UD to host professional learning conference for educators
For the first time this year, the University of Delaware College of Education and Human Development’s School Success Center (SSC) will host the sixth annual Women Leading Delaware Education Conference on UD’s Newark campus. The event will take place on Wednesday, March 13, at Clayton Hall Conference Center.
The Women Leading Delaware Education Conference is a networking and professional learning event for teachers and administrators in elementary, secondary and higher education settings. The event addresses issues specific to women and education leadership and provides a powerful opportunity for current and aspiring leaders to convene for an impactful day of connection, reflection and inspiration.
“Women share a common set of challenges in pursuing leadership in education,” said Faith Muirhead, SSC director. “There is strength in sharing our stories and learning from one another. We invite you to come out and meet authentic, ambitious, intelligent, visionary women who have successfully navigated the ladder to leadership.”
The theme of this year’s event is “Celebrating Our Resilience,” and the keynote speaker, sponsored by the Delaware Department of Education, will be Jane Kise, founder of Differentiated Coaching Associates.
The event will also include information tables from the SSC, the Institute for Public Administration in UD’s Joseph R. Biden, Jr. School of Public Policy and Administration and the state of Delaware’s Office of Women’s Advancement and Advocacy.
Individuals of all genders and backgrounds may participate.
UD emphasizes partnership and collaboration with Delaware education leaders at Superintendent Study Council
How can Delaware education leaders partner to best serve the needs of their teachers, administrators and students? University of Delaware’s School Success Center (SSC), housed within the College of Education and Human Development (CEHD), convened Delaware school district leaders and members of the Delaware Department of Education (DDOE) to answer that very question.
With enthusiasm for future UD partnerships, district superintendents and assistant superintendents from all three Delaware counties and DDOE representatives met for a special session of the Superintendent Study Council, a component of the Governor’s Institute for School Leadership (GISL), at UD’s Clayton Hall Conference Center February 24.
The session, themed around next steps for school success, focused on the mission and vision of UD’s new SSC and provided a forum for the participants to voice the most pressing challenges facing Delaware schools, the specific needs in their districts and ideas for future collaboration through the center.
“In this session of the Superintendent Study Council, we wanted to focus on changing the way that CEHD interacts with schools and districts around the state,” said Gary T. Henry, dean of CEHD and professor in CEHD’s School Education and the Joseph R. Biden, Jr. School of Public Policy and Administration. “We want to move past a transactional relationship with school districts to form deeper, broader and longer-lasting relationships to support our teachers, school leaders and students. Partnerships with school districts are so vital in the work that we’re trying to do, and we especially want to hear from our districts.”
Next steps for the School Success Center
Faith Muirhead, director of UD’s School Success Center, outlines the next steps for partnering in school success in a meeting of the Superintendent’s Study Council.
Faith Muirhead, director of the SSC, led the morning’s activities with an update on the SSC.
In this new organization, the SSC operates with four departments under one umbrella: DASL, offering support in educational leadership, Literacy, offering support in literacy instruction, Mathematics, offering support in mathematics instruction, and Multi-tiered Systems of Support, offering support in student screening, diagnostic assessment, intervention design and progress monitoring.
Rather than focusing on a singular instructional or leadership issue in a specific school, the SSC will offer school districts professional learning and coaching in each of these areas.
“We want to disrupt the siloed approach to leader and teacher professional development by building partnerships with schools across these areas of expertise,” Muirhead said. “Our vision for the SSC includes an approach using school-based teams with expertise from each of these areas. That way, we can offer integrated, systemic support to help you make a difference for the students in your schools.”
But, Muirhead emphasized, none of this work is possible without partnership and collaboration with Delaware districts and schools.
“This work has to happen through deep, meaningful partnerships,” Muirhead said. “How can we at the SSC work to best serve your needs? What programs and services would you like to see? How can we start the conversation today and continue to collaborate?”
Needs in Delaware school districts
After small-group discussions, the Superintendent Study Council participants offered robust answers to the questions that Muirhead posed.
Superintendents and DDOE representatives shared many immediate and future needs, communicating a shared interest in professional learning that is systemic, sustainable, results-driven and grounded in a deeper relationship with UD.
For example, Dorrell Green, superintendent of Red Clay Consolidated School District, emphasized that individual schools look to their districts for guidance and leadership. For that reason, it is especially important to focus on the system and system development as educational leaders work to address challenges.
Corey Miklus, superintendent of Seaford School District, and others spoke about the challenges of the teacher and school leader shortage. In line with the goals and offering of the SSC and CEHD, they asked for support in generating interest in education careers, building the capacity of their current school leaders and facilitating professional learning in data-driven decision-making.
Many also communicated an interest in applying research-based best practices within Delaware schools, noting an interest in UD faculty and staff research about school improvement, instruction and other topics.
For example, Christine Alois, superintendent of Caesar Rodney School District, expressed an interest in learning more from UD researchers about successful educational initiatives in schools and districts within the state of Delaware.
Muirhead concluded the event by expressing gratitude for the participants’ input and interest in future collaboration, noting plans to conduct immediate followup with the superintendents to further address their specific needs.
More about the Governor’s Institute for School Leadership
GISL is a partnership between CEHD, the DDOE, the Delaware Governor’s Office and Delaware public schools.
As a component of GISL, the Superintendent Study Council is a collaborative effort among districts, DDOE and SSC’s DASL that meets monthly for discussion and professional learning about topics related to school improvement, equity and improving outcomes for all students.
To learn more about GISL or to participate in one of its programs, visit its website.
Article by Jessica Henderson. Photos by Shelly Silva.
Beginning November 2022, Faith Muirhead, senior associate director of PDCE, will lead the SSC in this work as its new director.
“As the new director of our SSC, Faith brings exceptional expertise in high-quality instruction and curriculum materials, professional development and school partnership, as well as a commitment to removing the barriers to equitable teaching and learning at the K-12, university and policy levels,” said Gary T. Henry, dean of CEHD and professor in the School of Education (SOE) and the Joseph R. Biden Jr. School of Public Policy and Administration. “I’m looking forward to following her progress over the next year, especially after the glowing comments we received from superintendents, the Delaware Department of Education and other school representatives after our SSC launch event on October 21.”
About Faith Muirhead
Since 2014, Muirhead has served as senior associate director of PDCE, specializing in mathematics instruction. She also teaches courses within the SOE and the Department of Mathematical Sciences and advises within the SOE’s Ed.D. in Educational Leadership program. Muirhead earned her Ph.D. in Curriculum, Instruction, Teaching, and Teacher Education at Michigan State University and has taught prospective teachers for nearly two decades, focusing on practice-based teacher education.
Her research interests include the professional learning of prospective and practicing mathematics teachers, equity in K-16 schools, building thinking classrooms and classroom-based coaching. She currently serves as co-principal investigator on a National Science Foundation-funded DRK-12 grant studying problem-posing-based learning in middle school classrooms. She is also writing a book reflecting on her coaching work, tentatively titled RealTime Mathematics Coaching: A How-To Guide.
“The potential impact of refocusing our work through the SSC in partnership with school districts is exciting,” Muirhead said. “The SSC will work to design models we can offer to school districts to help district leaders identify some possible root causes of systemic instabilities. We can offer to collaborate with districts to facilitate rigorous needs assessments, root cause analysis, district-wide improvement, school improvement and capacity-building for school leadership. We can support school districts to study their successes and bright spots and find ways to share their learning broadly to help other districts bring these successes to scale.”
UD emphasizes partnership and collaboration with Delaware schools in School Success Center event
More than 140 Delaware school leaders, district partners, government representatives and University of Delaware faculty and staff attended the launch of UD’s School Success Center (SSC) on Friday, Oct. 21, demonstrating a shared commitment to school success in Delaware.
Housed in the College of Education and Human Development, the SSC brings together UD’s Professional Development Center for Educators (PDCE), known for its excellence in instructional support, and the Delaware Academy for School Leadership (DASL), known for its excellence in leadership preparation. Through a new systemic approach, the SSC will offer comprehensive and integrated support to Delaware’s schools and districts to help improve student and school outcomes.
With an emphasis on partnership and collaboration, the event introduced attendees to the SSC and showcased the college’s teacher and leader preparation initiatives, support services for education students and faculty research addressing critical needs in schools.
Partnering in School Success
In his opening remarks, Gary T. Henry, dean of CEHD and professor in the School of Education (SOE) and the Joseph R. Biden, Jr. School of Public Policy and Administration, pictured above, welcomed attendees and shared how the SSC will help schools and districts grow together in their school improvement efforts.
CEHD Dean Gary T. Henry delivers opening remarks at the launch of UD’s School Success Center.
Henry noted that PDCE and DASL have helped schools make impressive gains in student and school-level achievement and focus on equity, climate and culture. But, in separating these teams, the college wasn’t optimizing its efforts in school improvement.
“One important key to any school improvement effort — which we’ve seen in both research and practice — is ensuring that both teachers and school leaders are growing together in terms of their understanding of the curriculum and their ability to implement that curriculum,” Henry said. “Research shows that the first step in achieving school success is increasing the capacity of both teachers and leaders, then exercising that enhanced capacity to build a positive environment for teaching and learning and enhance peer collaboration.”
Throughout his remarks, Henry emphasized the importance of partnerships with schools, noting that school success often depends on collaboration among all parts of the education system.
“To be successful, this work will take all educators and staff in the building working together with the support of the district and the state,” Henry said. “Through our SSC, we plan to continue our existing partnerships and develop new and deeper ways of partnering with Delaware public, charter and independent schools to enhance the capacity for instruction and leadership and deliver coaching in literacy, math and leadership. We also look forward to engaging with you in designing and implementing school success strategies based on research and adapted to meet local needs.”
Erica Litke, associate professor in the School of Education, discusses improving algebra instruction and equitable teaching practices.
Engaging faculty presentations from Erica Litke, associate professor in the SOE, Roderick L. Carey, assistant professor in the Department of Human Development and Family Sciences, and Joshua Wilson, associate professor in the SOE, similarly highlighted partnerships with Delaware teachers and schools as they discussed research projects addressing critical educational needs.
Litke illustrated an alternate way to think about algebra instruction, emphasizing a focus on content, equitable teaching practices and aligning these methods with instructional practices already in place in Delaware schools.
Carey shared insights from his Black Boy Mattering project, a unique school-based research partnership that acts like a think-tank for high school Black boys. This project helps school community members foster positive relationships with Black students who feel marginalized so that these individuals know their worth, importance and significance.
Wilson showed how automated writing evaluation software can help students develop writing proficiency by offering immediate feedback to students and creating more space in teachers’ schedules for writing instruction.
After the faculty presentations and lunch, attendees spent the afternoon in conversation with UD faculty, staff and each other as they learned about CEHD’s teacher and leader preparation initiatives and enjoyed six new ice cream flavors from UD’s UDairy Creamery.
Enthusiastic responses to the School Success Center
With a UD ice cream scooper in hand, many attendees communicated enthusiasm about the event and looked forward to the work of the SSC.
Roderick L. Carey, associate processor in the Department of Human Development and Family Services, shares insight from his Black Boy Mattering project.
Michael Saylor, director of educator excellence in the Delaware Department of Education, appreciated the SSC’s integrated model of support and emphasized the importance of collaboration in school improvement efforts.
“Merging PDCE and DASL to create the SSC supports current research on improvement,” Saylor said. “We know that we need strong instructional leaders in our schools that can support their teachers in strong pedagogy. The new center models this comprehensive approach. Supporting schools takes collaboration and breaking down silos.”
Jeffrey Menzer, superintendent of Colonial School District, noted that he looked forward to future partnerships with UD through the SSC.
“It was exciting to learn about the University’s effort to transform its support of public education through the realignment of two long standing programs into the SSC,” Menzer said. “Colonial is looking forward to the opportunity to partner with the SSC. The three faculty presenters at the event last Friday were excellent examples of the power of these partnerships.”
Joshua Wilson, associate professor in the School of Education, highlights partnerships with Red Clay Consolidated School District and Colonial School District in his talk on automated writing evaluation software.
As the coordinator of the teacher induction program and teacher recruitment for Red Clay Consolidated School District, Stephanie Armstrong supports novice staff, year-long interns and student teachers in all aspects of their educational preparation. She communicated appreciation about the SSC’s mission and the event’s networking aspect.
“The ability to collaborate with colleagues in a comfortable forum was meaningful and welcomed,” Armstrong said. “Friday’s event allowed me to discuss methods for sustaining year-long student residents in Red Clay Schools through the UD SSC. The vision of the SSC is one much needed in our state as we address the declining interest in the teaching profession. I am excited for Red Clay to continue its partnership with the University and look forward to watching the professional relationship flourish.”
UD merges professional development centers to offer systemic teacher and leader support to Delaware schools
Assistant principals and principals in kindergarten through 12th grade schools routinely support teachers by observing their classroom teaching and offering feedback on their instruction. But, what happens when a school leader is unfamiliar with the current best practices in math or literacy? How can he or she offer meaningful feedback on the teacher’s instruction?
Through a new systemic approach, the SSC will offer comprehensive and coordinated support to Delaware’s schools and districts to help improve student and school outcomes.
“One important key to any school improvement effort is ensuring that both teachers and school leaders are growing together in terms of their understanding of the curriculum and their ability to deliver that curriculum,” said Gary T. Henry, dean of the CEHD. “Rather than pursuing a partnership with a single UD team to address literacy instruction, for example, the SSC will allow schools and districts to pursue a systemic approach to school improvement so that professional development in content, instruction and instructional leadership all drive toward the same goals.”
UD will officially launch the SSC on Friday, Oct. 21 in an on-campus event that will also showcase CEHD’s teacher and leader preparation initiatives, support services for education students and faculty research addressing critical needs in schools.
A systemic approach
For nearly two decades, PDCE has supported teachers and administrators across the nation in their instructional practices. Through partnerships with schools and districts, PDCE’s coaches in literacy and math instruction facilitate professional development for educators that maximize student learning opportunities through the use of evidence-based curricula and teaching practices.
Similarly, DASL has supported assistant principals, principals, superintendents and other educational leaders in meeting the complex challenges of leading a school or district. DASL coaches in educational leadership assist school and district leaders throughout their careers by providing powerful research-based professional development and differentiated coaching services based on their school or district’s individual needs.
In joining the teams from these two centers, the SSC will partner with both teachers and administrators so that teachers, schools and districts can coordinate and integrate their improvement efforts.
“In a large school, we often partner with an assistant principal who is in charge of math instruction, for example,” said Faith Muirhead, senior associate director of mathematics in PDCE. “We spend time with the assistant principal so that when they observe teachers and give feedback, they can align their feedback with what the teachers are learning about the curriculum. But we’re not always able to do that with the principal. Bringing together the expertise in literacy, mathematics and leadership is really exciting because school culture and instructional leadership cross over all three of those areas. If all of our teams are working simultaneously in a school, that would be incredibly powerful.”
The SSC will bring to fruition a model of support partially implemented by UD with Laurel School District, where members of PDCE and DASL worked to close substantial gaps in student performance.
Before UD’s partnership, there was a 20% gap in math proficiency between Laurel’s third to eighth-grade students and the state average. While there were many factors that affected student achievement during this time, UD’s partnership helped reduce the difference to less than 2%. In reading, seventh graders now exceed the statewide average in proficiency.
Last year, in the Seaford School District, Jaime True Daley, senior associate director of literacy in PDCE, observed similar results in student achievement.
“After a cohort of principals studied and aligned K-8 high-quality instructional materials in literacy across five schools, student achievement accelerated,” Daley said. “The principals’ knowledge and understanding of the curriculum helped contribute to the gains in Seaford, where multilingual learners demonstrated impressive growth.”
David Santore is a senior associate director in DASL.
“We often see a disconnect where one part of the instructional system is not working in concert with the other,” Santore said. “Teachers and leaders can grow individually and therefore affect the system, but if that growth is well coordinated, then it accelerates everybody’s growth. We can do a lot with making sure that everyone is moving forward together to optimize the school improvement process.”
Teacher and administrator shortage
Through its systemic model of support and partnership, the SSC will also work to address the teacher and administrator shortages in Delaware and across the nation. For many schools and districts, the COVID-19 pandemic worsened an existing teacher and administrator shortage as teachers and leaders struggled with school closures, virtual learning, mental and physical health concerns and a shortage of substitute teachers once they returned to in-person learning.
“The teacher and administrator shortage in Delaware and across the nation is both multifaceted and complex,” Henry said. “The shortage is both related to a lack of available teachers and an alarming number of educators leaving the field due to a lack of instructional, leadership and, increasingly, public support. Through collaborative partnership, our SSC will provide the support that educators urgently need in their schools, but also facilitate connections to our teacher preparation initiatives in CEHD, including our high school pipeline programs, diversity scholarships, associates and bachelor’s degree programs and innovations in our teacher preparation programs, such as teacher residencies.”
Launching the School Success Center
With school leaders, human resources professionals and government representatives in attendance, UD will officially launch the SSC on Friday, Oct. 21 at the John M. Clayton Hall Conference Center from 10 a.m. to 1:15 p.m.
Through three engaging conversations with faculty members, the event will also highlight research and partnership work that directly impacts the critical issues facing Delaware schools.
Roderick L. Carey, assistant professor in CEHD’s Department of Human Development and Family Sciences, will share insights and research findings from his Black Boy Mattering project, a unique school-based research partnership that acts like a think-tank for high school Black boys. This project helps school community members foster positive relationships with Black students who feel marginalized so that these individuals know their worth, importance and significance.
Erica Litke, associate professor in CEHD’s School of Education (SOE), will share an alternate way to think about improving algebra instruction — one that is content-focused, employs more equitable teaching practices and aligns with instructional practices already in place in Delaware schools.
Joshua Wilson, associate professor in CEHD’s SOE, will share findings from his research in Delaware schools on how a relatively new technology — automated writing evaluation software — helps students develop writing proficiency and highlight his long-standing partnerships with Red Clay Consolidated School District and Colonial School District.
Attendees will also learn about CEHD’s full portfolio of teacher and leader preparation initiatives from the faculty and staff members leading these efforts:
Delaware Teaching Fellows program, which provides full four-year scholarships to highly qualified Delaware high school seniors admitted to a UD teacher education program in exchange for teaching in Delaware schools for at least four years
CEHD Dean’s Diversity in Education Scholarship, which alleviates the financial barrier to a UD degree in early childhood education or elementary teacher education for students from underrepresented backgrounds
Teachers of Tomorrow pipeline program, which introduces Delaware high school juniors and seniors from underrepresented backgrounds to the teaching field and campus life through a two-week summer institute at UD
Associates in Arts programs in early childhood education and elementary teacher education, which allow students to complete the first two years of an education degree at UD’s Georgetown and Wilmington campuses
Bachelor’s programs in early childhood education and elementary teacher education — which offers concentrations in elementary education, middle school English, math, science and social studies, teaching English as a second language and special education
4+1 programs that allow UD education students to receive a master’s degree with only one additional year of coursework
Principal Preparation Program, which provides the professional development required for assistant principal and principal certification in Delaware
Governor’s Institute for School Leadership, which provides professional development and mentoring for assistant principal, principal supervisors and superintendents through a partnership between CEHD, the Delaware Governor’s Office, the Delaware Department of Education and Delaware school districts
