NORTHAMPTON: When Dr. Joan Schuman was hired as Executive Director of what is now the Collaborative for Educational Services the agency was a “tiny provider of special education and professional development programs to a limited number of schools in Hampshire County,” according to CES Board Chair, Lisa Minnick. This week, Schuman will be awarded the prestigious Justus A. Prentice award in honor of her work at the helm of the Northampton based non-profit agency. The award is bestowed by the Association of Educational Service Agencies to an educational leader who exemplifies innovative leadership and advocacy on behalf of educational service agencies (ESAs) at the state and national level.

Minnick describes Schuman’s leadership as transformative, in that the agency has “become one of the most respected, exemplary ESAs in Massachusetts.” Schuman was nominated by Minnick and her colleagues across the state for her pioneering spirit in developing innovative programs that had not previously been implemented by ESAs in Massachusetts.

At a time when ESAs have come under harsh scrutiny by state agencies, CES has continued to engage communities and schools in positive dialogue about how to improve the lives and education of young people. This past year, CES partnered with the Holyoke Public Schools to manage Dean Technical High School, in order to turn around chronic low student achievement scores.

Minnick said Schuman has also expanded the awareness among state leaders about the critical role the state’s 27 ESAs can play in supporting the needs of students, educators and schools. She added that the path-breaking programs designed by Schuman and other staff have “motivated the state to consider ESAs in a new light, and inspired smaller collaboratives to broaden their service portfolios.” Innovative programs designed by Schuman and her staff include:

• Creation of federal grant-funded services that support the social/emotional needs of young people, birth through young adulthood.
• Partnerships with educators to develop collaborative school-based teams that analyze student and other school-based data to improve curriculum and instruction.
• Integration of arts into statewide schools for youth residing in juvenile justice settings of the state’s Department of Youth Services.
• Collaboration with state agencies to improve the quality of special education services for students residing in institutional settings across the Commonwealth.
• Development of an alternative licensing program for teachers focused on using an asset-based approach to working with all children and youth, particularly those at risk.

Over the past eight years, the Collaborative’s Educator Licensure Program has expanded from just 6 participants taking courses in Northampton to almost 1000 registrants a year in more than 20 different licensure programs across Massachusetts. Having grown very quickly, the Licensure Program has  evolved and adapted in order to meet the continuing educational needs of the prospective educators.

The need for trained teachers and administrators in high need areas such as Special Education, English as a Second Language, Math and the Sciences continues to increase. The large majority of our students have full or part-time jobs, as well as families and other commitments. Teachers in need of high-quality and affordable professional development are also spread out across the state, some in remote areas. In order to be able to offer courses to those with time constraints and those located statewide, the program has developed more online courses.

Both staff and students had some initial concerns about entering into this new domain of online learning. There were concerns about the quality of online instruction as well as a student’s ability to connect to the class participants and instructor.  A clearer solution, for a program that is driven by quality of instruction, was to take a smaller step into the world of hybrid-online courses.

Hybrid online courses combine the e-learning format of a standard online course with  three face-to-face sessions. This method of teaching offers both the convenience of online distance learning, for working individuals, and the benefits of instructor and participant interactions. The community that is vital to the success of the courses can remain and even broaden, to incorporate people across the State. This is particularly important for teachers and administrators in remote locations – giving them the opportunity to connect to a larger pool of experienced individuals.

Ensuring that participants feel guided through the hybrid course process has been a focus of the Licensure Program staff. Continual course assessment and feedback has proven vital to the program’s success and continues to motivate our new direction. Student requests for more interaction with other course participants have led to moves to increase the amount of in-person session and use forums and videos to aid the instruction: tools that will strengthen the group connections.

The launch into hybrid online learning  has shown some promising results. One instructor, originally hesitant about the change, enthusiastically remarked: “the QUALITY of work completed by the students was much, much better than I have seen in the recent past.” She believes that because “students see each other’s work, work in pairs and, thus review each other’s work, there is a level of “pride” displayed in completed assignments”. This is a promising start to the shift to add online learning to the traditional classroom options. The goal is to continue to develop the hybrid online component of the courses, which, together with the traditional courses, practicum, and advising  thus further strengthen the quality of the program for educators and administrators statewide.