School Begins for ATC Teachers at DMPS

East High English teacher Kortny Williamson (center) at the first session of ATC teachers earlier this year.

The Alternative Teaching Contract (ATC) offered by Des Moines Public Schools is attracting national attention and rightly so. Most recently it was highlighted by The Atlantic and its sister publication, the National Journal, in a report of innovative programs around the country.

It offers incentives designed to attract and retain promising newcomers to the profession. The primary one is a tuition-free master’s degree jointly crafted by the district and Drake University, a curriculum customized to equip teachers for working with the diverse student population of DMPS.

“The Alternative Teaching Contract is an eight-year agreement,” says Jeri Moritz, the DMPS Director of Teacher Development. “During the first three years of the contract, our ATC teachers participate in district-directed professional development. They have a three-person evaluation team, and an additional building support team.” In Year Four they become college students again.

Anyone who accepts the ATC and opts out between achievement of the master’s degree and the eight-year mark has to reimburse the district.

Last fall we asked one member of the first ATC cohort of 43, East High English teacher Kortny Williamson, if she would let us in on some of her experiences and impressions of the new program as it rolls out. Now it’s time for Williamson and the other teachers to become students again.

The groundbreaking group began its coursework last weekend. Classes are held on Friday nights from 5-10 and Saturdays from 8-5, meeting every other weekend for three sessions before switching to a new class.

“It was great to finally get back into the classroom as a student,” said Williamson on Monday. The first two classes are Effective Teaching and Research/Academic Writing. Williamson has found a purpose and fulfillment in teaching that she has long sought.

“I grew up in Manheim, Pennsylvania, a small farm community,” she said. “This is my third career, and I’ve only been teaching for four years – all in Des Moines.  My personal background is the complete opposite of the students I teach, but that makes me a lot more open-minded and empathetic toward their situations. It also helps me to grow…and learn from each and every student.

“I love teaching here because the district allows for flexibility in the classroom and embraces a culture of trial and error. I give students a voice in their education, making them more engaged and accountable in the lessons. It’s important for students to relate to their education and DMPS allows teachers and students to create that culture in the classroom.”

In a district that is “majority minority” (only 42% of DMPS students are white) there are still relatively few minority teachers. Programs like Dream to Teach are underway to address that shortage but in the meantime the district has adopted a “Grow Our Own” philosophy aimed at grooming and retaining instructional staff uniquely suited to serve the students here. It is a promising experiment in mutual investment. Besides teachers custom-fitted to their students, an unprecedented level of instructional and administrative continuity will be added to the district, the human resource equivalent of the capital improvement campaign that’s rebuilding the district’s infrastructure.

Not only is DMPS a diverse school district, nearly three quarters of its 32,000 students qualify for free and reduced price meals. Studies of turnover rates among teaching staffs in high poverty schools indicate that teachers leave, not because of their students, but because of the working conditions. Strong leadership, professional development, collegiality, and compensation that is creative as well as competitive are factors that attract and keep good teachers where they are most needed.

In addition to her teaching duties at East, Williamson latched on to the school’s chapter of the RunDSM/Movement 515 spoken word poetry program as an extracurricular activity. Many of the students who participate are African-American or Latino, though the program was established by two white teachers, Kristopher Rollins and Emily Lang, who have achieved great rapport with their minority students and since gone on to launch the district’s Urban Leadership curriculum at Central Campus. What’s their impression of Williamson’s “cultural proficiency” (that’s educational jargon for the ability to reach out and connect with diverse student populations)?

“Many of our East youth in Urban Leadership speak positively about their experiences in Kortny’s English class because she is able to bridge gaps in understanding by utilizing contemporary youth culture to highlight themes, or help them make strong personal connections to the most difficult content,” Rollins said. “Furthermore, she does a lot of great community work, especially in regards to relationships with the ELL (English Language Learner) program at East and getting students more connected to the school spirit and student body there.  She is already doing fantastic work in terms of cultural responsiveness, so the ATC program will only strengthen her skill set.”

When the Urban Leadership students spent their day off from school on MLK Day last month marching through downtown skywalks with placards and poetry around twin themes of social equality and criminal justice, Williamson; a blonde, Caucasian adult, both stood out and fit right in when she accompanied them. That’s commitment above and beyond. That’s meeting kids where THEY live, not where YOU come from.

Petra Lange is a former DMPS teacher hired by Drake to coordinate the joint master’s program. “The ATC cohort will earn their M.S.E. in Culturally Responsive Leadership and Instruction,” she said. “This first cohort will graduate in December of 2017.”

According to Lange, each master’s candidate will complete a mixed sequence of required courses and electives in areas including Community Engagement, Cultural Proficiency, ESL (English Second Language) Strategies, Integrating Urban Art, and Youth, Culture and Society.

“Each of these courses are being created or altered to meet the unique needs of DMPS classrooms,” she said.

According to Moritz, a total of 221 new teachers have opted for the ATC and the free degree since they were first offered in the 2011-12 hiring season.

Promising teachers like Williamson will emerge with more than a ticket to a bigger paycheck. Their passion for a never nobler or more vital profession will be polished to a practical sheen that students won’t be able to ignore. That’s the real payoff.