Flexibility Relating to Teacher Performance Assessment (edTPA).
Purpose:
To provide teacher Candidates, who apply for teacher certification prior to June 30, 2015 and who take and fail the teacher performance assessment (edTPA), with the option of either: (1) taking and passing the ATS-W after receipt of his/her failing score on the edTPA and prior to June 30, 2015, or (2) if the candidate had previously passed the ATS-W on or before April 30, 2014 (before the new certification examination requirements became effective) and the candidate has taken and failed the edTPA prior to June 30, 2015, the candidate will be issued an initial certificate (this applies to Transitional B program candidates who apply for an initial certificate as well).
Text or summary was published
in the May 14, 2014 issue of the Register, I.D. No. EDU-19-14-00021-EP.
Final rule as compared with last published rule:
No changes.
Revised rule making(s) were previously published in the State Register on
August 13, 2014.
Text of rule and any required statements and analyses may be obtained from:
Kirti Goswami, State Education Department, Office of Counsel, State Education Building, Room 148, 89 Washington Ave., Albany, NY 12234, (518) 474-6400, email: legal@mail.nysed.gov
Initial Review of Rule
As a rule that requires a RFA, RAFA or JIS, this rule will be initially reviewed in the calendar year 2017, which is no later than the 3rd year after the year in which this rule is being adopted.
Assessment of Public Comment
Since publication of a Notice of Emergency Adoption and Revised Rule Making in the State Register on August 13, 2014, the State Education Department (SED) received the following comment:
COMMENT: The commenter expressed the need to give teaching candidates the option of gaining certification until March 1, 2016 by passing either the four new certification exams or the three former ones. The commenter suggests that SED did not give colleges and students nearly enough time to prepare for the tests and that in turn, teacher candidates did not have adequate time to prepare for the tests.
RESPONSE: Since November of 2009, the Board of Regents and NYSED have been working on the development and implementation of new assessments for teacher certification. In fact, faculty from teacher preparation programs have been working with NYSED in the development of these new assessments and their implementation since 2010, and information about the new assessments, also available since 2010, is on the NYSED and NYSTCE websites and was distributed separately to each of the teacher preparation programs. A complete timeline for the new certification examination requirements can be found in Attachment C of the September Regents item for this regulation, which can be found on the Department’s website at http://www.regents.nysed.gov/meetings/2014/September2014/914brca2.pdf. Teacher preparation programs have been on notice of these requirements for more than five years. NYSED has posted information on these new certification examinations on its website and teacher preparation programs have been involved in the development of these examinations. However, it is ultimately the responsibility of teacher preparation program to ensure that their candidates are aware of the State’s certification requirements, and to prepare their candidates to meet such certification requirements.
Moreover, in February 2013, the Department pushed back the implementation date on the new examinations for an additional year from May 1, 2013 through May 1, 2014; which was nearly five years after the Department began making information available to candidates and programs about the new certification examinations. In addition, in an effort to address the concerns raised by the field on the edTPA, while at the same time recognizing the previous extensions and investments made in this exam, the Department provided a “safety net” for candidates taking the edTPA, which allows any candidate who applies for and meets the requirements of an initial certificate on or before June 30, 2015, except he/she fails the edTPA to either: (1) take and pass the ATS-W after receipt of his/her failing score on the edTPA and prior to June 30, 2015, or (2) if the candidate had previously passed the ATS-W on or before April 30, 2014 (before the new certification examination requirements became effective) and the candidate has taken and failed the edTPA prior to June 30, 2015, the candidate will be issued an initial certificate.
The Department has also initiated strong support systems to ensure that each preparation programs had the information they needed to successfully prepare its candidates. In addition to various conferences, webinars, and presentations, the Department provided approximately $11.5 million dollars to City University of New York (CUNY), State University of New York (SUNY), and independent colleges for faculty professional development. As a result of this work hundreds meetings and workshops have been held to ensure that faculty had all the information they needed to successfully prepare their candidates for the new certification assessments. This five year implementation timeline, combined with the strong financial support for teacher preparation programs ensured that the programs would be ready to adequately prepare teacher candidates for the new certification exams, and in turn, for teacher candidates to prepare for the new exams.
COMMENT: The commenter states that Governor Cuomo and legislators reached an agreement to hold teachers harmless from Common Core having a negative impact on their evaluations and careers and requests the same hold harmless provisions for teaching certification candidates. He states that certification exams for teacher candidates are similar to evaluations of current teachers, and that teacher candidates should also be held harmless.
RESPONSE: The Annual Professional Performance Review (APPR) is a collectively bargained annual evaluation system of teacher effectiveness based on multiple measures, including student growth on State assessments. The Governor’s Program Bill No. 56, which has not yet been signed into law, provides a safety net calculation for the 2013-2014 and 2014-2015 school years for educators who were rated ineffective or developing and whose rating relied on one or more State assessments aligned to the Common core. If the educator’s safety net calculation is higher than their evaluation rating calculated pursuant to Education Law § 3012-c, the bill provides that the rating cannot be used for termination decisions. This legislation seeks to address any negative consequences for teachers and principals whose evaluation ratings are ineffective or developing in the 2013-14 and/or 2014-15 school years based on student achievement on Common Core State tests.
SED believes that the teacher certification exams are different. They measure a candidate’s readiness to enter a classroom and be an effective classroom teacher by instructing students and enhancing student learning and achievement. Since the creation of New York’s Common Core Learning Standards, students are expected are being held to a higher academic standard. As the standards for P-12 students rise, teachers, in turn, must also have the minimum knowledge, skills and abilities needed to educate their students when they enter the classroom. Moreover, the new and revised certification examinations measure more than just a candidate’s knowledge of the CCLS, including a candidate’s knowledge of literacy, their performance in the classroom and ability to teach kids, their knowledge of different student populations (SWD, ELL) and their knowledge of the content mater they are seeking to teach. These are essential skills for any teacher entering the classroom.
