Measuring the effectiveness of an

introduction to urban teaching course:

Correcting commonly held stereotypes

Gale A. Mentzer, Ph.D.

Judith Herb College of Education

The University of Toledo

Toledo, OH

What is teaching all about?

Original Assessment Tool

Qualitative Approach

Fall 2008 Results

Fall 2008 Results

High school background

Academic Preparation

Physical Environment Behavior

Post Equal or Better

Pretest Posttest Pretest Posttest Pretest Posttest urban less less equal equal less less 1 urban less equal equal better equal equal 3 urban equal less equal less better 3 suburban less equal less equal less equal 3 suburban less less less less less equal 1 suburban equal equal less equal less better 3 suburban less equal less equal less less 2 suburban equal better less equal equal better 3 suburban less equal equal better less less 2

rural equal equal less equal less equal 3

Total positive change 6 8 6

Total equal or better 8 9 7

Coding

• Teacher

• Discipline

• Parents

• Confidence/competence

• Students

What do you expect the physical environment of the urban classroom to be like?

Pretest: Crowded classrooms, limited supplies including textbooks.

Posttest: Newer school, clean large classroom wide hallways that were still very crowded in morning before homeroom. Classroom has SmartBoard.

How academically prepared do you believe urban students

are?

Pretest: I do not know for sure but the impression I have is that urban students are not as academically prepared as their suburban counterparts. This impression comes from the continuing need for teachers and constant reports of poor performance on testing.

Posttest: As well as the students wants to be. The opportunity to learn is there but requires the student to be motivated.

How supportive are parents of children in urban schools?

Pretest: I don't believe they are supportive. This is a general statement, I know there are exceptions. Two reasons why: 1) the parent is not educated well; 2) they are not around as much because they are working to pay bills.

Posttest: I was fortunate to sit in on parent-teacher conferences and I think the parents are supportive, but they are often not completely involved. In some cases the parents’ education level was probably not capable of helping their child.

Your turn!