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A message from the Ed Prep team at the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.
Strategic partnerships between educator preparation providers and K-12 districts play a critical role in the recruitment, preparation, and development of teachers who will be ready to be impactful on day one. In 2016-17, ESE worked closely with three district-prep partnerships focused on placing and developing student teachers with the goals of (1) improving student outcomes and (2) building a pipeline from student teaching to employment. ESE’s new Partnership Toolkit emerged from this work; it provides a comprehensive set of tools and resources designed to support the initiation, implementation, and continuous improvement of strategic partnerships with K-12 districts, as well as key lessons learned and best practices from partnerships in Boston, Salem, and Brockton.
“It’s so exciting to see all of the tools and resources that we utilized to develop the vision for the Boston University (BU) and Boston Public Schools (BPS) pipeline,” says Jenn Bryson, Faculty Director of Educator Preparation at BU. As part of its partnership, BU and BPS worked to expand an existing partnership with The Trotter School (Dorchester) to two additional Boston schools while simultaneously focusing on selecting and training quality supervising practitioners. After working closely with ESE in 2016-17, BU and its partner schools officially launched the Student Teaching Placement Network this summer, selected supervising practitioners, and mapped out the training and professional development of those supervisors. 
 
“The Setting the Vision Protocol, Setting SMART Goals, and the Action Plan Template were instrumental in analyzing our needs and initiating our partnership work,” says Bryson. “The Action Plan Template specifically allowed us to create action steps based on our SMART Goals and vision statement. It then helped us to focus on the timeframe - when we expected this work to be done - and who would take responsibility for [each] step. This was key in determining who our point person would be for each step. As a team, we have revisited this template repeatedly throughout the year in order to keep us on track and focused.”
In This Issue 
Opportunities
  • Grants for Ed Prep/District Partnerships
  • New Frameworks: Join the Implementation Effort!
  • RSVP for EPAS Road Shows
Resources
  • New Classroom Observation Guides
  • New CAP Implementation Brief
Key Updates
  • Changes to Regulations
  • Pre-Practicum Survey Update
Knowing that Sponsoring Organizations throughout Massachusetts are in different places with their district partners, the suite of resources included in the Toolkit addresses every stage of partnership development, from Initiation to Implementation to Continuous Improvement.
 
“This Toolkit has guided our work and has given us the tools to deeply analyze our partnership and move it forward,” says Bryson.
 
The Toolkit is available here. If you have comments or suggestions, please send them to our Ed Prep inbox.
Opportunities
Grants for Ed Prep/District Partnerships
Sustaining strategic partnerships with K-12 districts often demands creative resource allocation in support of the long-term investment of pipeline development. ESE has established a grant program specifically designed to encourage districts to explore new ways to make the most of the resources available to them and has dedicated up to $600,000 for grants over a two-year period. These grants are open to districts interested in making substantial changes in resource allocation and directing more resources toward evidence-based improvement strategies, such as pipeline development. Go here to learn more. Also, please reach out to your partner districts with this opportunity! The application deadline is Monday, October 16.
New Frameworks: Join the Implementation Effort!
The 2017 English Language Arts (ELA) and Mathematics frameworks are now available! We also posted four ELA Quick Reference Guides on our Frameworks website. Over the next year, we will be supporting implementation across the Commonwealth through a series of Instructional Support Networks and we'd like experts from the prep world participate side-by-side with district colleagues. Please take a look at all of the networks here and sign up! 
Reminder: RSVP for EPAS Road Shows! 
Our Educator Preparation Annual Snapshot (EPAS) road shows will give you a sneak peak of an essential tool for examining preparation at your organization. We will also be sharing resources and trainings that will help you get a leg up on taking action once EPAS is released. Please RSVP today and share this opportunity with other colleagues! We are looking forward to seeing you on the road!
Resources
New Classroom Observation Guides
ESE, in partnership with K-12 educators, developed a suite of grade-level and content-area-specific observation guides to support all of Massachusetts’ classroom mentors and evaluators. The “What to Look For” (WTLF) observation guides help an observer understand the effective teacher and student behaviors to look for in classrooms as well as the content that aligns with updated curriculum frameworks.

For the Ed Prep sphere, the WTLF guides help mentors and evaluators who are observing teacher candidates in action.
  • Program Supervisors and Supervising Practitioners can use the guides while observing and assessing candidates in the classroom. The guides will help supervisors provide targeted feedback to candidates relative to teaching grade-level appropriate content and developing essential pedagogical skills necessary to be an effective educator.
  • Faculty can use the guides when evaluating candidates’ coursework (e.g., lesson and unit plan alignment to the curriculum frameworks, demonstrated evidence of pedagogical skills).
  • Field-Based Experience Staff can use the guides to support the selection of high-quality Supervising Practitioners. The guides should be used as supplemental documents alongside the assessment tools your organization already has in place to support educator preparation efforts.
The WTLF guides are easy to use. The front page details the knowledge and skills K-12 students should be learning in their grade level. The back page lists the examples of K-12 student and teacher behaviors aligned to a few selected Professional Standards for Teachers (PSTs), CAP essential elements, and the Standards of Effective Practice used in the Massachusetts Educator Evaluation Frameworks. 

The WTLF guides can be downloaded and printed from our webpage.
New CAP Implementation Brief 
This brief addresses how educator preparation providers and districts can identify and support high-quality Supervising Practitioners by establishing clear expectations for the role, working with district partners to strategically select and place candidates with high-quality Supervising Practitioners, and creating opportunities to develop and recognize Supervising Practitioners as teacher educators. The brief is available here on our CAP Resources page.  
Key Updates
Changes to Regulations
As many of you know, the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education approved changes to the Regulations for Educator Licensure and Preparation Program Approval (603 CMR 7.00), Educator License Renewal (603 CMR 44.00), and Certification of Supervisors of Attendance (603 CMR 13.00). The regulations have been approved by the Secretary of State and have been posted online. You can read a summary of the changes here. We will continue to communicate with you about expectations/documentation for implementation in the coming months. Please send any questions to EdPrep.
Pre-Practicum Survey
Thank you to everyone who completed our pre-practicum survey! We are reviewing your responses and using your input to draft additional guidance which will be released for public comment in early September. Please look out for this document and be ready to share your feedback.
The Department of Elementary and Secondary Education is committed to preparing all students for success in the world that awaits them after high school. Whether you are a student, parent, educator, community leader, taxpayer, or other stakeholder interested in education, we invite you to join us in this endeavor.
 
We are guided by this mission…
"To strengthen the Commonwealth's public education system so that every student is prepared to succeed in postsecondary education, compete in the global economy, and understand the rights and responsibilities of American citizens, and in so doing, to close all proficiency gaps."
 
And by these goals...
  • Strengthen curriculum, instruction, and assessment
  • Improve educator effectiveness
  • Turn around the lowest performing districts and schools
  • Use data and technology to support student performance
To receive the monthly Educator Preparation Newsletter in your inbox, please send an email to: EdPrep@doe.mass.edu
Copyright © 2017 Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, All rights reserved.


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