The California Commission on Teacher Credentialing’s recent meeting included a briefing from Secretary of Education Dave Long. Long highlighted the key issues emerging from a series of input sessions held throughout the state.

Long told the commission that these are the key issues: finance, local control and flexibility; student achievement; governance with an emphasis on allowing local governance structures to function; accountability; career technical education; teacher quality and credentialing safety.

The CTC took on a number of other important issues during its meeting. Following are some highlights:

CSET - Bilingual Exam
At a previous meeting, the commission approved embedding the BCLAD examination in the CSET: Bilingual Methodology and Bilingual Culture Exam. The examination is to be updated to reflect the current research and best practice in the field. The Knowledge, Skills and Abilities represent the requirements for the refinement of the exam. The program standards represent the requirements of the preparation programs that prepare candidates for certification. The KSAs were approved as submitted.

The Program Standards are to be sent to the field for input. The CTC is currently soliciting input on the draft standards. The draft Bilingual Teacher Preparation Program Standards are built upon the knowledge, skills and abilities required of a bilingual teacher for California public schools. Feedback from stakeholders is now being gathered and will be shared with the Bilingual Certification Design Team. Program standards will then be included in the December commission agenda for approval. Access www.ctc.ca.gov/educator-prep/bilingual-docs/Bilingual-Stakeholder-Input.doc. Feedback is due by Nov. 2.

The bilingual task group is recommending three routes to complete the certification: 1) through examination; 2) through completion of a program; 3) through a combination of both.

Alternative Teaching Performance Assessment
A valid and reliable assessment of teacher performance is a new requirement under SB 1209 for a preliminary teaching credential. The CTC has developed an assessment tool, the Teacher Performance Assessment. A consortium of UC, CSU, private universities and San Diego USD has developed an alternative form for the assessment. The commission approved the alternative form.

In a prior meeting with some ACSA Human Resources Council members, there was a concern raised about the potential disruption of both class and school by the requirement of one or more video taped lessons as part of the assessment system.

ACSA CTC Liaison Sharon Robison had a discussion with three universities that currently use the assessment, and they stated that the IHE assumes all of the responsibility for the assessment, and it states so in the contract with the district.

CTC Executive Director Dale Janssen has convened a task group of a variety of stakeholders to discuss this and other issues related to the required implementation of the assessment on July 1, 2008. Tom Addington, assistant superintendent, HR, Central ESD, will represent ACSA on this group.

School nurse credential program
In revising the program standards, the task group worked to eliminate duplication between the current Health Services standards, sought to streamline some of the concepts and reformatted the standards to align with the CTC format. The commission approved the standards.

Review of the draft RICA content specifications
The commission received information on work that is being done to ensure that the Reading Instruction Competence Assessment remains valid and aligned to the knowledge, skills and abilities needed for a beginning teacher in reading and language arts. It is anticipated that there will be an updating of the exam rather than a complete revision.

Alternative assessment for different languages
The commission received information on a plan to certify subject matter competency in languages where there are a very small number of students/teachers in that language. The goal is to assure that all candidates are assessed with the same rigor and the same content as any of the language assessments. One of the major issues is the assessment of Native American language groups.

Upcoming agenda item
A task group on Special Education has been working to prepare recommendations on revisions to the credential. This is on a very fast track, as the CTC must have a report to the Legislature in December. At the commission meeting in November, the report will be received for information. The commission will approve the report at its December meeting.