Below is a letter submitted by MSEA President Betty Weller to the Maryland State Board of Education on the "Option Four" amendment to the regulations covering teacher certification. There are
currently three options (Master's Degree, Master's Equivalency, and National
Board Certification) to renew or qualify for your Advanced Professional
Certificate (APC) in the the state of Maryland. The State BOE wants to add an "Option Four," which would make qualification for, or renewal of, your APC based on your evaluation.
Distinct
from the other three routes to an APC, Option Four requires no professional
development and no ongoing coursework. Unfortunately, teachers may choose
Option Four as a quick and less rigorous method to secure or renew an APC,
unaware that it may be the most difficult route in the end. The highly
effective rating may be impacted by a change in assignments, grade level,
content areas, new administrative staff, and the accuracy and validity of the
evaluation system itself. Adopting "Option Four" would
be premature since Maryland has not even adopted a uniform standard for highly
effective teachers. Each local school system will define the standard
differently.
The Professional Standards and Teacher Education
Board (PSTEB) is still deliberating the issue and the fact that the State Board of Education is about to take action with those deliberations still ongoing, is unprecedented.
MSEA is
working with other state educational organizations to oppose this change in
certification regulations and to preserve the high standards and credibility of
our profession, and stands ready to work with MSDE to identify other
alternatives for strengthening the profession.
RE: Proposed
Amendments to COMAR 13A.12.01.02
Maryland State Board of Education:
As you
know, for more than a year a certification workgroup has undertaken an
examination of the current certification regulations with the intent of
proposing regulatory changes. This
workgroup passed its recommendations to the Professional Standards and Teacher
Education Board (PSTEB). In its
consideration of the recommendations, PSTEB engaged in extensive study and
sought stakeholder input regarding the practical applications of the proposed
changes and the impact those changes would have on student growth and teacher
effectiveness. As a result of this time
and effort, PSTEB unanimously voted to reject Option 4, the Advanced
Professional Certificate (APC) option that ties teacher certification to
evaluation ratings. MSEA supports
PSTEB's decision and requests that the members of the State Board do so as well.
MSEA
strongly supports the strengthening of the current certification process, but
in doing so we believe that rigorous and relevant professional development must
continue to be a requirement for renewal.
As such, MSEA strongly supports the continuation of the Master’s Degree,
Master’s equivalency, and National Board Certification as options to receiving
an APC since each of these routes require teachers to engage in ongoing
professional development and course work beyond the receipt of their
undergraduate college degrees. Studies
have shown that such a requirement only serves to improve a teacher’s
professional practice, which is essential in the development and maintenance of
a more rigorous learning environment for students.
Despite
PSTEB's unanimous opposition to Option 4, the State Board has moved forward in
its consideration of it. This option as currently written requires no professional development and no ongoing course work; it
is entirely dependent upon the stroke of an evaluator’s pen. Even with the new evaluation system, this
process is prone to subjectivity, especially if the evaluators are not highly
trained and skilled in how to conduct observations and gather data needed for
the evaluation. We have been working
hard with our locals to recruit highly trained educators, upgrade the
profession with higher standards, and collaborate with the Maryland State
Department of Education to develop a highly effective evaluation system. Yet
this evaluation system still needs to be tested for validity and reliability.
Creating a new certification route that is dependent on an ambitious, but unproven,
evaluation system invites subjectivity, unreliability, and potentially lowered
standards into a process that is critical to ensuring the ongoing high quality
of our schools.
We share
your goal to increase student achievement and to make sure every child is taught
by highly effective teachers; however, we don’t believe that we can get there
by making changes that have not been tested for validity and reliability. Option 4, as currently proposed, devalues the
profession and lowers standards, which is clearly contrary to our goals.
We want Maryland to remain the number one school system in the nation. To that end, when creating policies on which
our schools and depend, we must take the time and care necessary to ensure
those policies move us forward.
As president
of the Maryland State Education Association and co-chair of the Council for
Educator Effectiveness, I am requesting that we do as PSTEB recommended and
reject Option 4, continue the dialogue, and utilize research and data prior to
amending the certification structure.
Thank you
for your consideration.
Betty Weller
President, Maryland State Education Association
Submitted on behalf of MSEA
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