by Carrie Wilson “What does a successful science journal look like in second grade?” “What do I hope this partner reading conversation sounds like?” “What data would indicate that my students have really internalized the science concept we are studying?” These are the kinds of questions that our teacher scholars grapple with in their collaborative Mills Teacher Scholars work sessions. On the surface, these questions may seem straightforward. But in practice, seeking thoughtful answers to questions about student understanding of content involves delving in to messy issues. Perhaps the most common struggle our teachers scholars face is teasing apart evidence of student understanding from evidence of a student’s ability to follow directions. Upon looking closely and reflecting with colleagues teachers discover that a well scaffolded assignment  may yield more data about students’ ability to follow directions than about their understanding of the key concepts. So how can we figure out what students really understand?

Our first Mills Teacher Scholars School-site partner, Roosevelt Elementary School, has just begun its fourth year of work with our program. Roosevelt teachers recently gathered for their initial meeting, facilitated by their amazing teacher scholar leaders (Cynthia Epps, Wendy Papciak, and Kenny Moy) who are adapting meeting agendas to respond to the specific feedback from their colleagues around how the inquiry work could best suit their professional development goals. Twelve Roosevelt teachers—70% of the staff—self-selected to join the Roosevelt Mills Teacher Scholars group this year.

In June over 175 people attended the Mills Teacher Scholars Inquiry in Action Forum where 40 teacher scholars presented their work. Please check out our video clip of the event. Here’s the link to the video:...

Written by Claire Bove, Former Associate Director at Mills Teacher Scholars In the national conversation about education, many voices are asking questions about teacher quality: how do we quantify it? How should we report it? But shouldn’t we begin by asking, What is teacher quality? What does it look like? And how can we help teachers develop it, increase it, and share it? In the Mills Teacher Scholars  program, we provide coaching and tools to teachers in East Bay schools, so that they can understand their students’ learning, and figure out what is getting in the way of learning. The teachers we work with frequently use standardized test scores and assessments such as benchmark tests and standard reading scores. For example, teachers rely on Diagnostic Reading Assessment scores to find out where students are having difficulty learning, but standardized assessments do not tell teachers what is getting in the way of learning, nor how to help a student overcome the obstacles to learning. The teacher scholars in our program collect data to find out how their students learn, and they work collaboratively to develop teaching strategies to help their students overcome obstacles to learning. The following example illustrates this process with Shelley Grant, an eighth-grade science Mills Teacher Scholar.