To that end, your qualitative feedback has been instructive. One emerging theme was that people value one-on-one time with us. One person wrote, “I miss personal interaction. It would be great to have a limited window of time that we could call in a pinch.” We have prioritized spending more time in the field, particularly in advance to key milestones. For example, we have a number of new Edwin reports that launched in November. In the spring, we will host a series of Data Open Office Hours that will give you a chance to receive the hands-on support that you need to make these reports actionable for your organization.
We have shifted the structure of our events to better address your needs, as well. Based on feedback from both the field survey and our CAP Summer Institute, our events prioritize collaboration time and more hands-on experience with your own work. For example, at events in the spring, organizations will be able to look at their own data instead of sample data. We will also host an Evidence Workshop for organizations with upcoming reviews; the workshop will give organizations a chance to look over their data and receive guidance about writing evidence statements in a way that focuses on outcomes rather than inputs. By structuring the meeting this way, we hope that organizations will leave our events with more actionable next steps.
It was interesting to see the field’s level of engagement with the different projects. It will surprise no one that over 98% of you said that you were informed about, involved in, or invested in the Candidate Assessment of Performance (CAP). There is more work to be done, given that almost 40% of you were unaware about the development of our Educator Preparation Annual Snapshot (EPAS), a data guidepost that will be available in Edwin in the spring. The field has long requested a tool that helps organizations understand all of the available data points, contextualizes it, and explains how to investigate it further in Edwin. To make sure that more of you knew about EPAS and were looking forward to it, we organized a number of “Road Shows” this fall that gave participants hands-on experience with the tool. You will have an additional opportunity to work with EPAS at our Continuous Improvement Boot Camp on April 4 (see the sidebar for more details).
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Mark Your Calendars
We are excited to host three Formal Review domain-specific intensive “Boot Camps” in the spring! During our EPIC grant, we have extended our technical assistance; these events will have a tight focus on the new resources and best practices that will help to prepare your organization for success in three domain areas. The agendas will be packed! The dates are:
- Continuous Improvement (April 4)
- Field-Based Experiences (May 2)
- Partnerships (June 1)
If you believe that participating in one of these events will support your work, please RSVP! These events will all be centrally located and will run from 9am until 2pm with a working lunch. We will share more details soon. We look forward to seeing you there!
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Your feedback also encouraged us about the work that we are doing together. Sixty-three percent of you agreed that we have “positively impacted the quality of preparation at my Sponsoring Organization” (up four percent) and sixty percent agreed that you felt “connected to a network that is improving educator preparation in MA” (up three percent). We are consistently inspired by the good work that you do, how eager you are to collaborate, and how willing you are to share your experiences with your peers in the field.
We look forward to our continued work together.
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CAP Supervisor Training Modules
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We have received requests for resources to support your CAP training and we are excited to share our CAP Supervisor Modules! The modules are available online, interactive, open to all, and designed to supplement the comprehensive training that you provide to your supervisors by building foundational understanding of the assessment. The modules are flexible and can be tailored to specific needs; supervisors can progress through sequentially or narrow in on an area in which they have questions. By leveraging the modules, you can spend your valuable in-person training time on the skills and practices of effective supervision.
We hope that your supervisors find the CAP modules to be a useful and informative resource to support CAP implementation. We will publish additional modules in March; please share feedback on the modules using this survey!
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Available Modules
- CAP 101
- The Pre-Cycle
- Step 1: The Self-Assessment and Step 2: Goal-Setting and Plan Development
- Step 3: Plan Implementation (coming soon)
- Step 4: Formative Assessment (coming soon)
- Step 5: Summative Assessment (coming soon)
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Teacher Educator Effectiveness Practices framework
Improving the supervision and feedback that candidates receive is a high priority for all of us. We recently released a new framework to support teacher educators and we have been delighted to hear about the positive response thus far.
Boston Public Schools (BPS) is one approved preparation provider in Massachusetts. Jalene Tamerat, Director of New Teacher Development at BPS, recently told us, “As we design and deliver both instructional coaching and coursework to our 30 teaching fellows, it’s really helpful to have reference guide to priority areas in our work so we can clearly see the specific steps that teacher educators can take to best develop our new teachers for effective long-term careers in teaching. We plan to use this framework as a guide to making holistic program adjustments as well as to develop discrete aspects of our fellowship and development.”
You can check out the framework on our website!
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Teacher Educator Institute
Excellent teacher educators facilitate instructional activities that provide teacher candidates with robust and meaningful opportunities to apply and improve the skills of PK-12 teaching. Join TeacherSquared, in partnership with the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education and teacher educators across the state, for a Teacher Educator Institute on the facilitation of teacher candidate practice. The Institute will be held March 14-16, 2018 and is open to Massachusetts educator preparation faculty. For registration and event details, please see our event flyer! Space is limited, so register today to take advantage of this unique opportunity!
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CAP Implementation: Perspectives from Year One
We have been working closely with Abt Associates to study the first year of Candidate Assessment of Performance (CAP). Abt used a combination of state data and conducted separate interviews with stakeholders at three Sponsoring Organizations to identify trends across the Commonwealth. You can see some of the key learnings below:
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Abt also has a lot to share about effective training models, communications practices, and pre-practicum integration. The full Case Study Brief is now available on our website!
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Variety of Fields Advisory
On June 27, the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education passed regulations voted to approve regulation changes impacting educator licensure and program approval. The changes made to grade levels in the updated regulations impacts the Variety of Fields program options. ESE has updated the Variety of Fields Advisory to reflect the content areas now housed under the Variety of -Middle and Variety of Fields-Secondary programs.
Sponsoring Organizations who already have Variety of Fields will remain approved for all the programs listed under the previous iteration. At the point of formal review, only the licensure areas listed within the updated advisory will be considered a part of Variety of Fields. All other programs will be considered as individual program areas. Please read the updated advisory and email Ed Prep if you have any further questions.
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DESE and Mursion Inclusive Practice Pilot
We are conducting an exciting pilot project exploring the use of mixed-reality simulations to understand the essential competencies for teachers who work with students with disabilities. We are seeking participants for one of our two-hour blocks between February 26th and March 1st.
The pilot consists of two simulation activities and a survey about the experience to help inform future iterations. Participants only need a computer with a stable internet connection, a mic/webcam, and a two-hour block of time. As a thank you, participants will be mailed a printed copy of the Guidebook for Inclusive Practice.
If you are interested in the opportunity, please sign up! If you have questions, or are not available this time but may be interested in future opportunities, please email Mursion.
Edwin Analytics Open Office Hours
Are you interesting in using Edwin Analytics, but aren’t sure where to start? Do you want support from ESE to help your organization understand where to go to find data? With the addition of several new features and reports, Edwin now contains more information than ever! To support Sponsoring Organizations in their use of Edwin, ESE is hosting a series of regional open office meetings throughout the year and invite all organizations to attend.
In the Edwin Open Office Hours, you will have a chance to:
- Get your questions about Edwin answered, either in a group setting or one-on-one,
- Participate in activities that are meant to strengthen your understanding of Edwin Analytics,
- Have independent team time to work and plan, and
- Learn about additional resources to use to support your understanding of Edwin.
We are pleased to announce the dates and time of the meetings:
- March 7 from 10-12 at Bridgewater State University (Bridgewater)
- June 13 from 10-12 at Assumption College (Worcester)
- September 19 from 10-12 at ESE (Malden)
Please RSVP to let us know you are coming! Due to space limitations, we will be capping the number of people who can attend, so don't delay!
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The Ed Prep Calendar is here!
You asked for it! We have our long-awaited sortable Ed Prep calendar available on our website. It has all of the upcoming deadlines, resources, opportunities, and events. You can download a "Year at a Glance" print version, too. We want this to be as useful as our state agency technology will allow - so please email us your feedback!
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