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Community-based Town Hall Meeting on Urban School Research Facilitator: Dr. Brenda Townsend Director, Project LASER

The purpose of this Town Hall meeting was to discuss what participants thought should be the focuses of research to improve outcomes for urban and/or high-poverty children and youth with disabilities. Dr. Townsend emphasized that all ethnic groups should be considered.

The first question posed by Dr. Townsend was: “How would you shape the research agenda for your particular population? What one pertinent issue would you like the LASER community of research to take on that would improve outcomes the most for your particular population?” The responses included:

• Culturally responsive teacher education

• Teacher education about Muslim students in the classroom

• Culturally responsive teaching in the alternative certification programs

• Dismantling the current high stakes testing system and researching alternative test formats

• The effect of failure on standardized tests on the likelihood of students dropping out

• Longitudinal research looking at children several times from third through twelfth grade to track them based on performance

• Rather than creating more research, look at how to take the knowledge we already have and use it to create change in education

• Minimizing the number of students in the classroom

The second question was: “To what extent do you as practitioners actually learn about research findings that you can implement in your classrooms and schools? What suggestions do you have regarding how to get the research findings out to you quickly?”

After brief discussion it became clear that another question needed to be asked first: “Do you use research findings in your teaching or in your schooling?”

• Two participants responded that they do.

• One responded that she has access to research at the university where she is studying but not at the school where she is teaching.

• Another responded similarly and also said that when they are given professional development at the school where she teaches, they are only told what to do and not the reasoning behind it.

• Two other participants responded that they think teachers do not use research findings because they are told what to do in terms of teaching and that there isn’t time to implement anything else that they might learn from research.

• A principal said that principals should be responsible for bringing research to their teachers and supporting them in implementing it. She suggested that research be disseminated to principals through the regional education centers, their professional organizations, and the universities they are affiliated with.

• Another participant said that we need to change the mindset of pre-service teachers so that they will see research findings as important to learn about and use.

• Another participant said that there needs to be collaboration between the higher education faculty and the practitioners in developing a research agenda and ideas that can be applied in the classroom.

• A teacher educator agreed that there needs to be collaboration and also that teacher educators need to prepare teachers to be able to advocate for their students and use evidence-based research.

• Another participant suggested that research be done and models developed on how to use different teachers’ strengths in different ways so that for example, those who have an interest in research learn about and convey research findings, while those who like to organize things do more organizing.

• One participant said he believes it is the responsibility of teachers as professionals to pursue knowledge and engage in educating themselves to better inform their practice and better serve their students.

Other ideas that were brought up included:

• Studying what is happening in the lives of teachers today and how the change in families in our society is affecting education, and that these things may differ by gender, class, and race

• Making learning about culturally responsive teaching part of the licensure process

Toward the end, a participant asked that there be some follow-up to the discussions at the conference. Dr. Townsend suggested some ways of using the LASER website to further the dialogue. Another person mentioned LASER’s scheduled online discussions.