April 1997 Residence Program Shows Benefits
A successful first year for NWREL's Teacher-in-Residence program reaffirms the value of teacher involvement in the Laboratory's research and development efforts.
Teachers have long been recognized as the most important factor in student learning. The Teacher-in-Residence program benefits the Laboratory, participating educators, and their schools. The program brings teachers or other professionals who work with children and young adults to NWREL for several months. During 1996, four teachers—two from Oregon and two from Idaho—worked with NWREL staff. Two of the visiting teachers worked in the Laboratory's Technology Program, one worked with Education and Work, and one worked with the Rural Education Program.
NWREL gains from the knowledge and experience of the practitioners while it develops practices, processes, and products for dissemination to the field. "It brings a dose of reality to our work," says Dr. Larry McClure, Director of the Education and Work Program. "It puts us in touch with the joys and frustrations of being a teacher today, and helps us determine how our products should reflect that."
Dr. Steve Nelson, Director of the Rural Education Program, sums up the program in one word: "Wonderful."
"We expose the teachers to as many aspects of research and development as they possibly can stand," Nelson says. For its summer teacher in residence, the Rural Education Program has selected Tom Brock, a kindergarten teacher from Auntie Mary Nicoli School in Antioch, Alaska.
Teachers involved in the program and their schools also benefit from the program: Teachers go back to their schools with new skills, perspectives, and information that provides a foundation to better serve as leaders in school improvement efforts. Carol Larson of Glide High School in Glide, Oregon, attests to this transformation. Larson spent eight weeks last summer working in NWREL's Rural Education Program. She learned how to use the Internet, researched information for a grant proposal, helped facilitate a conference on developing sustainable communities, attended a school improvement conference, helped develop a survey, analyzed data, and did other tasks on a variety of projects.
"I have come back to school with an amazing array of resources," Larson says. "I have more articles about a wide variety of school improvement topics than I thought possible. My colleagues will probably get tired of articles in their mailboxes to read and discuss at faculty meetings." Larson also developed contacts who can provide information and resources about school-based questions.
The teacher-in-residence experience, she notes, was renewing. "I am ready for the new school year with more energy and enthusiasm for teaching than I've had in the last five years."
Basic compensation arrangements for teachers in residence vary depending on whether the residency occurs in the summer or during the school year.
During the summer, NWREL offers a modest stipend and travel reimbursement. During the school year, the teacher receives travel reimbursement, and NWREL may reimburse the participating district for either the cost of a substitute teacher or the salary and benefits of the participating teacher. NWREL can also help teachers negotiate graduate credit for their work at the Laboratory.
Qualifications and work assignments for teachers in residence vary from program to program. Additional information is available from the NWREL personnel office.
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