Cheney schools receive teacher development grants

Three Cheney schools have been selected to be among 45 schools statewide to participate in a cutting edge initiative providing teachers with stronger professional experience and development opportunities in math and science.

Washington STEM announced Aug. 26 that Cheney High School, Cheney Middle School and Westwood Middle School would be taking part in its STEM-PD (Professional Development) program.

According to a news release, STEM-PD utilizes state-of-the-art technology enabling teachers to take charge of their professional learning.

The initiative was also part of Washington STEM’s announcement of nearly $4 million it is investing in “innovative, regionally based programs aimed at improving teaching and learning of science, engineering, technology and math” across the state.

About $2.5 million is being invested in the STEM-PD program, with another $1.4 million being distributed to seven regions around the state, including $200,000 for Spokane, over the next three years to help grow those regional networks of educators, employers and community leaders involved in STEM education.

Washington STEM’s communications manager, Jessica Hall, said each school applying for the grant has its own plan for how to use the funding, if successful.

The program role is about providing staff and technology support to help teachers with their professional development and getting input on how to model best practices being done in the field.

“It is all research based,” Hall said. “You always need to talk to someone else who knows what is going on.”

In the case of the Cheney schools, all three applied for grant funding in order to set up a video classroom environment where teachers can watch and learn from examples of instruction. Westwood Middle School Principal Erika Burden said she and Cheney Middle School Principal Mike Stark wrote essentially the same grant for a system called IRIS Connect, which was also the focus of the grant written by high school officials.

The cloud-based, video system — which has already been installed in a classroom at Westwood and Cheney middle schools — will allow educators to review and analyze videotaped lessons.

It is also set up so that the instructor being videotaped has the ability to listen and respond to feedback from teachers watching outside of the classroom while the lesson is taking place.

“It’s kind of like real-time coaching,” Burden said.

Burden said the grant helps them with their teacher development criterion of pre-training, in-class viewing and debriefing after instruction.

While the focus of the STEM grant is on science and math teachers specifically, Burden said their intent is to put it to wider use.

“We’ve used it for all content areas and we will continue to use it for all content areas,” she said.

Besides Cheney teachers, all three schools have worked with Eastern Washington University to include instructors and students in the observation program.

High school assistant principal Ray Picicci said they worked with EWU as part of their RAMP — Riverpoint Advanced Mathematics Partnership — collaboration with Eastern and Washington State University for teacher development at the Riverpoint campus in Spokane.

Picicci said the high school’s system, which has yet to be installed, would focus on EWU pre-service students — student teachers — to supplement classroom instruction.

“You can watch a teacher in real-time without bringing in the whole class,” he said.

Cheney School District officials will be attending a Sept. 19 Washington STEM conference, one of three planned statewide this year, to learn more about how the program operates and opportunities provided.

John McCallum can be reached at jmac@cheneyfreepress.com.