Educator Preparation
Fall 2016 Newsletter
Preparing an impactful teacher for every student.
SPOTLIGHT: Stakeholder Surveys
Over the past few years, The Massachusetts Department of Elementary and
Secondary Education (ESE) developed four stakeholder surveys. We
administered these surveys in in the spring to evaluate the perceptions of
teacher readiness in the Commonwealth. The four stakeholder groups are:
1. Candidates - survey issued at the point of program completion
2. Completers - survey issued to individuals employed in an
Massachusetts public school one year after program completion
3. Supervising Practitioners - survey issued to those who supervised a
candidate during the practicum experience
4. Hiring principals - survey issued to principals one year after he or she
hired a teacher completer
ESE studied the data to share key learnings with the field, available in the
Stakeholder Surveys Aggregate Trends Summary. The purpose of the summary is
to provide:
 Organizations with a state comparison point when they review their own
data; and
 The public with access to important information about perceptions of
teacher readiness across Massachusetts.
Table of Contents
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Staffing Changes
Candidate Assessment of
Performance (CAP) Happenings
Elevate Preparation: Impact
Children (EPIC) Grant
Data Collection
New Resource: Instructional
Support Newsletter
New Resource: Low-Income
Education Access Project (LEAP)
Training Module
Statewide Induction & Mentoring
Report
Massachusetts Tests for Educator
Licensure (MTEL) Updates
New USED Regulations
Considering and comparing the perceptions of key stakeholders is critical to an
organization’s continuous improvement. This suite of surveys allows
organizations to understand perceptions of readiness across different
perspectives and at varying points in time.
A few highlights from the summary:
 Overall, candidates and completers feel well prepared by their programs.
Supervising Practitioners also feel positively about candidate
preparation.
 Principals were critical about new teachers’ readiness to meet the needs
of the students in their school. On a five point scale from fully ready to
not ready, only 27% of principals said candidates were fully ready and
immediately impactful with students. Forty-one percent of principals
said candidates are mostly ready.
 Although completers felt well prepared to meet performance
expectations outlined in Standard II (Family and community
engagement), candidates and Supervising Practitioners were less
favorable about candidate readiness in this area.
The Educator Preparation Stakeholder Surveys page provides blank copies of
each survey so that organizations can use them internally throughout the year.
Our website also contains short-form surveys for programs to use for their own
continuous improvement.
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Mark Your Calendar!
12/5: EPIC Partner Innovation
Grant applications due
12/5: CAP Online Platform Training
(ESE)
12/12: Applications to serve as an
Ed Prep Reviewer for our 2017-18
cohort open up
1/9: CAP Online Platform Training
(Holy Cross)
Fall 2016 – Educator Preparation Newsletter
Staffing Changes
We have welcomed two great people to our team!
Shannon Clancy is our new Educator Effectiveness
Specialist. Shannon is focusing on implementation support
for CAP. Originally from Andover, Shannon has a political
science degree from Boston College and master’s degree
from Harvard GSE. In addition to CAP, you will hear from
Shannon about our student teacher partnership
consortium.
Lindsay Zorich is our newest Review Specialist. She is
working closely with Sandra Hinderliter, Nancy Labrie and
Susie Pham to conduct Formal Reviews. Lindsay grew up in
Methuen and she has a political science degree from the
University of Vermont and a Master of Arts in Teaching
from Simmons. Lindsay is leading our reviewer recruitment
work, so you will be hearing from her very soon!
Also, we are excited to welcome Meagan Comb and Claire Abbott back from maternity leave. Happy to report that little
Michael Comb and Libbey Abbott are both doing great!
CAP Happenings
Updates and resources to support the implementation of the Candidate Assessment of Performance (CAP)
Online Calibration Training Tool
The online calibration training tool is a professional development
resource that can be used with Program Supervisors, Supervising
Practitioners and Faculty to develop a common understanding of
instructional practice and improve consistency in analyzing evidence, providing
feedback, and determining ratings on the CAP Formative and Summative
Assessment. Educators observe a lesson from ESE’s Calibration Video Library,
individually assess the practice, and then discuss as a group. The tool features a
real-time data display that allows the group members to compare their responses
to each other and to other educators across the state. The tool is accompanied by
a workshop facilitator’s guide that leads the team through the calibration exercise
and discussion. You can access the Online Calibration Training Tool here.
CAP Online Platform
As a reminder, all Sponsoring Organizations are required to use the CAP Online
Platform for reporting purposes and are encouraged to use the platform in
support of the full 5-step cycle. Each Sponsoring Organization must have a
dedicated CAP Manager who formally owns the use of the platform. To support
the field, we are offering three additional training sessions for CAP Managers who
did not attend training this summer or would like a refresher in preparation for the
spring semester:
 December 5th, 1:30-4:00pm at ESE
 January 9th, 9:30am-12:00pm at Holy Cross
 January 9th, 1:00 – 3:30pm at Holy Cross
Support
Resources
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CAP Guidelines
Implementation Handbook
Updated FAQ’s
Online Platform User Guides
Quick Reference Guide: 5-Step
Cycle
Quick Reference Guide: 6
Essential Elements
Online Calibration Training Tool
CAP Workshops & Training
Tools
Student Feedback Advisory
To attend a training session, please register by November 30th.
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Fall 2016 – Educator Preparation Newsletter
Elevate Preparation: Impact Children
Opportunity! Partnership Innovation Grant
Please apply for our Partnership Innovation Grant! This is an opportunity for Sponsoring Organizations and school districts
to improve the recruitment, development, and placement of high quality teachers in K-12 employment. Funding will
support new or existing partnerships that wish to improve the pipeline of teachers entering into a district. We are looking
for creative, impactful, and replicable strategies.
Applications are open until noon on December 5th, 2016.
EPIC Project Updates
Note of Appreciation
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We have completed our first year of our grant through
the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The goals of the
grant are to:
 Deepen and extend the quality of field based
experiences for candidates
 Promote and support data-driven analysis and
continuous improvement among providers
 Integrate the efforts of providers and partners to
meet the increasing demands for human capital in
the PK–12 sector
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To meet those goals, we will continue to rely on the
hard work, expertise, and generosity of the field.
Thanks to everyone who is serving in working groups,
advisory groups, and pilot programs! You can keep
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track of the work and future opportunities to work with
us on our website.
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Our Student Teaching Professional Learning Network
kicked off at Lesley on October 27th.
Our CAP Implementation Support cohort kicked off at Holy
Cross on November 10th. This working group is designed to
help organizations implement CAP in exchange for their
feedback. We are collecting feedback after every step of the
5-Step Cycle to inform our continuous improvement of the
assessment.
The Supervisor Certification working group is meeting in
December to finalize our pilot certification model. The
group has been working closely to define the characteristics
of effective supervisors. The certification will reward
supervisors who provide candidates with consistently
impactful feedback.
Through our Formative Feedback Reviews, we were able to
fund inspections for seven organizations this year.
Edwin Reports and our Educator Preparation Annual
Snapshot – see right below in the Data section!
Ed Prep Data Collection, Dissemination, & Use
Timely access to impactful data about preparation in the Commonwealth.
Coming Soon: The Educator Preparation Annual Snapshot (EPAS)
ESE believes in the importance of using data to drive strategic decisions and continuous improvement. As such,
Sponsoring Organizations in Massachusetts have access to a variety of data points, including four different Edwin reports
and seven state level Public Profiles reports. However, they do not currently have a clear indication of how these various
data points correspond with their program’s performance.
To address this need, ESE is in the early stages of developing EPAS. The goal of EPAS is to provide organizations with the
information they need to continue to train the highest quality educators to serve Massachusetts’ students and to support
their own continuous improvement efforts. For the first time, EPAS will synthesize available data points into a single
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Fall 2016 – Educator Preparation Newsletter
snapshot to provide organizations with critical information about areas of strength and areas for improvement.
Our vision for EPAS is that it will be:
 Produced annually to ensure timely access to data
 Based on available state data measures that Educator Preparation programs have/will have access to
 Replicable and easily understood
 Based on longitudinal data
ESE has convened an advisory group to help think through developmental questions such as:
 What should EPAS tell Educator Preparation organizations?
 What data points are most relevant?
 In what way should data be synthesized?
 In what way should information be given to organizations?
We will continue to keep you informed about the development of EPAS.
Upcoming Improvements to
Edwin!
The Edwin Advisory group is well
underway making improvements to
the current Edwin Analytics reports and creating
prototypes for new reports that will feature new
data such as CAP data and Stakeholder Survey
data. ESE would like to hear from a variety of
voices to inform the enhancements to the
current reports. We are pleased to announce
that we will be issuing an email survey to collect
the opinions of individuals who are not on the
Edwin Advisory Group. Survey takers may rank
current ideas and add new ideas for enhancing
the existing Edwin Analytics reports generated
by the advisory group. ESE and the Edwin
Advisory group will consider new ideas.
Learn About Ed Eval Data!
Did you know you can learn how your completers are performing on
the Massachusetts Educator Evaluation Framework when they gain
employment in a Massachusetts public school? Edwin report EP703:
Educator Evaluation Rating Summary will show aggregate summative
rating scores and aggregate scores across all four standards. This data
will help you answer the following research questions:
 What are the educator evaluation ratings of completers who
were evaluated as Teachers? Administrators?
 Is there any variance in evaluation ratings between programs
and/or districts?
 How did a set of completers perform on a particular
standard?
 How do evaluation ratings change over time for a given
program?
Try out Edwin Report 703 today!
Stay tuned!
New Resource: Instructional Support Newsletter
In October, ESE launched a new bimonthly newsletter detailing our work with curriculum & instruction, English language
learners, educator effectiveness, and educator preparation. The newsletter will give a better understanding of our PK-12
work and give you helpful context about our greater goals as a department. If you are interested, please sign up!
New Resource: Low-income Educator Access Project (LEAP) Training
ESE works with participating districts, collaboratives and agencies to assess why low-income students are being
disproportionally identified for special education and/or substantially separate placements. From that work, ESE is
pleased to announce the creation of an online interactive training module that provides a fundamental understanding of
the impact poverty can have on student outcomes. The module is intended for instructors to use with groups or
individuals and is designed to be modified to meet local needs and to promote discussion. The module can be presented
in sections or in its entirety. Individual instructors and Sponsoring Organizations also have the opportunity to participate
in a pilot program by completing our Higher Education Institution LEAP Pilot Survey.
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Fall 2016 – Educator Preparation Newsletter
First Statewide Mentoring & Induction Report Released
Over the past summer, 232 districts, charter schools and education collaboratives submitted reports about their local
programs to orient and support new educators. This was the first year that ESE used a uniform, streamlined reporting
system to gather mentoring and induction information. The 2016 MA Induction and Mentoring Report offers
quantitative and qualitative data on the components and practices of mentoring programs across the state.
Of particular interest to prep programs, the report asked participants to name the standards of effective practice where
new teachers and administrators need the most support (p. 4-5 of the report). Respondents were more in agreement
about the top areas where new teachers need more support than they were for new administrators.
Top responses for the needs of teachers in their first three years:
Standard I, A. Curriculum and Planning
72%
Standard II, A. Instruction
52%
Standard I, B. Assessment
45%
Standard II, B. Learning Environment
40%
0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
Top responses for the needs of administrators in their first three years:
Standard I, D. Evaluation
62%
Standard I, E. Data-Informed Decision-Making
42%
Standard II, B. Human Resource Management &
Developent
33%
Standard IV, F. Managing Conflict
30%
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
For more information on the relationship between mentors and supervising practitioners, see Building Partnerships
across Educator Preparation and K-12 Districts.
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Fall 2016 – Educator Preparation Newsletter
We are pleased to share with you the following recent enhancements to the MTEL program:
 Change in Score Reporting Frequency
Beginning with tests taken on December 16, 2016, candidate test scores for the Biology (13), General Science
(10), Elementary Mathematics (53), Middle School Mathematics (47), Mathematics (09), Physical Education (22)
and Reading Specialist (08) will be moving from an eight week to a four week score reporting window. The
updated 2016-2017 MTEL Test Schedule Flyer is now available on the MTEL program website and paper flyers
were sent to educator preparation providers on November 2. Please replace the flyers sent to you over the
summer with the updated version.
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Test Fee Voucher Distribution
2000 MTEL test-fee vouchers were distributed to educator preparation programs for the 2016-2021 contract
period; this is double the number of vouchers provided during the previous contract period. The electronic testfee vouchers are available to educator preparation program providers so that you may assist your students with
test fees. You may distribute the vouchers to students as deemed appropriate; however, please note that the
intention is that the test-fee vouchers be awarded on the basis of financial need.
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Reminder: MEPID Numbers Required for Registration
Starting on October 18, MEPID numbers are required to register for the MTEL. Until the MEPID bank is established
in the first half of 2017, we will only be collecting this information and not using it for score reporting. It is also
important to note that the MEPID will be used as an identifier for Title II reporting starting with the fall 2017 data
collection effort.
Many of your students already have MEPID numbers. However, if your students have questions, please refer
them to the information posted on the MTEL website under News, September 19. For further information on
accessing MEPID numbers, please contact the Office of Educator Licensure Call Center, Monday – Friday, 9:00
a.m. – 12:00 p.m. and 2:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m., 781-338-6600. If you have any questions on the transition to using
the MEPID for registration, please feel free to contact Judy Sohn-White at ESE.
New US Department of Education Regulations
On October 12th, the US Department of Education published the final rule that establishes new teacher preparation
accountability regulations under Title II of the Higher Education Act. You can access the final rule here. We are
conducting a full analysis of the implications for Massachusetts and will be sharing a more detailed summary later this
month.
We want to draw your attention to a few big-picture takeaways that will impact you:
 States must annually report the following information, which DESE currently collects, at the program level for all
state approved educator preparation programs:
o Placement and retention rates of graduates in their first three years of teaching, including placement
and retention in high-need schools;
o Feedback from graduates and their employers on the effectiveness of program preparation;
o Student learning outcomes measured by novice teachers' student growth, teacher evaluation results,
and/or another state-determined measure that is relevant to students' outcomes and meaningfully
differentiates amongst teachers; and
o Other program characteristics, including assurances that the program has specialized accreditation or
graduates candidates with content and pedagogical knowledge, quality clinical preparation, and who
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Fall 2016 – Educator Preparation Newsletter
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have met rigorous exit requirements.
States have flexibility to report on additional measures and how to weigh all outcome measures in making
meaningful differentiations in performance.
States must categorize program effectiveness using at least three levels of performance (effective, at-risk, and
low-performing).
TEACH grants will only be offered to programs that states determine to be effective for at least two of the
previous three years.
States will design their reporting system in consultation with stakeholders during the 2016-17 academic year.
They may choose to use 2017-18 as a pilot year and will need to fully implement the system in 2018-19.
The Department of Elementary and Secondary Education is committed to preparing all students for
success in the world that awaits them after high school. Whether you are a student, parent,
educator, community leader, taxpayer, or other stakeholder interested in education, we invite you
to join us in this endeavor.
We are guided by this mission…"To strengthen the Commonwealth's public education system so that every student is prepared to
succeed in postsecondary education, compete in the global economy, and understand the rights and responsibilities of American
citizens, and in so doing, to close all proficiency gaps."
And by these goals...
 Strengthen curriculum, instruction, and assessment
 Improve educator effectiveness
 Turn around the lowest performing districts and schools
 Use data and technology to support student performance
To receive the quarterly Educator Preparation Newsletter in your inbox, please send an email to: [email protected]
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