Educator Licensure Steering Committee of the Illinois P-20 Council

June 2012

Erika Hunt and Audrey Soglin

Committee Co-Chairs

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• The P-12 Educator Licensure Steering Committee will facilitate a comprehensive discussion about educator certification and licensure within the context of other initiatives surrounding teacher preparation.

• The Commission will provide feedback to the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) on the new licensure rollout and its implications across the educational system from birth to postsecondary education.

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The Steering Committee will be co-chaired by:

◦ Erika Hunt of Center for the Study of Education Policy

◦ Audrey Soglin of the Illinois Education Association

The Committee will meet bi-monthly and bring a high-level, systematic focus to issues surrounding educator certification and licensure.

Short-term work groups will delve deeper into specific issues as needed and report back to the larger committee.

The Committee is not designed to replace the committees that ISBE created to investigate certain issues, such as program standards for early childhood, elementary or middle school endorsement. Rather, it will build upon the existing and ongoing work.

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The Steering Committee will explore the comprehensive range of issues related to the new educator licensure and certification structure. These include:

General Topic Specific Issues

License and endorsements New single license

Existing endorsements

Proposed endorsements (grade spans,

subjects, student populations)

Focused endorsements

Teacher Prep Program Design Candidate selection

Student teaching and clinical work

District/university partnerships

Program Standards Early childhood standards

Elementary program standards

Middle grades program standards

Math and English/Language Arts

Educator Assessments Review assessment structure

Consider alignment of assessments to

endorsements and content standards

Important related issues Diversity among teacher candidates

Alternative certification and focused

programs

Community college and program alignment

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August 2011: Illinois SB 1799 reconfigures educator certification and licensure structure.

June 2012: The Illinois P20 Council convenes an Educator Certification Steering Committee that will make recommendations to ISBE.

2011: ISBE Convenes the Early Childhood Advisory Group and the Elementary and Middle Grades Advisory Group to develop content standards for math and English language arts (Note: ECAG rolled out later than EMAG).

Fall 2013: Initial elementary and middle grades teacher preparation programs redesigned.

Winter 2012: Rules and content standards for elementary and middle grades due for adoption.

Spring 2015: First teacher candidates graduate from redesigned programs.

Kellee Sullivan

Illinois State Board of Education

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Signed into law in August 2011, Public Act 97-0607 – commonly known as SB 1799 – reconfigured Illinois’ educator licensure system in an effort to simply and strengthen the process.

• Creates a standard Professional Educator License

• Defines endorsements specific to grade spans, subject area and student population

• Streamlines the number of available teaching licenses from 66 to three, and makes clear the grade levels and subjects for which an educator is certified to teach by listing them upon the license itself.

• Renames the Illinois Teacher Certification Board as the State Educator Preparation and Licensure Board

• Presents the opportunity to align teacher preparation program requirements with the new certification and licensure structure

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Illinois for years offered a tiered certificate system whereby teachers obtained:

• An Initial Certificate (for new teachers)

• A Standard Certificate (for teachers with at least four years in the classroom)

• A Master Certificate (for Nationally Board Certified Teachers)

Within the tiered certificate system, Illinois teachers earned a grade level certificate that included three broad configurations: • Birth to 3rd Grade • Kindergarten to 9th Grade • 6th Grade to 12th Grade Certificates specific to subjects and student populations were offered, such as: • Special education, birth to age 21 • Subject specific

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The new law creates three standard licenses that offer a consistent, clear expectation of the core skills teachers must have and will be valid for five years:

License Requirements

Professional Educator License • Graduate from approved teacher prep program • Pass the requisite assessments • Complete coursework on educating the

exceptional child • Study the methods of reading

Professional Educator License with Stipulations

• Limit the license holder to a specific position • Does not require completion of an approved

education prep program • Pair with an endorsement that is provisional

and non-renewable

Substitute Teaching License • Graduate from an accredited college • Pass the test of basic skills • Not eligible for supporting endorsements

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◦ The Illinois State Board of Education and the State Educator Preparation and Licensure Board will establish, by administrative rule, the grade span and content area structure for endorsements.

By law, they also will create endorsements for:

o Superintendent

o Administrator

o Principal

o Teacher Leader

o Special education

o School support

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Teachers will pair the license with supporting endorsements that reflect a depth of understanding in terms of grade level, subject area or student population.

Candidates may obtain an Illinois professional educator license so long as they:

• Graduate from an approved teacher prep program;

• Pass the requisite assessments;

• Complete coursework on educating and supporting the exceptional child;

• Study the methods of reading and reading in a specific content area.

Candidates will support the license with endorsements that reflect a candidate’s expertise in terms of grade level, content area or student population.

Candidates may obtain additional endorsements so long as they:

• Complete at least 24 semester hours of coursework in the endorsement area;

• Pass the applicable content area exam.

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All teacher preparation programs are required to demonstrate appropriate content and pedagogy standards for both an initial license and subsequent endorsement they intend to provide.

These standards include:

◦ Illinois Professional Teaching Standards

◦ Illinois Social and Emotional Standards

◦ Common Core Standards (for grades K-12)

◦ Program Standards (e.g., NAEYC for early childhood)

Through advisory committees, ISBE is developing new content/content pedagogy standards for different subject areas.

Teaching candidates will need to take a set of assessments in addition to completing a program, including:

◦ An assessment that will cover all the pedagogy standards required by the IPTS

◦ Content assessments

◦ Performance based assessment for student teaching called the Teacher Performance Assessment

Different versions of TPA exist for Early Childhood, Elementary, Middle and Secondary grades.

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Endorsement Assessments Standards

Early Childhood • Teacher Performance Assessment

• Content Assessment (with subtests)

• Illinois Professional Teaching Standards • Content Standards in ELA, Math, Science

and Social Studies that align with student standards but require mastery several grades higher

• Content Pedagogy Standards in ELA, Math

Elementary • Teacher Performance Assessment

• Content Assessment (with subtests)

• Illinois Professional Teaching Standards • Content Standards in ELA, Math, Science

and Social Studies that align with student standards but require mastery several grades higher

• Content Pedagogy Standards in ELA, Math

Middle Grades • Teacher Performance Assessment

• Content Assessments for distinct subjects*

• Illinois Professional Teaching Standards • Content Standards in ELA, Math, Science

and Social Studies that align with student standards but require mastery several grades higher

• Content Pedagogy Standards in ELA, Math

*Distinct content exams are required because the content standards are higher at the middle grades level.

Will enable research and program assessment based on educational outcomes by linking program data, teacher evaluation data and student achievement.

Program

Requirements

and Standards

Program

Measures

Teacher

Evaluation

Data

Student

Achievement

Data

ISBE is developing endorsements for many of the areas that previously required separate and individual certificates and redesigning the grade spans, content standards, course requirements, and program requirements for each endorsement.

ISBE has been developing standards and grade configurations for at least the following areas with the Early Childhood Advisory and Elementary and Middle School Advisory Groups (ECAG and EMAG):

Early Childhood

Elementary

Middle grades

High school

Last year, ISBE convened two committees to develop content standards for teacher preparation programs. Their work continues today:

The Elementary and Middle School Advisory Group (EMAG) along with the Early Childhood Advisory Group (ECAG) will continue their efforts to develop content standards for Mathematics, English/Language Arts, Social Sciences and Science that align to the Common Core State Standards.

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Obtaining Subsequent Endorsements: Practicing teachers who choose to obtain an additional, subsequent endorsement face a distinct set of requirements that recognizes their expertise and experience.

◦ Specifically, the teacher will work with a preparation program to identify what required coursework the candidate has completed, and what additional content-specific work might be required within the endorsement area.

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Example I: A high school teacher certified in mathematics moves to a middle school. The teacher might need to take courses in adolescent development in order to earn the middle grades certification that is required to work in a middle school.

Example II: A middle school mathematics teacher who hopes to transition to a high school. The teacher may need to take a content assessment to ensure mastery of more involved mathematical skills and concepts required at the secondary level.

What does the new certification system mean for teachers certified in the former system?

• Teachers working within the former certification system are

grandfathered into the new certification structure.

• Still, a clear and reasonable pathway into the new certification system must be developed whereby current teachers may translate their existing credentials into the new certification system.

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Erika Hunt

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Selection/Admission

Diverse Educator Pipeline

Student Teacher and Clinical Experience

Partnerships

Assessments/Pathways

Institutional and Program Articulation

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We will turn to this important issue next month, but it might be helpful to take a few minutes today to broadly discuss several of the open questions that this Committee will consider.

Topic Open Questions

Candidate Selection • What tools might be used for selection? • How might the selection criteria relate to the exit criteria?

Student Teaching and Clinical Experience

• What might be the required length of a student teaching experience?

• When will it occur within a teacher prep program? How long should it be?

Diverse Pipeline • What might a portfolio of recruitment and retention strategies that target qualified, diverse teacher candidates include?

• How might schools help in identifying high-performing, minority candidates with an aptitude and interest in teaching?

• How might teacher preparation programs recruit qualified, diverse students who are already on their college campuses?

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Topic Open Questions

Program Partnerships • Who should be involved with these partnerships? • What are the requirements for such partnerships? • How will these be created, supported and monitored?

Assessments/Pathways • How will teacher candidates specializing in subjects that do not yet have content standards be evaluated? (Hours of coursework, content assessment?)

• How will the cut scores for these assessments be determined?

• Do the assessments align to the content and content pedagogy standards?

Articulation • What are the current challenges presented by the AAT? How can these challenges be addressed to allow for more seamless articulation of experiences and credits?

In your small groups, use the handout to answer the following:

◦ For each Topic Area, what other Open Questions should be explored?

◦ What are other Topic Areas that should be considered?

◦ Will these Topic Areas cover what we need?

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The Committee will meet bi-monthly to consider distinct issues related to the certification and licensure system for Illinois’ teachers.

We intend to convene separate work groups where stakeholders and experts in the field might meet separately to delve into each topic and then report back to this larger Committee.

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If you would like to participate in these work groups, please contact Melissa DeBartolo at melissa.debartolo@gmail.com.