Demonstrating_Competency2

The Tennessee Board of Regents Ready2Teach program is competency-based.  Required competencies are a combination of state-identified evaluation dimensions on which every teacher in Tennessee is evaluated and especially critical teaching characteristics identified by our partner superintendents. 

• Our entire program is organized around these competencies, and we will be accountable for ensuring that every one of our graduates has achieved them.
• Grades, seat time, and course completion no longer are important or required indicators of achievement. 
• This means that we will have considerable flexibility in the experiences we require of our residents, as long as they are able to demonstrate competencies. 
• All competencies are based on current research and theory, and we continue to conduct research on which competencies are important to student outcomes. 

To ensure that our residents will be able to demonstrate competencies, we are developing a system-wide performance-based assessment system that we will ensure to be valid, reliable, and fair.  To assemble and test critical parts of this system, we are partnering with Stanford University, CCSSO, and AACTE in implementing and evaluating the Teacher Performance Assessment system. 

• Residents will complete the Teacher Performance Assessment as the capstone experience of the program.
• We have worked closely with the State Board of Education to align the performance-based teacher assessment system with State Board of Education requirements so that program completion and licensure decisions align. 
• Finally, the Tennessee Board of Regents system, and each preparation program, will conduct ongoing evaluation and research to improve programs and link teaching characteristics to student outcomes.

Being able to effectively demonstrate competencies outlined by the State Board of Education, Tennessee Licensure Standards, and NCATE standards is a major component of the Ready2Teach program.  Collecting data on the performance of our candidates, evaluating and analyzing data, and drawing conclusions from this data allows us to effectively determine if the candidates graduating from Ready2Teach are of the highest quality.  Assessment and evaluation of teacher candidates is a major part of NCATE’s unit standards, specifically standard 2:

• Assessment System and Unit Evaluation:  The unit (Ready2Teach) has an assessment system that collects and analyzes data on applicant qualifications, candidate and graduate performance, and unit operations to evaluate and improve the performance of candidates, the unit (Ready2Teach), and its programs.

The assessment system used by Ready2Teach is aligned with NCATE standard 2a: Assessment System:

• The unit (Ready2Teach), with the involvement of its professional community, is regularly evaluating the capacity and effectiveness of its assessment system, which reflects the conceptual framework and incorporates candidate proficiencies outlined in professional and state standards.  The unit (Ready2Teach) regularly examines the validity and utility of the data produced through assessments and makes modifications to keep abreast of changes in assessment technology and in professional standards.  Decisions about candidate performance are based on multiple assessments made at multiple points before program completion and in practice after completion of programs.  Data show a strong relationship of performance assessments to candidate success throughout their programs and later in classrooms or schools.  The unit conducts thorough studies to establish fairness, accuracy, and consistency of its assessment procedures and unit (Ready2Teach) operations.  It also makes changes in its practices consistent with the results of these studies.

Data collected from our assessment system will not only determine if candidates can effectively demonstrate the competencies determined to improve student outcomes, but will also assist Ready2Teach in improving the program for future teacher candidates.

NCATE’s Blue Ribbon Panel on Teacher Education recently made strong recommendations for upcoming teacher preparation programs.  Number four of their Design Principles states:

• Programs prepare teachers who are expert in content and how to teach it and are also innovators, collaborators, and problem solvers:  Candidates must develop a base of knowledge, a broad range of effective teacher practices, and the ability to integrate the two to support professional decision-making.  To be successful teachers in challenging and changing environments, candidates must learn to use multiple assessment processes to advance learning and inform their practice with data to differentiate their teaching to match their students’ progress.  Further, effective teachers are innovators and problem solvers, working with colleagues constantly seeking new and different ways of teaching students who are struggling.

A second recommendation listed within the Design Principles is standard 3:

• A candidate’s progress and the elements of a preparation program are continuously judged on the basis of data:  Candidates’ practice must be directly linked to the InTASC core teaching standards for teachers and Common Core Standards, and evaluation of candidates must be based on students’ outcome data, including student artifacts, summative and formative assessments; data from structured observations of candidates’ classroom skills by supervising teachers and faculty; and data about the preparation program and consequences of revising it.

Ready2Teach candidates will effectively demonstrate research-based competencies that have been proven to improve student outcomes.  Not only will they come into the classroom with these competencies, opportunities for serious professional development should be available to even further our teacher candidates' expertise.  The possibility of recognition for demonstrating advanced competencies also exists, which will allow for advanced status in recognition of these competencies.