, Temple University, the School District of Philadelphia, and the Philadelphia Education Fund joined forces to write a grant titled "The Excellence in Teaching Partnership (ETP)." The William Penn Foundation initially funded the grant for a two-year period, 1998-2000. Because of promising, but tentative, results, in May 2000 grant funding was extended for an additional two-year period, 2000-2002.

The Excellence in Teaching Partnership: Six Components

There are six components to the ETP initiative that are specific to the work of the mentioned partners. The largest component involves the development of a Middle Grades Endorsement Program at Temple University. In addition to this preservice component, the College of Education through this foundation grant supports professional development activities for faculty and student teachers in partner middle schools and organizes a yearly forum focused on middle level issues. These additional activities are in recognition of the fact that if the student teaching and field placements are to occur in effective training sites, the educational environments and climates of these schools must be characterized by teaching and learning practices that are appropriate for middle school students.

Each of the other partners identified a portion of the problem that they could address and plan to alleviate. Administrators from the school district looked closely at their recruitment and hiring policies (i.e., a residency requirement that eliminates many prospective teachers) and sought to improve outreach and management practices in the District's Office of Human Resources. In addressing this second component, the District also sought to improve its induction and mentoring program for new teachers, with special emphasis on first- and second-year middle school teachers.

The third component necessitated identifying two middle schools, later expanded to three, to participate in the grant by providing committed cooperating teachers for the university's student teachers and allowing practicum (field experience) students to work in classes one-half day per week for the duration of an academic semester. Additionally, these middle schools play a critical role in connecting the University's Middle School Endorsement with the real world of middle schools.

A fourth component was one of process. The goals of the initiative would be accomplished through partnership and collaboration, the assumption being that collaboration would increase the potential of reaching the goals of the initiative. University-wide discussions began among the Colleges of Education, Liberal Arts, and Science and Technology regarding the feasibility of a middle school teacher preparation program. Not only was there concern about appropriate pedagogical practices and addressing the needs of young adolescents, but also much discussion in response to the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) and the Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) regarding the content knowledge needed by middle school teachers. As a result, the College of Education amended its teacher preparation program to include six additional hours of content-specific coursework offered through the Colleges of Liberal Arts and Science and Technology. These collaborative efforts among Colleges at Temple University spawned another grant that provided over 50 middle level teachers from the School District of Philadelphia with integrated science and math courses. These graduate courses, offered both during the summer and regular academic year, were team taught by professors from the disciplines of math, science, and education.

Collaborative efforts also link Temple University to the middle level practitioners in the field. Teachers and administrators from the three partnership schools work closely in the design and implementation of the middle school endorsement courses. Candid discussions are held that provide the middle schools with feedback regarding the supports (or lack thereof) that they provide to both student teachers and practicum students. The collaboration also has had the effect of strengthening the skills and knowledge of the three participating principals as they share their experiences and best practices in dealing with preservice students. In short, theory and practice are fused.

The fifth component involves the Philadelphia Education Fund. This group works to lobby for change in teacher certification policies at the state level, helps to foster cohesive planning and work among the partners, and conducts research on the collaborative (Rosenblum, 2000). Extensive research was undertaken and presented to the Board of the School District that eventually led to loosening the residency requirements. Additionally, research originating with this project was used in the formulation of Pennsylvania's middle level certificate.

The sixth component provided for an external evaluation of the project. That evaluation focused on the implementation and outcomes of ETP, with special attention on the outcomes for the preservice teachers and the degree to which they accept and retain positions in middle schools in the district.

The partners in this venture knew that the odds were against them. At the state level, Pennsylvania allows teachers who are elementary or secondary certified to teach in a middle school. As a result, teacher preparation institutions have been fairly reluctant to establish middle school programs without mandatory state certification. On the local level, the school district has a very rigid residency requirement in addition to salaries lower than those in surrounding suburban school districts. By simply moving to nearby suburban districts, teachers are likely to receive more money and have seemingly more desirable working conditions. At the university, there was concern about recruitment of students. Requiring students to add 15 or 18 semester hours to their elementary or secondary teacher preparation programs would not attract a sufficient number of students to warrant the program.

Against this background, the purpose of this article is to explore the successes and setbacks in developing and implementing a middle grades teacher education program in a state that does not require middle level certification. We will look specifically at three factors: (a) the preservice teacher students involved in the project over the last three years, (b) the effectiveness of the ETP partnership, and (c) the lessons learned from creating and implementing an add-on, middle level endorsement.

The Middle School Endorsement

Against these realities, a middle school program, which could be described as an add-on endorsement, was created. Students opting for the middle school endorsement are required to take two courses: (a) Research-Based Practices for Middle Level Instruction and Organization, and (b) Pedagogical Practices in the Middle Level Classroom.

The first of these two required "foundation" courses, taught by a university professor, is a survey of what is known about middle schools and focuses on topics such as the history of the middle school movement, advisory programs, interdisciplinary teaching, integrative curriculum, exploratory and transition programs, and the nature of young adolescents. The second course, Pedagogical Practices for the Middle School Classroom, is team taught by the principal, assistant principal, and five teachers from one of the middle schools participating in the project. This course focuses on developmentally appropriate teaching strategies and the development of effective lesson plans. To support these courses a middle school resource center, housing a large collection of books, journals (i.e., Middle School Journal, Research in Middle Level Education Quarterly and Annual, Middle Ground, the NASSP Bulletin), and curriculum materials, was created.

In addition to these two courses, students who are pursuing the middle level endorsement complete at least one of two practica (field experience) and student teaching at one of the project's three middle schools. After the first year of the project (1998-1999), the partners realized the importance of intimately linking the supervisor of student teaching and practica experiences to the work of the project. From that point forward, the supervisor (an experienced and retired middle school teacher) has been in attendance at all organizational meetings and has provided valuable insights into what works and what does not with preservice teachers. Finally, many of the courses that are taken as part of the elementary or secondary teacher preparation programs have been revised to include information about middle schools, developmentally appropriate teaching strategies, and the nature of 10 to 15 year olds. Prior to the development of this endorsement, university faculty, responding to the needs of their students and to the realities of Pennsylvania's certification code, focused heavily on elementary (K-5) and high school (9-12) educational issues.

Preservice teacher preparation students
Temple University successfully launched the planning and early implementation of its Middle School Endorsement in the fall 1998. Since that time, student teachers and practicum students have been placed in middle schools and their numbers are increasing. The number of placements for the first seven semesters is presented in Figure 1:

Prior to ETP, few, if any, student teachers or practicum students were placed in middle schools, and none were placed in the Philadelphia School District. The original ETP grant proposal called for 30 student teacher placements yearly in middle schools. This proved to be unrealistic for two reasons: It was hard to convince many students, most of whom were in elementary certification programs, to accept middle school placements; and the participating schools were not ready to absorb a large number of student teachers once they had been recruited. Early in the project it was discovered that state regulations severely limit the number of available cooperating teachers. More importantly, even if experienced teachers were available to supervise preservice teachers, not all were capable of nurturing and guiding preservice teachers into the terrain of middle schools. To illustrate this point, in fall 1998, a cooperating teacher conveyed to her practicum and student teachers an extreme dislike of young adolescents and a desire to return to an elementary school.

Reactions of the middle school student teachers
Seminars having a middle school focus are organized at the beginning and end of each semester. Student teachers and practicum students are asked to reflect on the successes and frustrations that characterize their experiences. Before entry into the middle schools, student teachers responded that their greatest anxieties about teaching at this level included an inability to connect with the students. Typical responses included:

The students are too young for me to relate to.

Working with children who are going through the biggest changes in their lives scares me.

I think student behavior during the period of puberty would be very difficult to deal with.

The students who did their student teaching at middle schools were interviewed at the end of their student teaching experience, and again several months after they had been graduated. For most of the students, the student teaching experience was very positive; even if they were initially somewhat reluctant to student teach at this level. Most were very satisfied with the relationship, support, and encouragement provided by the cooperating teacher. With very few exceptions, they were positive about the support and recognition they received from the school principals, especially with the help some received in making career choices. The student teachers acknowledged that the experience was "very challenging" and in some cases was different from what they expected. On the one hand, they were surprised at the low level of academic preparation of so many students; while on the other hand, they were pleasantly surprised with the interpersonal relationships they formed with many students, which proved to be very satisfying and gratifying. Some typical comments were:

I encountered some "challenging attitudes," but I really liked the personal side, the fact that students would come to me with their personal problems. I found helping them very rewarding.

It was different from what I expected. The biggest thing was that I learned that when you first begin, you have to get established with the kids—establish a routine, make expectations clear and set standards for any instruction to occur. This is especially important with this age group.

I saw more behavior problems than I expected.

I expected to have more problems with the students than I did, more behavior problems, "raging hormones," etc. I ended up having fewer problems with the students and more problems with the staff, especially my cooperating teacher.

I enjoyed it a lot. I didn't know what to expect. I didn't want to do it, but I was surprised at how much I enjoyed it. I found with this age group you have to be more than a teacher. I wanted to make the curriculum exciting for the kids. … I also liked helping the kids with their problems and they often stayed after school to talk to me.

It was much better than expected and I was surprised at how much support I got.

Student teachers were given support by their supervisor and faculty at Temple University, by the school principals, and predominantly by the cooperating teachers. For the most part, the students were very positive about the support they received from all sources, although they varied in the enthusiasm of their responses, and some found support from one source or another to be the most important. The student teachers were asked how their middle school student teaching experience might have been improved. They made several suggestions:

One thing that would have been helpful would have been to have more time at middle school with the other student teachers, to compare notes. It was hard coming in the middle of the school year, and it would have been nice to have more peer support. It would have been especially helpful if we could have visited each other's classrooms so we could give each other feedback and compare experiences. The meetings at Temple were okay, but they weren't in the school setting, and we weren't seeing each other's classrooms and students.

I would have liked to see more classes directed toward middle school teaching. I also would have liked more refresher courses on academic subjects to help students be knowledgeable enough to teach at the middle school level, particularly in math and science. I felt I had only been taught up to the fifth grade level so I had to call people to get information, be creative in the classroom, "adapt up" what I had been taught to make it appropriate to the middle school level.

In my courses, classroom management strategies are taught only for the elementary and high school level, not much for the middle school. I also found that the frameworks for creating lesson plans for this age group, particularly for language arts and social studies were kind of vague. It would help to give student teachers a choice of teaching language arts/social studies or science/math instead of assigning them. I think this is important because middle school is not self-contained like elementary school. At high school, you choose a subject. I think you should get to choose a subject for middle school too.

Teaching at middle school is not a walk in the park. People in the education program need to be made more aware of that.

Reactions of the practicum students
The first practicum experience (fall 1998) was somewhat less successful. Twenty students enrolled, but not all found the experience to be positive or their cooperating teacher to be a good role model. The first middle grades practicum, where students were assigned to observe and to teach, was initiated with insufficient preparation and the principals may not have paid enough attention when assigning students to classrooms. As a result, the students were not eager to do their student teaching in middle schools. Realizing our error, since fall 1999, the middle grades practica have been much more successful. A larger number of students have enrolled on the basis of more information about the Middle School Endorsement and its goals, encouragement from the Temple faculty, and a discovery that the practicum is a good learning experience. Additional support for these students was provided through the hiring of a supervisor who had extensive experience in middle schools and who was closely linked to the work of the project partners.

At a series of group interviews starting in fall 1999 and continuing until the present, a large number of practicum students have expressed interest in student teaching in a middle school. They felt more familiar, and encouraged, by the challenges that are faced in middle grades, and also felt that they were better prepared to undertake the challenges. However, practicum students still acknowledged that there were not enough opportunities to review and process their experiences learning from each other and the faculty. Although there remains room for improvement in how the opportunity can be maximized both at the school and at the university level, the idea of a middle grades practicum shows great promise.

Reactions of the middle school principals
One indicator of success of the endorsement program and the pipeline that has been created from coursework and practicum to student teaching can be seen in the reactions of the participating principals. In spring 2001, one principal noted:

The quality of the student teachers has increased remarkably over the project years. This applies also to the practicum students as well. I am very impressed. I wish I had positions available to hire some of them.

The other two principals remarked:

It is encouraging to see Temple University making this effort to address the problems facing the School District of Philadelphia as they relate to middle schools. We desperately need teachers better prepared to teach in our middle schools; not waiting for the moment to transfer to an elementary or secondary school. We need teachers excited about being here and working with the middle level student. I see these qualities in our recent student teachers who have gone through Temple's program.

I am so pleased with the student teachers I have hired as regular faculty in my school. There is a night and day difference between students coming out of Temple's middle school endorsement and the teachers I have hired in the past. I feel like I can finally build a critical group of teachers who know something about the middle school and the [young] adolescent.

Each of these participating principals have invested a great amount of time and energy in nurturing and supporting the preservice students through practica and student teaching experiences. Through the work of these school principals a few students have been able to identify their inability to work at this level of schooling and have returned their focus upon lower elementary grades (K-3).

After student teaching
An important question is this: Did students placed in middle schools for their student teaching experience actually accept teaching positions in a middle school? By the fall of 2001, there were 11 teachers among the three partner schools (schools in which they student taught), demonstrating the powerful effect that student teachers can have on the principals' ability to recruit teachers to their schools that they already know and would like to have in their buildings. This is not a normal occurrence in the Philadelphia School District, where hiring and school assignment is centralized at the district level. Almost all the participants who accepted positions in middle schools said that they would have been reluctant to do so if they had not had the experience of student teaching in a middle school in conjunction with the preparation they received at Temple.

The primary influence on satisfaction and retention of the new middle grades teachers seems to be their experiences as student teachers and the within-building, induction-like activities that they experienced (i.e., breakfast meetings with the principal, attending team meetings, participation in the school's professional development). This also included their relationships with cooperating teachers, other faculty in the building, and in some cases with the principal. Many also cite the support of their university supervisor. While some say the district induction activities are helpful, the building level and university support were seen as the more important contributors to job satisfaction. As for retention, the 11 former student teachers who accepted positions in the three cooperating middle schools are still there. Other graduates (approximately seven) of the middle school endorsement are teaching at middle schools within and beyond the school district. As some student teachers said:

I found teaching the middle school kids very rewarding and it confirmed for me that this was the age group I wanted to teach.

The experience did influence me to teach at this level, plus the fact that elementary teaching positions were not available. I like the scheduling at the middle school level, the chance to teach several subjects separately instead of teaching in a self-contained classroom like you find in an elementary school.

Middle school is where children become followers. We need to help them counter that! That is why I would like to teach in middle school.

Additional features of the Temple University component
As identified earlier, the Temple University College of Education component includes plans for providing graduate coursework relevant to middle grades education for inservice teachers and staff in the ETP's middle schools. This includes both classroom-based and on-line courses with tuition and textbooks provided through the grant. Additionally, three forums were organized. The first took place in November 1999 and was titled "Present and Future Challenges to Middle Level Education." A second forum was held in October 2000 and focused upon a self-reflective, school-level assessment of the progress which has been made in middle level reform since the reform reports of the 1980s (i.e., Turning Points and This We Believe). The third forum was in November 2001 and focused on the qualities and characteristics of the high achieving middle school. Approximately 120 middle level teachers, principals, and policymakers attended each forum. A significant percentage of the attendees came from districts throughout southeastern Pennsylvania, attesting to the needs that such forums address.

The effectiveness of ETP as a partnership
An underlying assumption of the Excellence in Teaching Partnership was that the goals of the initiative would be accomplished best through partnership and collaboration of the participating agencies and individuals. Several separate organizations were involved, as well as separately functioning units within organizations.

Critical features of successful collaboration are communication, shared understanding of goals and procedures, and agreed-upon division of labor. These are enduring concerns in interorganizational collaborations, and ETP was no exception in facing these problems, particularly in the first half year of the initiative. But the partnership, facilitated by the following factors, made great strides in overcoming the problems:

• the establishment of regular breakfast meetings (monthly or bi-monthly), rotating meeting space at the participating middle schools;
• coordination, first by the project director at the Philadelphia Education Fund, and more recently by a staff member from the Vice Provost's Office at Temple University;
• sharing of information and problem solving at the meetings; and,
• a convergence of events within Temple (the reorganization of the teacher preparation curriculum) and the school district (recruitment, hiring, and retention goals) that made the goals of the initiative even more relevant to the participating organizations than when they submitted the proposal to the William Penn Foundation.

As a result of the communication and relationships established in ETP, the middle grades preservice teachers have received special attention from the School District's Office of Human Resources. This has strengthened teacher preparation programs at Temple University by including presentations on the hiring process at the student teacher orientation given at the university and the school district test (required for employment) being administered at the university. Additionally, the principals in the participating schools have established lines of communication with the Office of Human Resources, further streamlining the recruitment and hiring process for their schools.

Summary and Lessons Learned

For the participating students and partner schools
1. An increasing number of students who student teach in middle schools have chosen to accept employment in the Philadelphia School District and have accepted positions in middle schools. Two of the ETP schools each have five teachers who have previously student taught in the schools as part of this program. The third school hired its first endorsement graduate when a vacancy opened in January 2001. Other graduates (approximately seven) of this endorsement have accepted middle level positions in other districts.

2. An increasing number of students who had practicum placements in middle schools have chosen to student teach in middle schools. While this was not true after the first practicum (fall 1998), as many as three-fourths of the student teachers in the last six semesters have had experience in the middle school practicum and the benefit of the coursework. There is clearly a pipeline developing as a result of the implementation of the Middle Grades Endorsement program.

3. These findings suggest that middle school exposure and a field experience overcome resistance to teaching in the middle grades, and even increase enthusiasm and the capacity to teach at that level.

4. Much of the willingness to accept the positions in middle schools is related to the possibility of working in the schools in which they student taught. This condition seems to increase the willingness of preservice teachers to teach in middle schools. They know the setting, their fellow teachers, and the principal. While they may feel they have a "leg up" if they accept positions in these schools, the new teachers also attest to the fact that "it is different when you are on your own." They feel they need help as they begin their teaching, and often a mentor is not assigned to them in the timeliest manner.

5. Having student teachers as a recruitment pool helps principals solve their vacancy problems by facilitating the placement of student teachers to teaching positions in their buildings.

6. The quality of the cooperating teacher is vital to the process of introducing preservice teachers into the world of the middle school. The cooperating teacher must convey a desire to work with young adolescents and be familiar with successful middle level practices and issues.

For the partnership
7. Partnerships and collaboration (the essential structure of this initiative) are difficult to implement both within and across organizations; they require a lot of nurturing and good communication, first to share information and needs, and then to build trust and openness. This initiative started slowly on the collaborative process, but through nurturing and the implementation of regular meetings and communication channels, the partnership was strengthened and contributed to the accomplishments of the initiative so far. Thus, essential progress has been made on the collaborative process, boding well for attaining even greater success as the project continues.

For the endorsement program
8. The ETP initiative is taking place in a context where many organizations both locally and across the nation are addressing similar and related issues in middle grades education. Educational reform initiatives are being designed specifically for middle schools and implemented in schools around the country. Some of these are based on the work of The National Forum to Accelerate Middle-Grades Reform, which has come up with a framework on excellence in middle schools including foci on academic excellence, developmental appropriateness, and social equity (see http://www.edc.org/FSC/MGF).

9. Additionally, research is available which focuses on the essential characteristics of middle grades teacher education programs. After reviewing the results of a number of middle level teacher preparation studies, Scales and McEwin (1994) noted 10 characteristics they deemed essential for the attainment of excellence. Middle level teacher preparation programs should:

• Involve collaboration between the university and middle schools (i.e., co-designing and co-teaching courses);
• Be staffed by faculty who model the techniques appropriate for the middle school classroom (i.e., cooperative learning, team teaching);
• Provide resources for ongoing faculty development, including regular contact with young adolescents and work in middle schools;
• Enable students to engage in fieldwork in the first and second years of an undergraduate program;
• Ensure that students' fieldwork includes a variety of community settings that young adolescents frequent;
• Maintain a core library of resources;
• Provide faculty and students with experiences of systems responding to young adolescents' characteristics;
• Provide extensive student experiences in how to involve families and community resources;
• Include extensive opportunities to learn about being an advisor, about interdisciplinary teaming, and about responding to students' cultural and language diversity; and,
• Ensure that students acquire a comprehensive understanding of young adolescent social relationships and self-awareness concerns. (excerpted from pp. 60-61)

The Middle Grades Endorsement Program at Temple University has begun to implement some of these principles. But as it continues to evolve, it will be important to incorporate more of these principles and ideas, as well as those embodied in the framework of the National Forum, particularly its emphasis on the importance of content and academic excellence. It will also be important to consider how to expand the number of participants beyond the capacity of three schools. Lastly, because this initiative was started and sustained by external funding, the importance of institutionalizing this program cannot be ignored.

As McEwin and Dickinson (1995) asked: "Will the ultimate degree of success of the middle school movement be limited because too few teachers are being prepared with specialized knowledge, skills, attitudes, and dispositions needed to be highly successful teachers of young adolescents" (p. ix)? Clearly this venture has shown that a collaborative effort by those preparing and hiring middle level teachers can bring about a supply of young educators who both choose and find professional satisfaction in working with young adolescents.

Author Note: A special thanks and recognition must be given to the highly involved teachers and administrators at the Elverson, Stoddard-Fleisher, and Wanamaker Middle Schools (School District of Philadelphia) whose commitment to the success of this initiative proved to be vital.

References

McEwin, C. K., & Dickinson, T. S. (1995). The professional preparation of middle level teachers: Profiles of successful programs. Columbus, OH: National Middle School Association.

Rosenblum, S. (2000). Evaluation of excellence in teaching partnership. Philadelphia: Philadelphia Education Fund

Scales, P. C., & McEwin, C. K. (1994). Growing pains: The making of America's middle school teachers. Columbus, OH: National Middle School Association.

Editor's Note: To read more about the middle schools in Philadelphia see the March 2001 issue of the Journal: "A curious incident: The disappearing class differences in academic achievement" by Roger Clark (pp. 5-13) and "The efficacy of Philadelphia's K-to-8 schools compared to middle grades schools" by Robert M. Offenberg (pp. 23-29).

Vincent A. Anfara, Jr., is Associate Professor of Educational Administration at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. E-mail: vanfara@utk.edu

Sheila Rosenblum is affiliated with Rosenblum Brightman Associates, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
E-mail: hsrosenbl@aol.com

Robert J. Mahar is Associate Professor of Curriculum, Instruction, and Technology in Education at Temple University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.