OUR THEORY OF TEACHER TRAINING
Our purpose as a teacher training organization is to ensure that
teachers have the knowledge, skills, and mindsets necessary to drive toward creating a classroom community that we believe is best for all students and leads to educational equity. We believe that all students should experience a safe and supportive learning environment led by student-centered, reflective teachers that focus on grade-appropriate student outcomes using culturally competent and scientific pedagogy. Practitioners learn how to create such a community through our interdependent, core coursework and individualized feedback and coaching. We model the best practices of teaching to ensure that our practitioners, like their future students, commit their learning to long-term memory and have the skill to be independently successful.
OUR STORY
LRCE has trained over 2,050 teachers for the state of Louisiana since 2003 – teachers like Tanner Swain, Kimberly Eckert (2018 Louisiana State Teacher of the Year), Stephanie Whetstone (2018- 19 Milken Educator Award winner), and numerous district and state-level Teacher of the Year recipients. Our teachers’ journeys continue long after training at LRCE: our alumni include leaders of Louisiana schools, district superintendents and educational nonprofits. Our teacher placements target high-need subject areas (math, science and special education) in our neediest rural, urban and alternative school communities. LRCE works directly with individuals within these communities who have obtained a college degree and are seeking a teaching certification. LRCE’s approach of placing local teacher talent into high-need areas coupled with our training and support, results in higher teacher retention. Nearly 70% of LRCE teachers stay in public schools for at least five years – a rate double that of many other alternative certification programs. This retention rate has long lasting positive impacts in our Louisiana communities and creates a solid human capital foundation.
LRCE’s nine staff members and dozens of adjunct faculty and volunteers ensure excellence in our mission of training and support for kindergarten through 12th-grade teachers. This includes the
establishment of an alternative certification teacher training program in 2003, a multi-media lending library for teachers that circulated more than 132,000 items per year, and summer enrichment programs for at-risk/high-needs pre-kindergarten through 12th-grade students. Our board is composed of 17 individuals from across the Greater Baton Rouge community.
We are active learners…
We are active in pursuit of excellence. We ask skillful questions and engage in the present moment through dialogue and discussion. We are constant learners of our craft and we work to put concepts into practice.
We are reflective…
We are intentional about holding time and energy to reflect on our learning and use reflection to grow ourselves toward excellence. We make connections to other concepts and transfer knowledge from one situation to another.
We are joyful…
We bring passion and joy to our work in order to help students enjoy working toward meaningful outcomes that will expand their opportunities. We work hard and have fun.
We are problem solvers…
We think critically, make sound judgments, and generate multiple solutions to challenges. We clarify our questions, are patient with answers, and are responsible for finding answers that result in positive student outcomes.
We assume positive intent…
We understand that all people almost always act with positive intent. They don’t intentionally make mistakes. We say, ‘They mean well, but it didn’t go well…how can I help this person or team succeed?’
We attend to equity…
We work for ALL students. We care deeply about each individual’s experience and work to ensure that ALL students have access to excellent teaching. We actively challenge actions that lead to inequity and honor and celebrate differences.
