Teaching Qualifications and Teaching Assignments: How They Influence Teachers' Professional Development Choices
This was a descriptive study using interview data, BSP participant data, and district course assignment and teacher licensure data.
We examined teacher assignment and licensure data for school years 2005-06, 2006-07, and 2007-08. In school year 2005-2006, teaching assignment data covered 441 teachers, 620 courses, and 1473 sections. In 2006-07, teaching assignment data covered 441 teachers, 565 courses, and 1353 sections. In school year 2007-08, teaching assignment data covered 436 teachers, 606 courses, and 1387 sections. These data were analyzed to determine the frequency of teaching assignments by section within and outside of licensure by science discipline and student population. The frequency of shifts in teaching assignments from one school year to the next were also examined.
Teachers' qualifications were measured according to their certification and assignment status as follows:
Relevant license: licensed in the science subject
they are teaching
Semi-relevant license: licensed in a science subject, but
not the science subject they are teaching
Non-relevant license: not
licensed in any science subject, or not licensed at all
Teachers' experience was
operationalized as follows:
Low experience: 1-2 years of teaching experience
Medium experience: 3-5 years of teaching experience
High experience: > 6
years of teaching experience
Interview data were collected from 47 teacher interviews conducted with middle and high school teachers of science in 8 Boston public schools. Interviews lasted approximately 30-45 minutes and employed a semi-structured protocol. Interviews were audio-taped, transcribed, supplemented with researchers' field notes, and analyzed using Atlas.ti software. Teachers were asked questions about the factors that influenced their professional development choices and their responses were analyzed by licensure status and teaching experience. Among our sample, 25 (53%) were teaching courses that were solely within their licensure, and 22 (47%) were assigned at least one course outside their licensure. This distribution is similar to the district, in which 55% are teaching solely within their licensure, and 45% are teaching at least one course with a semi- or non-relevant license.
BSP participation data from years 1-4 of the project were analyzed to assess potential trends and relationships between teachers' course assignments and their engagement in CCCs and CCLS cycles. The goal of this analysis was to describe the match (or lack thereof) between teacher's teaching assignment, their licensure, and their participation specific professional development strategies offered by BSP.
