The Commission on Teacher Credentialing has adopted an updated version of the California Standards for the Teaching Profession.
Originally developed a decade ago by the CTC and the California Department of Education, the CSTP provide a connection between teacher preparation, beginning teacher induction, and continuing expectations for current classroom teachers. While the themes within the standards can be applied at varying levels of teacher experience, the overall content remains constant throughout the teacher’s career span, from novice to seasoned professional.
The CSTP cover six areas including skills, knowledge and everyday practice that are essential to effective teaching. These include engaging all students; creating and maintaining effective environments for student learning; understanding and organizing subject matter for student learning; planning instruction and designed learning experiences for all students; assessing students for learning; and professional development.
“As a former teacher and now school district science manager working with many novice teachers, I appreciate the continuity and focus on professional practice that the CSTP provide,” said Caleb Cheung, CTC chair and ACSA member.
The world of education has definitely changed since CSTP was developed in 1997. CTC and CDE staffers worked extensively with a representative workgroup to revise the CSTP to clearly reflect today’s educational environment, including the current K-12 Academic Content Standards. The updated CSTP differ from the original version in key areas, including the following examples:
• Greater emphasis on meeting diverse learning needs.
• Emphasis on linking subject matter with meaningful, real-life experiences.
• Emphasis on developing social, emotional and cognitive safety in the classroom.
• More clearly articulated teacher knowledge of subject matter and remaining current in the subject as a professional responsibility.
• More clearly identified instructional differentiation for students with special needs and for English learners.
• Emphasis on using assessment information when planning instruction.
• Emphasis on using technology in understanding and using assessment information.
• Focus on how teachers can improve teaching practice to improve student learning.
• Focus on demonstrating professional responsibility, integrity and ethical conduct.
With this CTC adoption, the CDE will now present the revised CSTP to the superintendent of public instruction for review and action. Then the revised CSTP will be presented to the State Board of Education as an informational item. Then, CDE and CTC staff will join with the New Teacher Center in Santa Cruz to develop a Continuum of Teacher Development aligned with the 2009 CSTP.
More information can be found at www.ctc.ca.gov.
In other business before the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing, focus is continuing on reading and language arts specialist credential programs.
A panel of specialists has been working on a continuum of knowledge and skills from the beginning multiple subject teacher to the Reading Certificate and then to the Reading and Language Arts Specialist Credential holder.
Draft standards presented at the CTC’s October meeting differ from the current standards in the following ways:
• emphasis on developing skills to help candidates, their peers and administrators create a culture of literacy in the classrooms, schools and district;
• greater emphasis on developing literacy skills for all students, including skills to support speaking and listening;
• greater emphasis on developing abilities to support students’ writing skills; and
• greater specificity for skill development in content areas associated with literacy development, such as word analysis and comprehension.
In addition, in order to clarify the differences in preparation, knowledge and authorization between the Reading Certificate and the Reading and Language Arts Specialist Credential, to assure that an individual with a specialist credential is not authorized to teach English, and to support the role of specialists in helping others create a culture of literacy, the panel is recommending the following name changes.
• Reading Certificate would be changed to the Reading Teacher Certificate.
• Reading and Language Arts Specialist Credential would be called the Reading and Literacy Specialist Credential.
The next steps for this work will be to use an extensive array of devices to gain public input on the proposed standards. It is expected these standards – revised, as necessary – will come before the CTC for action in January.
Also in October, in accordance with federal guidelines, the CTC is required to report annually on teacher preparation programs. This report includes a description of the certification structure, requirements and assessments, a description of the criteria for assessing the performance of teacher preparation programs, a description of the state efforts to improve teacher quality and the pass rate of program sponsors for all assessments used by the state for initial credentialing.
As noted in previous reports, the number of credentials issued is steadily dropping.
TPA users advisory
As of July 1, 2008, a Teacher Performance Assessment has been required by law of all multiple and single subject credential candidates. The TPA provides an important quality control measure on prospective credential holders.
Because of the reduced support for state colleges and universities, the higher education community has proposed modifications in the TPA as a cost-cutting measure.
ACSA testified that while the K-12 community certainly understands the need for economy, any modifications would have to continue the validity, reliability, fairness and equity of the current measures.
The commission asked for data on the projected cost savings of modifying the TPA. This item will return to the agenda in December.