Class act: San Joaquin COE establishes its own teachers college
Published: March 17, 2011
The charge to prepare students for college or career has become a shopworn sentiment at many reform-weary schools. The problem could be that teachers and administrators steeped in a college preparatory culture are just not sure what a career-readiness pedagogy looks like.
The Teachers College of San Joaquin set out to change that.
“Specifically, [we’re] training teachers in career-oriented models so they can bridge that college-to-career gap and really respond to the notion of preparing kids equally for the world of work and the world of school,” explains Catherine Kearney, dean of TCSJ and director of teacher development at the San Joaquin County Office of Education.
Schools often revamp their schedules or the way they group students in the name of reform, but that doesn’t necessarily translate into a focus on readiness for the workplace or college, Kearney says. Graduates of the San Joaquin county office’s teacher preparation program were coming back asking for a master’s program that could help them really understand what career readiness means. The WASC-accredited graduate school opened in April 2009.
TCSJ is the first master’s program to focus on teaching educators how to integrate reform strategies like small learning communities, career academies, project-based learning, 21st century skills and career-oriented curricula. The college is also notable for being the first graduate school for teachers in the state to be established by a county office of education.
Most students can earn their master’s degree in 14 months, working around their current teaching schedule. Programs include degrees in educational leadership and school development, educational inquiry, or advanced teaching practice. The college graduates its first class this May, just after its second anniversary.
Many of the students are second-career teachers pursuing dual certification in an academic area and a career and technical education area that capitalizes on their business experience. Kearney says she’s had teachers merge their English certification with the hospitality field, construction with a math credential, a legal background with the social sciences. Schools like having teachers with dual certification because it’s much easier to create a master schedule.
Since most of the college’s students are currently teaching, they are able to make practical application of what they’re learning each day. Their objective in their classrooms is to teach so that their students see the relevance of what they’re learning in their lives, and how important an education will be to their job or career.
What’s unique about TCSJ’s program is that the notion of career readiness begins to be introduced in kindergarten.
“When you start exploring careers and career-like activities in kindergarten,” explains Kearney, “then when [students are] moving up through elementary school and middle school, they can actually make a good choice about what career academy they might want to participate in because they’ve had multiple opportunities along the way to investigate things that interest them.”
Helping students focus on career interests throughout their schooling is very helpful, because they may discover that a career they’ve been considering is not as glamorous as they imagined. Kearney recalls one young man who wanted to be a plastic surgeon—until he observed an eight-hour surgery and realized he didn’t want a career that required him to stand that long. “Sometimes you find out just as much by going in a direction that identifies early on that you really want to do something else,” she says.
Although the college typically serves students from Marysville to Merced—a good swath of the northern Sacramento Valley—there are some who come from father away, usually attending classes during intensive summer sessions. Flexible sessions at night and other times convenient for working teachers are also offered.
Governance teams have good reason to focus on career readiness, as research shows that helping students explore and experience academics in a context that’s relevant to a career or employment field also boosts their performance in core academic classes. Dropout rates decrease as well.
SJCOE may be the first county office in California to offer a teacher’s college, but Kearney says she doesn’t want to be “the only” for very long. “We’ll be happy to share anything we learn along the way and we can provide a model for anyone else who wants to implement,” she offers.
“One of my graduate students,” Kearney says, “told me, ‘There are lots of institutions that are about thinking. Teachers College of San Joaquin is about doing.’ I think that says it all.”
—Kristi Garrett
Who: San Joaquin Teachers College
What: graduate program for teachers
When: since April 2009
Where: San Joaquin County Office of Education in Stockton
Why: to help K-12 teachers integrate career and college readiness in their classrooms
More: www.teacherscollegesj.org; you can also see photos and contact TCSJ teachers on Facebook: www.facebook.com/TeachersCollegeSJ