DESE Seeking Volunteers for Educator Licensure Working Groups

The Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) has issued a call for volunteers to join Working Groups that will develop recommendations for subject matter knowledge required for educator licensure.  This is a critically important endeavor with the potential to not only raise the stature of the teaching profession but also have important implications for teacher preparation programs in Massachusetts.  Our education licensure system needs this attention and reform.  The overall goal is to ensure that Massachusetts has a highly effective educator workforce able to provide our children with the knowledge, skills and attitudes they need to succeed in a competitive global economy and society.

The DESE invitation states, “With the adoption of new Massachusetts Curriculum Frameworks in 2011 incorporating the Common Core State Standards, instruction in language arts and mathematics must evolve in order to ensure that the Commonwealth’s students have the opportunity to master new, more rigorous expectations. An essential step in this instructional shift is alignment of training in educator preparation programs to ensure that incoming educators are prepared in the right content for which they will be responsible as teachers.”

To guide educator preparation programs in this alignment work, the DESE will be revising the Subject Matter Knowledge (SMK) standards for a variety of licenses, including reading, English and math at all grade levels.   Other license requirements, listed here, were amended by the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (BESE) in January.  These regulatory revisions will be brought to the BESE for a period of public comment and then ultimately, for adoption. In addition to changes to preparation programs, these changes will ultimately lead to revisions of associated MTEL examinations.

The Task: Update Educator Licensure Subject Matter Knowledge (SMK) Requirements and Align those SMKs to the 2011 Curriculum Frameworks

Working Group 1: Reviewing Literacy SMK requirements for:

• Foundations of Reading (Early Childhood Education, Elementary and
• Moderate Special Needs licenses);
• English (5-8 and 8-12);
• Reading Specialist, and
• General Curriculum (Elementary, Moderate Special Needs, Severe Special Needs, Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing, and Visually Impaired licenses)

Working Group 2: Reviewing SMK requirements for Early Childhood licensure

Working Group 3: Reviewing SMK requirements for Mathematics licensure (1-6, 5-8 and 8-12 Mathematics; MS Mathematics/Science licenses)

We are looking for K-12 educators, professionals involved in preparing new educators, disciplinary experts from academia, and other interested individuals to apply to join each of the three Working Groups described above.  As part of our effort to move this work forward efficiently and thoughtfully, for each respective Working Group, we are seeking individuals with knowledge, experience and/or educational background related to the content area under review.

We hope to keep membership in each working group small enough so that the work can move along expeditiously (e.g., an estimated 10-15 individuals), but also ensure that the group is broadly representative of the field – which may require a somewhat larger group.

Each Working Group will meet for no more than six hours per day on Wednesday, July 9 and Thursday, July 10, 2014. Working Group meetings will be held at a location in central Massachusetts. Subsequently, Working Group members may be asked to review documents and potentially to attend one or more follow-up meetings. Volunteers from Working Groups will be invited to join DESE and Early Education and Care (EEC) staff when revised SMKs are brought before the BESE for consideration.

If you are interested in participating in one of the three Working Groups, please submit the following as attachments to SMKRevisions@doe.mass.edu by May 23, 2014:

• Resume (please limit to 2-pages including relevant experience, education, publications, etc.)
• 1-page statement of interest, including a summary of knowledge and relevant experience, including the specific working group for which you are applying to participate
• Commitment to participate in the meetings in central Massachusetts on July 9 and 10, including availability for preparation work in advance of these meetings, and feedback on documents afterwards. Also, commitment to potentially attend one or more additional meetings later in the summer or in the early fall.

We hope that professionals with expertise in these subject areas will participate in these Working Groups and ensure teachers have the knowledge required to prepare their students for college and career success .  All applicants will be contacted by June 6, 2014.