Project Overview

This course was developed as part of the Opening Opportunities for Teacher Education project at Minnesota State, nationally called the Open Textbooks Pilot (OTP) Program. Funded by the U.S. Department of Education (USDOE) Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education (FIPSE), institutions of higher education are encouraged to use the funds to “create new open textbooks and expand the use of open textbooks in courses that are part of a degree-granting program, particularly those with high enrollments.” The project is a partnership between the system office and seven Minnesota State colleges and universities, led by the Educational Development and Technology unit from the Minnesota State system office, using faculty authors from these campuses to create six foundational teacher education courses.

Challenges

American public secondary schools are facing several challenges, many of which can be traced back to the programs that train its teachers. A nationwide shortage of P12 teachers began pre-pandemic and was greatly exacerbated by the added stressors the pandemic put on educators (García and Weiss, 2020). Minnesota, in particular, has been affected by this shortage of qualified teachers (“Teacher Shortage Areas Report- Minnesota”). Research indicates that a shortage of qualified teachers can significantly affect student outcomes (Lee, 2018). But Minnesota has been at the extreme end of another national challenge in secondary education: the disparity between the number of students of color in contrast to the number of teachers of color. Although 33.5% of Minnesota students identify as Black or Indigenous People of Color (BIPOC), only 3.4% of its teachers do (Wilder Research in collaboration with PELSB). And since research clearly establishes that “race-matched” teachers significantly improve outcomes for students of color (Lee, 2018; Wilder Research in collaboration with PELSB, 2019), it comes as no surprise that Minnesota has one of the nations highest outcome disparities between its white and BIPOC students (Stanford CEPA).

For these reasons, there is an urgent need for Minnesota (and the rest of the United States) to recruit and support teachers of color so that students feel represented in their classrooms. But when we explore the completion rates in teacher education programs at Minnesota State (which educates the majority of Minnesotan college students and the vast majority of BIPOC Minnesotan college students), we see a disturbing disparity in program completion rates between white and BIPOC teacher education students as well.

The ultimate goal of this project is to mitigate some of the equity-based issues that students in teacher education programs experience so that they can be successful teachers in the future.

Issue 1: Textbook Costs

The cost of college is something that every student considers when enrolling in college. Colleges can help lower the cost of college for students by broadly adopting open educational resources (like this text), as high textbook costs can often affect a student’s academic success.

• The cost of textbooks frequently prevents students from purchasing the required textbooks, or they may choose to take fewer courses at a time so they can afford the cost of textbooks; however, without the texts, they are at risk of earning lower grades and even withdrawing from courses (Student Textbook and Course Materials Survey). This results in students not purchasing required textbooks, taking fewer courses at a time, earning lower grades, and dropping courses.
• 85% of respondents in a 2018 national survey listed textbooks and course materials as the most significant financial stressors after tuition (“New Survey: College Students Consider Buying Course Materials a Top Source of Financial Stress”).

Issue 2: Teaching is Not Always Inclusive

Even the most well-intentioned teacher education resources can fail to effectively prepare teachers to serve their students. Without the proper training for teachers and learning materials for students, it becomes easy for students, even students in teacher education programs, to feel like they do not belong in their academic programs. Some ways this occurs in the classroom include:

• Many textbooks in teacher education courses either fail to train teachers in culturally inclusive teaching methods or actually reinforce highly problematic myths, as documented in recent publications such as Bree Picower’s Reading, Writing, and Racism.
• Structural racism exists through implicit and explicit policies and practices that may create barriers for students who are trying to complete teacher education programs.
• Accessibility is not always central to the learning experience. Accessible, in this context, refers to both the definition as established by WCAG 2.1 standards for people with disabilities and also expectations and tool uses that are not readily navigable by students whose various types of cultural capital are not recognized or incorporated into higher education practices and policies.

OER: A Viable Solution

Reluctancy to Adopt OER

One potential solution for the role of textbook costs related to student retention and degree completion is the use of Open Educational Resources (OER). However, according to one survey (Irvine et al., 2021), faculty are reluctant to adopt open educational resources because:

• They are concerned about the quality of the content, though this concern is often related to aesthetic factors (layout, graphics, ancillary materials, and functional links).
• They are concerned about the accessibility of OER. Instead, it might seem more practical to work with a publisher who has taken accessibility into account rather than adopting an OER and having to evaluate and remediate it for accessibility purposes.
• They are concerned about the usability of OER. Some OER might include well-explained ancillary activities and assessments, whereas other OER might not include these materials.
• They are concerned about the time commitment. Using a new text in itself requires faculty to spend additional time preparing for their courses; using OER if faculty have never used OER is an additional, time-consuming challenge to understand.

How This OER Is Different

The concerns that faculty and others have about adopting open educational resources are valid, so this book was designed with that in mind. In an effort to create a “plug and play” type course while still providing faculty with options for how they teach their course, this OER is equipped with activities, assessments, and interactives that enhance student learning.

Specifically, this course was designed to be:

• Modular
• Accessible
• Grounded in learning science
• Culturally responsive
• Aligned to InTASC standards (national teacher education program standards)

Alignment to InTASC Standards

The intention of this course is for you to quickly identify the elements that will be useful to you without having to read through and curate every element of the course. The attached Excel spreadsheet lists every InTASC-specific standard that this course covers, indicating exactly where in the course the coverage occurs, what practice (formative and/or interactive) activities are aligned to each specific standard, and what assessments (down to the specific grading criterion) cover each specific standard. If your state standards are crosswalked to InTASC, this should make it possible for you to identify exactly what content, activities, and assessments will be an appropriate fit for your specific course.

Longterm Goal

Our long-term goal is to create a search function that will allow educators from all 50 states in the U.S. to input their state’s specific standards and have those standards crosswalked to the InTASC standards; for now, though, we hope the InTASC alignments we’ve provided will help you curate your selections as efficiently as possible.

Other Books in this Series – link out

• Culturally Responsive Classrooms
• Educational Technology
• Foundations of Instruction
• Introduction to Education
• Introduction to Literacy

References

“2018 Student Textbook and Course Materials Survey.” Florida Virtual Campus, 8 Mar. 2019. Accessed 5 Nov. 2020.

García, Emma, and Elaine Weiss. “Policy Solutions to Deal with the Nation’s Teacher Shortage-a Crisis Made Worse by COVID-19.” Economic Policy Institute, 16 Oct. 2020. Accessed 4 Nov. 2020.

García, Emma, and Elaine Weiss. “The Teacher Shortage Is Real, Large and Growing, and Worse than We Thought: The First Report in ‘The Perfect Storm in the Teacher Labor Market’ Series.” Economic Policy Institute, 26 Mar. 2019. Accessed 4 Nov. 2020.

Irvine, J., Kimmons, R., & Rogers, J. (2021, July 12). Recognizing and overcoming obstacles: What it will take to realize the potential of OER. EDUCAUSE Review.

Lee, Se Woong. “Pulling Back the Curtain: Revealing the Cumulative Importance of High-Performing, Highly Qualified Teachers on Students’ Educational Outcome.” Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, vol. 40, no. 3, 2018, pp. 359–381.

“New Survey: College Students Consider Buying Course Materials a Top Source of Financial Stress.” Cengage, Cengage, 26 July 2018. Accessed 15 Nov. 2020.

Stanford Center for Educational Policy Analysis. (2020). Racial and Ethnic Achievement Gaps. Accessed 15 Nov. 2020.

“Teacher Shortage Areas Report – Minnesota.” Teacher Shortage Areas, US Department of Education. Accessed 4 Nov. 2020.

Wilder Research in collaboration with PELSB. (2019).2019 Biennial Minnesota Teacher Supply and Demand, Minnesota Professional Educator Licensing and Standards Board. Accessed 15 Nov. 2020.