Public comment on ESE’s Pre-Practicum Policy Proposals is open! So far, representatives from twenty-four Sponsoring Organizations have responded. We are in the process of reviewing and synthesizing the feedback which, as we have come to expect from the field, has been robust, specific, and solutions-oriented.
One emerging theme is the need for authentic teaching experiences and high-quality feedback during pre-practicum. One person wrote, “Any programmatic changes that get students into classrooms before practicum semester doing ‘real work’ that teachers do is a plus - even more so if they get some feedback on how they are doing.”
Other commenters have touched on the shifts that programs would need to make in terms of coursework and supervisor training. In support of this, we are continuing to develop resources for teacher educators, including our "What to Look For" Observation Guides, Supervisor Certification Pilot, and our brand-new Teacher Educator Effectiveness Practices Framework (see below).
The Pre-Practicum Policy Proposals are available to read on our website and we encourage you to comment. The questions will prompt you to detail the specific implications for your organization, so naturally we would like to hear from everyone. Please share the survey with your PK-12 colleagues as well; so far, 27% of comments have come from PK-12. Public comment will be open until October 31.
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Public Comment: Subject Matter Knowledge (SMK) Guidelines
We are pleased to announce the release of draft Subject Matter Knowledge (SMK) Guidelines for a period of public comment until Friday, November 3, 2017. As you know, the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education approved revisions to Regulations for Educator Licensure and Preparation Program Approval, 603 CMR 7.00 back in 2012; included in these revisions was the shift of SMK requirements from Regulations to Guidelines.
We developed the draft SMKs with working groups of educators from both PK-12 and educator preparation. The revisions align the SMKs to the following updated MA Curriculum Frameworks:
Please use our survey to share your feedback. We will use the feedback to make additional revisions, as needed.
The final Guidelines will be released this December; full implementation will begin on July 1, 2019. The final draft of these Guidelines will include the subject matter knowledge requirements for all licenses included in the Regulations, 603 CMR 7.00; however, for the purposes of this period of public comment, we have only included licenses with proposed revisions.
If you need assistance with this survey or have any questions, please email our dedicated SMK inbox.
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Resources for Continuous Improvement
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Teacher Educator Effectiveness Practice Framework
 Last week, we released our Teacher Educator Effectiveness Practices framework to help identify, develop, and support teacher educators. The framework can be applied to any professionals who play a formal role in teaching teachers how to teach. You can use it to inform position descriptions and hiring protocols, professional development opportunities, observation protocols, self-assessment tools, and more!
We have been encouraged by the quick responses from the field. One provider wrote back immediately to say, “This is fantastic. I will share it with both our New Teacher Development team and our Teaching Fellow team.”
We will release additional resources aligned to this framework in the coming months, so we are interested to hear how the framework supports and shapes your work. Please share your feedback and make suggestions to inform future iterations or ESE resources.
The framework is waiting for you on our website!
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New Edwin Reports
 New Edwin reports will be available this fall! The new reports feature newly available data points such as the Candidate Assessment for Performance and Stakeholder Survey data. Refined reports contain additional features to increase the accessibility and actionability of the reports. Here are just some examples of the many improvements made to the Edwin reports designed in partnership with the Edwin Advisory Working Group:
- Users can learn more about a data point by hovering over the data with their mouse. A pop-up box will appear that will help explain the data.
- Users can choose to aggregate multiple years of data.
- Users can choose whether to only include data for a completer’s first year of teaching.
- For programs that prepare teachers who are already teachers of record prior or during their program, users can compare data from this group of teachers to data from new-to-the-profession teachers.
- Users can select individual or groups of programs and see a state average comparison point that contains only the selected program(s).
Edwin now contains five reports specific to Educator Preparation programs. Those five reports contain the following data:
- Pipeline Report (EP 701): Details the progression through the educator preparation pipeline, including reason for exit and license attainment for a cohort of candidates.
- Employment Report (EP 702): Details MA Public Employment information, including the median MCAS SGP range of their students, for completers of an educator preparation program.
- Performance Measures Report (EP 703): Details performance measures information, including the Massachusetts Test for Educator Licensure (MTEL), the Candidate Assessment for Performance (CAP), the Performance Assessment for Leaders (PAL), and educator evaluation ratings.
- Survey Report (EP 704): Details the aggregate level survey response from the Educator Preparation Stakeholder Surveys that are sent out annually.
- Candidate List (EP 801): Provides a list of candidates in an educator preparation program in the selected program enrollment year, and their license attainment and MA public employment information up to a selected status year.
New reports will be available later in October. For more information and resources about Edwin, please see our website. This year, ESE will run regional open data labs where Sponsoring Organizations can meet with representatives from ESE and get their specific data questions answered. Stay tuned for additional resources!
Please send your Edwin questions to our Ed Prep inbox.
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Partnership Toolkit
In case you missed our EPIC spotlight, our Partnership Toolkit contains multiple resources, templates and examples of artifacts that can be useful in guiding productive conversations about starting or deepening a partnership.
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2017 Stakeholder Surveys
We are pleased to announce that the results of the 2017 Stakeholder Surveys will be available to Sponsoring Organizations in November! Thanks to everyone who reached out to their recent completers to encourage them to fill out the survey; we were able to increase our response rate by ten percentage points!
We will release the results in a new and easy-to-read Edwin Analytics report. We will release a smaller subset of survey items on Public Profiles.
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Twitter Chats
Our Instructional Support team will be leading three Standards-Based Learning chats on Twitter in the upcoming months and we’d love for you to participate! It is a great opportunity to network and learn. #SBLchat is nationwide and takes place every Wednesday from 9-10PM EST. The ESE-led chats will take place at the following times using the hashtag #SBLchatMA:
- English Language Arts: Wednesday, October 18 from 8-9 EST
- Science, Technology, and Engineering: Wednesday, November 11 from 8-9 EST
- Math: Wednesday, December 20 from 8-9 EST
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Licensure Regulation Changes
In case you missed it, our summary of recent licensure regulation changes is available on our website.
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