Becoming a teacher has always been difficult in WA. Remote learning makes it tougher
There was a distinct moment when Brooke Jackson knew she wanted to teach.
A 22-year-old Washington State University College of Education student who grew up in Puyallup, Jackson said she was working at a day care when a young girl came up to her with a revelation.
“I remember she came up to me and said, ‘Wow, you look like me,’” Jackson, who is African American, told The News Tribune. “I think it just showed me that a lot of kids I know need a mirror for seeing themselves in education. … That really kind of thrust me into wanting to teach, to be able to let kids know, ‘You can be this, too.’”
Over the last three months, Jackson has been working to clear the final hurdles in her quest for certification and a career in education: serving as a student teacher in her hometown, working in Sharon Long’s second grade class at Zeiger Elementary.
There’s just one catch.
While this last step of her education would normally involve working face-to-face with children, for Jackson and other student teachers, the COVID-19 pandemic has meant trying to get the teaching experience she needs while students work remotely.
Since September, Jackson said, she has spent much of her time alongside Long in her second grade classroom.
The kids, meanwhile, have come to school every day via the magic of the internet and a computer screen.
According to Jackson, the circumstances have been a blessing and a curse. It’s been considerably more challenging to connect with students and complete some of the requirements for state certification — like the state-mandated teacher performance assessment — but she has also strengthened her technology skills and learned a valuable lesson in overcoming adversity.
“It’s been crazy. This is probably the hardest experience I’ve had teaching. … I’ve never had such a hard workload,” Jackson said. “As I came into the classroom, (Long) was learning how to navigate a classroom during COVID-19. So as she’s learning, I’m learning.”
Like many local student teachers, Friday marked Jackson’s last day “in” the classroom. After Long’s second graders return from winter break, she’ll be gone, off to take the next step: finding a job.
Matt Coulter is the director of Field Services and Certification at WSU’s College of Education. Like every other student teacher he has watched complete their education and certification during the COVID-19 pandemic, Jackson will carry with her a unique experience that will impact and likely improve the educator she ultimately becomes, he said.
In the short term, Coulter warned, the limitations and challenges of remote learning — and a cohort of incoming teachers who will have been forced to learn on the job under these circumstances — will likely increase the amount of support districts will need to provide to new hires.
“We’re going to have a lot of teachers out there who are going to be certified, and they haven’t been in a physical classroom because schools have been closed,” Coulter said. “Fortunately, our student teachers have been resilient … because this is their dream. They want to be a teacher, and they’ll do whatever it takes.”
Completing the state mandated teacher assessment — which is known as the edTPA — is one aspect of the educational process that has become more challenging due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
A requirement for full teacher certification in Washington, the assessment — which has been administered through a third party at Stanford University since 2014 — involves students documenting and assessing their work in the classroom, including recording lessons and student interactions.
The value of the edTPA has been controversial in the world of education since before COVID-19, according to Peter Renn, the assistant dean of Seattle Pacific University’s School of Education.
Now, with the additional challenge presented by a pandemic, Renn worries that some would-be teachers won’t be able to successfully complete it.
While the edTPA has loosened some guidelines in response to the new reality of remote learning and offered an extension that allows recent graduates to be hired and begin teaching full time before passing the assessment, Renn still believes the requirement potentially presents an unnecessary burden for many.
At Seattle Pacific, Renn said, he’s seen the struggles students and recent graduates have had firsthand, largely due to what he described as “the inconsistencies that our student teachers are finding from classroom to classroom.”
Many districts don’t require students to turn on their cameras during remote learning, for example, which Renn said can make documenting student interactions difficult.
More importantly, Renn said, being a student teacher or first-year teacher is all-consuming even in normal times. During a pandemic, requiring prospective educators to complete the edTPA might lead to future teacher shortages, he said.
Ultimately, Renn said he’s like the state Legislature or governor to consider a temporary waiver on edTPA assessments.
At WSU, Coulter said it’s a problem the school has been able to mitigate. While he acknowledged that the pandemic has presented challenges, he also noted that a school the size of WSU has been able to support College of Education students through the process.
Coulter said that 60 out of 63 WSU students have passed the edTPA this semester, with “the majority of those scores completed through remote teaching.”
He said this 95% success rate is actually 3% higher than WSU’s average prior to school closures.
For Jackson, the edTPA is just one more challenge she’s had to navigate during unprecedented circumstances.
In the grand scheme, she believes she’ll be better for it.
Long — who will clearly miss Jackson when her second grade class resumes after winter break — said there’s no question her understudy is ready.
“Brooke is an amazing teacher. … She just has an air about her, that she is able to command the respect of the children, but still nurture them at the same time,” Long said.
“That’s what it takes. You have to have the respect of those kids, but also love on them. She’s got a knack for that.”
This story was originally published December 19, 2020 at 7:05 AM.
