More than 30 early childhood education students have pursued careers navigating the unique challenges of urban schools through the Judith Herb College of Education’s Brady Partnership Schools initiative since it launched in 2018.
As its latest cohort prepares for a new round of discussions and field experiences this fall, the initiative has equipped teachers for roles in districts including Toledo Public Schools. It’s also established the value of its tiered mentorship model for teacher candidates preparing to work in under-resourced schools through research published recently in the peer-reviewed journal Teaching and Teacher Education.
Lauren Perry, from left, Karley Hawes, Sharon Segura, Elanie McWade and Bria Turner participated in the Brady Partnership Schools initiative before graduating with bachelor’s degrees in early childhood education in May.
“We find that students at different levels of training engage with each other informally, but that often the very specific licensure requirements in teacher education programs make it hard for them to learn from each other in a more intentional way,” said Dr. Katherine Delaney, an associate professor of teacher education and a co-director of the initiative with UToledo’s Dr. Ruslan Slutsky. “Our research speaks to the value of these relationships and it provides a robust structure that other higher education institutions can follow to incorporate tiered mentorship into their teacher education programs.”
Launched with the financial support of Dr. Tom and Betsy Brady, and run as a co-curricular track within the Early Childhood Education Program, the Brady Partnership Schools initiative aims to identify and support teacher candidates who are interested in meeting the critical need for teachers in under-resourced schools in urban districts.
Primarily located in low-income communities, under-resourced schools are characterized by less experienced educators, fewer support staff and a lack of physical resources and opportunities for supplemental learning experiences.
As a part of the Brady Partnership Schools initiative, participants complete their field experiences through Toledo Public Schools, specifically at partnering elementary schools that meet the initiative’s criteria of a culturally, ethnically and linguistically diverse community where 85% of students are identified as low-income.
Their classroom experiences are informed and supplemented by additional involvement with the Boys and Girls Clubs of Toledo.
During regularly scheduled meetings, they discuss their experiences in the field as well as issues pertinent to under-resourced schools, like the implications of policy decisions or how to bring culturally relevant and appropriate practices into the classroom.
“We want to help our teacher candidates broaden their perspectives, and we want them to think about children and families in under-resourced communities from a strength-based perspective,” Delaney said. “Many of them didn’t grow up in an under-resourced community, so they have different experiences when it comes to how families engage with schools and the resources that are available to them.”
These meetings and the relationships they foster account for a key element of the tiered mentorship model analyzed in Teaching and Teacher Education. Teacher candidates are encouraged to find support and mentorship from multiple sources, including their peers; the classroom teachers with whom they’re paired for their field experiences; and the faculty and graduate students who facilitate the initiative within the Judith Herb College of Education.
“The students kept telling us, ‘I feel like I belong here. I feel like there is also someone I can go to,’” said Dr. Tiffany Rowland, who spearheaded the research as a graduate assistant for the institute from 2020 to 2024. “It also gave them a safe place to challenge their and others’ thinking. They could bring their hard questions to each other and to us.”
Rowland has since earned her doctorate in curriculum and instruction and is now the program coordinator for Reach Out and Read, an initiative supporting childhood literacy, within the UToledo College of Medicine and Life Sciences’ Department of Pediatrics.
Delaney and Slutsky worked with Rowland, as well as then-graduate assistants and co-authors Victoria Pope, Karen Krepps and Cassidy Boyden, to collect and analyze data through conversations with 24 participants between 2018 and 2022.
Their findings formalized their anecdotal observations that tiered mentorship fosters knowledge sharing, encourages reflection and provides multilevel support to enhance skill development for teaching in under-resourced schools.
“It can be challenging to work in a high-needs classroom, and we want to make sure that the students in those classrooms are getting the education they deserve by preparing our pre-service teachers to meet their needs,” said Slutsky, a professor of teacher education. “It’s important that our pre-service teachers understand that children in high-needs schools, to no fault of their own, may bring added challenges with them every morning that may require a bit more patience and understanding from their teachers.”
While the researchers have previously presented their research stemming from the initiative, including at national conferences including the American Educational Research Association Annual Meeting in 2023, this is their first publication to come out of it.
Additional articles are in the works, as well as a just-approved study that will follow up with graduates and analyze their perspectives on the longer-term impact of the initiative.
The Judith Herb College of Education is set to merge with the College of Arts and Letters in July, establishing the Judith Herb College of Arts, Social Sciences and Education.
