The Council for Accreditation of Educator Preparation (CAEP) has been working with representatives of teachers unions and other contributing parties to finalize new accreditation standards for teacher preparation, and these include a focus on student-achievement growth. While CAEP’s new standards still have to be approved by the accreditor’s board later this summer, the positive feedback thus far from representatives of the major teachers unions signals a successful compromise over teacher preparation which will in fact mean that new teachers’ progress will be tracked in connection with the program that trained them.
This is a significant shift for the field of education, and it could allow for significant improvements to preparation programs, which will have much more data about what works and what doesn’t. This could also be a hallmark that sets the teaching profession apart from others. Which other field tracks the success of members of that field in connection with their program of preparation/certification?
The final language, which caused significant back and forth about the role of value-added measures, sets the expectation that programs incorporate data if states provide it. It reads:
“The provider documents that program completers contribute to an expected level of student-learning growth. Multiple measures shall include all available growth measures (including value-added measures, student-growth percentiles, and student learning objectives) required by the state for its teachers and available education preparation programs, other state-supported P-12 impact measures, and any other measures employed by the provider.”
For more information, please visit:
http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/teacherbeat/2013/06/accreditor_clears_value_added_.html
