NJ DOE Approves Changes to State Standards & Licensure

doeheaderblueSince April 2014, the NJ Department of Education has been busy proposing and adopting changes to both the New Jersey Professional Standards for Teachers and the New Jersey Licensure and Regulations for educator preparation programs.  As of May 5, 2014, changes to the Professional Standards are effective and as of June 4, 2014, the DOE adopted changes to the Licensure and Regulations.

The process, updates and links to files tracking changes to the standards and adopted changes to the licensure regulations can be found within the ‘Resources’ tab on this blog under ‘Standards and Regulations.’

NJDOE – Updated NJ Professional Teaching Standards and AchieveNJ Update – May 2014

AchieveNJ200Dr. Martinelli, Associate Dean for Academic Affairs shared two updates from the NJ Department of Education.

Following is an overview of  both communications from the NJDOE.

1. On April 1, 2014, NJ updated the Professional Standards for Teachers to more closely align with the 2011 Interstate Teacher Assessment and Support Consortium (InTASC) Model Core Teaching Standards. The overview from NJDOE as well as links to the full crosswalk between the NJ Professional Standards for Teachers and the InTASC standards are located on the Teacher Preparation page within this site.

2.. Peter Shulman, Assistant Commissioner/Chief Talent Officer, Division of Teacher and Leader Effectiveness distributed an update on May 6, 2014.  It is an update on AchieveNJ and focuses on completing the teacher and adminstrator evaluations for the 2013-14 school year and also includes an update of SGO’s 2.0 for next academic year. This letter can be found in its entirety on the Standards & Regulation page within this site.

Education Week Article on EdTPA

On Monday, December 2, 2013, Education Week published an article on edTPA.

The article looks at the perspective of new teachers who completed the edTPA before becoming certified; the different state requirements, views and levels of a passing score; and differing perspectives on the use, value and any impact the administering and passing of the edTPA will have on student learning in classrooms.

It is important to keep in mind that NJDOE has mandated educator preparation programs (EPPs) use an evaluation tool but have not, at this time, mandated the use of a specific tool such as the edTPA.

The article is available here.

NJDOE Proposed Regulation on Praxis I/Core Academic Skills for Educators

praxis_header_logo_156x72There is a proposed regulation, titled Professional Licensure and Standards – Teacher Preparation, before the NJ Department of Education regarding mandatory testing for students who wish to enroll in a teacher preparation program in the state of NJ.

As of October 2013, this regulation is in the Proposal Level of rules and regulations with the DOE and is open to public comment. There are two main areas of the regulation that will impact cohorts and individuals enrolling in a teacher preparation program in the state of NJ:

1. The average cumulative GPA of the accepted cohort of candidates  as of September 1, 2015 is at least 3.00 when a grade point of 4.00 equals an A grade for the first two years of college and each accepted individual candidate shall achieve at least a 2.75. (The new CAEP standard 3.2 states that “…the provider ensures that the average grade point average of its accepted cohort of candidates meets or exceeds the CAEP minimum of 3.0…” and will be in effect as of January 2014.)

2. The accepted candidates achieved acceptable levels of proficiency in the use of the English language, both oral and written, and mathematics. As of September 1, 2014, all accepted candidates shall have achieved a minimum score established by the Department on a Commissioner-approved test of basic reading, writing, and mathematics skills, or score at least a 1660 combined critical reading, writing, and mathematics score on the SAT or at least a 23 on the ACT.

There was discussion at the Curriculum Revision meeting on September 27, 2013 as to what the ‘Commissioner approved test’ would be.  Upon further research and discussions with Eric Nicola, the Assistant Director of Preparation in the Office of Recruitment, Preparation and Recognition, Division of Teacher and Leader Effectiveness, New Jersey Department of Education, the state of NJ will be requiring students to pass the Core Academic Skills for Educators in the areas of math, writing and reading NOT the Praxis I. Detailed information regarding the Core Academic Skills for Educators tests can be found on the ETS website.

Curriculum Revision Meeting – Friday, September 27, 2013

meeting notesThe faculty from the Department of Educational Studies, along with the Dean of College of Education and Human Services, held their first meeting to kick off the curriculum redesign process.

The focus of the meeting was to introduce this blog and then to have the faculty break up into groups and review the five new CAEP standards.  The task was to evaluate the language and expectations in the five standards and provide notes, questions and feedback to the entire group on where CEHS was already succeeding and meeting the standards, what are new areas to the standards not previously addressed and in which areas we can improve.

Due to the high level of engagement of the faculty groups, we were only able to provide feedback and notes on the first two standards.  The faculty and department will continue the discussion and review of the remaining three CAEP Standards at the next meeting scheduled on Friday, October 25th at 9:30 in the 4th floor media lab.

The CAEP and NJDOE regulations alignment document and the Diversity alignment between CAEP and InTASC, both documents discussed and used during the meeting, can be found here.