Blazing New Trails - Connexions

Distinguishing Practices for Administrators 205
Those were the four goals that the lab director had identified and established. There was
always an emphasis on individual development.” Not only were written curriculum standards
for teaching and learning present, but assessment was incorporated with the IAD as an early
childhood lab teacher explained:
The written curriculum was sequential, and the way we assessed in those days was
with a checklist on clipboards in a classroom. As we observed the children in centers
during activities in the day, we would check off. It was set up like we still do a lot of
this information now; you would plan based on the skills you wanted to work on.
This practice of implementing a written curriculum and assessing to guide instruction
continued through the lab settings. A charter school administrator pointed out that the school
had a writing and math continuum and a social studies and science curriculum framework in
addition to the state curriculum. Authentic assessment drove instruction as one charter school
teacher demonstrated:
I am constantly assessing. I am conferring with the students during reading and
writing workshop. I have lists of the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (the state
curriculum) so that I can go through and see where they are periodically. I have
anecdotal records that I keep. I have notebooks that each child keeps. I can see where
they were the last time I conferred with them. I assess their use of learning centers
with another assessment tool. We share in grand conversations and writing
celebrations where I can hear their language and how they are discussing their reading
and writing to know if they clearly understand the concepts.
Curriculum to focus learning and assessment to guide instruction were distinguishing
instructional practices existing historically in the lab settings.
Realize Learning Never Ceases
Learning was the mission for university teacher candidates and lab children, but
learning for faculty and lab teachers was also a priority. In the early years, professional
development was gained through active participation in professional organizations and
personal reading of current, scholarly literature. One former lab teacher and administrator
stated, “We were active in professional associations. We traveled to state meetings especially
in the area of early childhood education. There was little money for professional development,
but we did a lot of reading.” As grant funds were acquired, experts in the fields of early
childhood education, mathematics, constructivist practices, and literacy were engaged to
deliver workshops, and groups traveled to listen to the experts in order to learn and grow. The
faculty and lab teachers widened professional development offerings to the surrounding
public schools with the intent of creating a learning community. An administrator described
the desire for involving surrounding educators in learning:
We looked at problem solving institutionally. I think the very first leap into this was
when we had the Texas Reading Grant. We looked at best practices in reading and
involved the university faculty as well as local school district curriculum specialists.
We were trying to make all of the stakeholders one.