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Last week’s summit, “Great Teachers for Our City Schools: A National Summit on Recruiting, Preparing and Retaining Quality Urban Teachers,” hosted by Metro State and Denver Public Schools (DPS) through the Urban Teacher Partnership (UTP) program, provided nearly 250 participants a chance to share what works in getting and keeping good teachers for successful practice in urban schools.

The three-day national summit featured a strong lineup of speakers and panelists, ranging from leading researchers to award-winning classroom teachers.

“If we had a consensus, it is that the traditional ways of preparing teachers, for urban schools and overall, are no longer relevant,” said summit organizer Esther Rodriguez, director of UTP, which formerly was known as Teacher Quality Enhancement. “We can no longer prepare teachers to serve in a classroom in isolation. Now, we need a more collaborative approach, starting with how we recruit teachers, then preparing them not just with education theory but inside actual classrooms, then providing novice teachers with strong mentorship, support systems, and supervision, and all teachers with ongoing professional development throughout their careers.”

The summit kicked off last Wednesday evening with a plenary discussion on collaborative leadership in developing urban teachers in Colorado. The panel included Michael Bennet, DPS superintendent; Stephen Jordan, president of Metro State; Maria Guajardo of the Denver Mayor’s Office for Education and Children; and Jane Goff, a member of the State Board of Education. The session was facilitated by Tim Waters, president and CEO of Mid-continent Research for Education and Learning (McREL). At that session, Jordan discussed how preparing urban teachers fits in with his notion of Metro State as a type of “urban land-grant institution,” which looks not just inward but out toward the community. Bennet commended Rodriguez, saying she had “brought a whole new vitality to our partnership.” Goff noted that in Colorado, almost 50 percent of K-12 teachers were trained in other states. Guajardo pointed out the demographic shifts in Denver, where 50 years ago one in ten citizens was of color and today one in four are.

The remainder of the summit featured leading researchers, policy experts, higher education decision makers, school district officials and award-winning classroom teachers. Plenary, panel and small-group discussion sessions focused on new and emerging strategies in areas ranging from induction and compensation, to preparing teachers for the cultural and linguistic diversity in urban classrooms, and retaining them as highly qualified personnel. Sessions featured innovative teacher-preparation models developed in Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Milwaukee, Denver and Montclair, N.J., as well as recent research.

The summit concluded on Friday afternoon with a discussion of how to build on the momentum created. “The important takeaway,” said Rodriguez, “is that we still have much to work on in these large, complex, extremely diverse urban school systems, which will require a continued focus.” Rodriguez plans to create an Urban Teacher Web site to serve as an information clearinghouse. The site will include materials from the summit and an online discussion group specifically on urban teacher recruitment, preparation and retention.

Rodriguez has already received a barrage of emailed comments from summit attendees. Some excerpts:

“The whole conference filled a great hole in the general scheme of things.I found everyone I talked with as having either a great learning experience or using their time to share different activities.”

“Thank you again for a great learning opportunity at the conference last week. I look forward to sharing the information with the rest of my team as we begin to plan for supporting schools and teachers next year.”

“My conviction about the importance of sustaining, extending and growing from our learning as a result of our time together is vital to our future success.”

Other sponsors of the summit included Educational Testing Service, The College Board, State Higher Education Executive Officers and Western Interstate Commission on Higher Education.