From Tiny Steps to Great Strides: A History of GSTEP

The concept of the Georgia Systemic Teacher Education Program (GSTEP) began in 1999. At that time, Dr. Michael Padilla was the new director of Teacher Education at the University of Georgia. He envisioned the development of a partnership among colleges of education and arts and sciences and school districts throughout the state to improve teacher preparation. According to Dr. Padilla, “UGA had many strong departments, but there was no reason for departments not to work together to prepare teachers in a more coherent way.” The statewide P-16 Initiative through the Georgia Board of Regents had brought many universities together so the timing was right. However, school districts were not yet engaged in the preparation or support of beginning teachers in any significant ways.

Dr. Padilla brought in Dr. Sally Hudson Ross, P-16 Coordinator at UGA. He then contacted the Dean of the College of Education at Valdosta State University, Dr. F.D. Toth, who invited in Dr. Pam Hertzog, VSU’s P-16 coordinator. Albany State University also agreed to join the partnership. The partnership that became the Georgia Systemic Teacher Education Program was viewed by its creators as a way to further implement the Board of Regent’s principles that emerged from P-16. UGA and VSU used existing committees from P-16 for to establish “Curriculum Teams,” partnerships between A&S and COE as well as K-12 teachers. ASU formed parallel groups through GSTEP support.

The UGA Deans’ Forum was formed prior to GSTEP and provided a foundation on which to build connections there. There was a real commitment to collaboration, as evidenced by participation of the both COE and A&S deans and associate deans in the creation and development of this unique project. Nancy Vandergrift, UGA’s current College of Education P-16 Coordinator, facilitated some of the team work. The Deans’ Forum allowed the relationship between UGA’s A&S and COE to bloom. In 2000, Dr. Padilla presented the idea for GSTEP to the Deans’ Forum meeting in Jekyll Island, Georgia. There was some initial uncertainty, but genuine readiness developed as new relationships formed between the colleges. Dean Wyatt Anderson of the Franklin College of Arts & Sciences and Dean Russ Yeaney of the College of Education encouraged their respective faculty members to accept the challenge of improving teacher education at UGA.

At the same time, in the very early planning stages, various faculty members from all three universities met in Macon, Georgia. This meeting was an awareness meeting, to present the GSTEP concept to stakeholders around the state. Local meetings continued to expand interest.

According to Dr. Padilla, “There was no turning back after the development of all the partnerships.” A preliminary proposal was submitted to the U.S. Department of Education, but it was not accepted for the second stage of proposal review. However, rather than giving up the idea of the partnership, the team kept working to refine the proposal and build contacts and partnerships. The Writing Team began the second writing phase, building on the work done on the earlier proposal. The good news that the GSTEP proposal had been accepted came shortly after the proposal’s submission on August 1, 2000, and GSTEP was funded.

A major strength of GSTEP was the significant money awarded—$6,500,000 over 5 years. According to Dr. Padilla, this allowed “strong outcomes to forge relationships between the Board of Regents, Professional Standards Commission and the Department of Education at the state level.” Georgia Governor Roy Barnes thought so much of this work that GSTEP was awarded $300,000 from the state budget for each of the next 3 years.

Dr. Frances Hensley joined GSTEP in January 2000 as GSTEP Director. Dr. Hensley visualized the building of “real” partnerships. She had previously worked for the Program for School Improvement with rural schools. When funding was awarded in 2000, Dr. Padilla was the Associate Dean for the College of Education. Both Hensley and Padilla felt this initiative would prove to be real reform in teacher education. Dr. Hensley’s operating principle to give an equal voice in the work by all who were involved. All were to be paid fairly and equitably. Dr. Sally Ross said, “the good thing about GSTEP is that it floated above politics and administrative changes. GSTEP pulled active teacher educators together for collaboration and support.”

Dr. Hensley and Dr. Ross have nurtured the various partnerships with the Board of Regents (BOR), Department of Education (DOE), and the Professional Standards Commission (PSC) throughout the GSTEP initiative. Because of this nurturing, the impact of the GSTEP initiative is truly state-wide. Recently a subcommittee of the Committee on Teacher Quality agreed to push for statewide adoption of the GSTEP Framework for Accomplished Teaching, a major collaborative product of the GSTEP Induction Teams.

Ongoing communication and respect for the input of all participants have allowed GSTEP to respond quickly to needs of teacher education as they are discovered. Many GSTEP initiatives have grown out of that flexibility. The beginning teacher panel at UGA, and another at VSU, grew out of a need to have beginners’ unique perspectives on the Framework, and they became an important sounding board for all GSTEP work. The Six Districts group was formed at GSTEP’s UGA site to foster communication among its neighboring school districts. The BRIDGE grew out of a need to provide quality resources which beginning teachers could use in conjunction with the Framework to deepen their professional knowledge. None of these initiatives were planned in the original proposal.

The various partnerships very much grew from the work of the groups and needs they identified. Dr. Linda Gilbert and her team of evaluators at the other universities has played a large role in helping to think about evaluation and sustainability, embedding evaluation into the work from the beginning. This is a large part of why GSTEP is able to respond to the needs of its stakeholders while remaining true to the vision. By focusing on beginning teachers, and making beginning teaching as part of a six-year progress from preparation through the first years of teaching, GSTEP has helped to change the culture of teacher education in Georgia. The high-quality, inclusive, and meaningful work has integrity among all stakeholders, a hallmark and goal of GSTEP which has helped all partners to build credibility in teacher education in Georgia.

—Julie Range