Board Authority. The Professional Educator Standards Board (PESB) is a statutorily created 12-member board whose purpose is to establish policies and requirements for the preparation and certification of educators.
Among other activities, the PESB is authorized to: (1) establish policies and practices for the approval of programs of courses, requirements, and other activities leading to teacher certification; (2) establish policies and practices for the approval of the character of work required to graduate from a teacher preparation program; and (3) adopt knowledge, skill, and performance standards for effective teaching.
Standards for Teacher Knowledge, Skills, and Performance. The knowledge, skill, and performance standards for effective teaching adopted by the PESB must be evidence-based, measurable, meaningful, and documented in high quality research as being associated with improved student learning. In addition, the PESB must, to the extent possible, incorporate social-emotional learning standards and cultural competency standards into these standards.
A PESB rule requires that PESB-approved teacher preparation programs ensure that candidates demonstrate the most recently published model teaching standards by the Interstate Teacher Assessment and Support Consortium (InTASC). The 10 InTASC standards, published in 2013, relate to the learner, content, instructional practice, and professional responsibility.
Residency Teacher Certification. The residency teacher certificate is an initial or first-tier certificate. Candidates for this certificate must possess a baccalaureate degree; take an assessment in the basic skills of reading, writing, and mathematics; pass a content knowledge assessment; and graduate from a teacher preparation program.
Performance Assessment. Before a PESB-approved teacher preparation program may recommend a candidate for residency teacher certification, the candidate must take and pass the evidence-based assessment of teaching effectiveness adopted by the PESB, which is the Educative Teacher Performance Assessment (known as the edTPA).
The edTPA is focused on three tasks: planning, instruction, and assessment. Candidates prepare a portfolio of materials, including teaching videos, that demonstrate their: readiness to teach through lesson plans designed to support their students' strengths and needs; ability to engage students in ambitious learning; and facility for analyzing whether students are learning and adjusting instruction to become more effective. The submitted portfolios are scored by trained educators. For most of the 27 teaching fields, the passing score is 40.
Repeal of Performance Assessment. Requirements related to the edTPA, including the requirement that candidates for residency teacher certification pass the edTPA, are repealed. The PESB may not adopt rules requiring that candidates for residency teacher certification take or pass a uniform, statewide performance assessment of teaching effectiveness.
Recommendation for Residency Teacher Certification. Before a PESB-approved teacher preparation program may recommend a candidate for residency teacher certification, the candidate must meet or exceed the knowledge, skills, performance, and competencies adopted by the PESB.
Immediately upon the effective date of the bill and until September 1, 2022, all PESB-approved teacher preparation programs must attempt to notify and recommend for residency teacher certification each person who, during the 2019-20, 2020-21, or 2021-22 academic years, met all statutory and program requirements except for completion of the edTPA. In addition, upon request, all PESB-approved teacher preparation programs may recommend for residency teacher certification any person who was required to pass the edTPA as a prerequisite to residency teacher certification, provided that the person met all other statutory and program requirements in effect at the time of enrollment in the teacher preparation program.
The description of the measures that all PESB-approved teacher preparation programs use to demonstrate how the program produces effective teachers is revised from "measures established in statute" to "multiple measures of the knowledge, skills, performance, and competencies."
The substitute bill removes provisions requiring: (1) The PESB to develop a model procedure, and associated tools and resources, for evaluating and recommending candidates for residency teacher certification; (2) the PESB-approved teacher preparation programs to implement a procedure for evaluating and recommending candidates for residency teacher certification that is consistent with the model procedure developed by the PESB; and (3) reporting and publishing of data on evaluating and recommending candidates.
(In support) The edTPA is as a standardized, national performance test. It is a high-stakes, time intensive and expensive endeavor that provides very little value to those who take it or to those who hire them. Teacher candidates have to pay $300 for an assessment that does not guarantee they will become better teachers. What helps to prepare candidates for successful teaching is a high-quality preparation program and student teaching experience, strong content knowledge, mentorship and other support, and enthusiasm.
Requirements to become a teacher are complex, including two major exams and 450 hours of student teaching. Completing the edTPA requires teaching in person and because most schools are online or hybrid during the COVID-19 pandemic, many people were unable to complete the edTPA. People that did not pass the edTPA in the 2020-21 school year can teach on an emergency certificate until the end of 2022. It is important to allow people who have already completed preparation programs to benefit from the changes in this bill.
Research shows that the edTPA does not promote quality teacher education, maintains racial bias in its construction and scoring, and does not target areas of teaching and learning that impact student outcomes. The edTPA does not prepare candidates to meet the basic needs of students by providing them with food, technology, and social-emotional support, all while trying to build relationships and learn how to use technology. Instead, candidates have felt fear, self-doubt, and even mental health crisis and hospitalization, as they prepare for and complete the edTPA.
The edTPA is duplicative of other teacher preparation requirements, including skills taught in courses. The only new thing that the edTPA adds is two videos of less than 10 minutes each. These videos are insufficient to determine how a teacher will fare in the classroom. The six required observations by clinical evaluators and host teachers are more holistic. The edTPA is also cumbersome, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, because it requires teacher candidates to capture and edit videos. The edTPA is also badly managed—for example the assessment provider did not send the handbook on time.
The bill does not require teacher preparation programs to develop and offer a different assessment. Multiple measures are a misnomer—why force candidates to pay for and take an assessment that pulls them away from the classroom when they have already met the standards for becoming a teacher.
The teacher and principal evaluation program (TPEP) requirements were adopted around the same time as the edTPA requirements. The TPEP has become very rich and powerful for teachers, so the goal is for the PESB to develop a performance evaluation, similar to the previously used pedagogy performance assessment, that would set teacher candidates up for success when they later take the TPEP.
It is important to recognize that the teaching profession needs more students of color. There is a teacher shortage because of complex requirements to become a teacher. Eliminating the edTPA would open the door to additional people to become teachers.
The bill strengthens and uses current standards that programs already have to meet. The PESB should be trusted to create a statewide framework for consistency across programs and trust preparation program faculty who have the expertise and directly work with the candidates. The money spent on the edTPA should be used to recruit and support teachers of color.
(Opposed) There are differences in opinion about the edTPA, but the majority of teacher preparation programs do not think this is the time to simply eliminate it. The edTPA was developed to replace the pedagogy performance assessment, which was inconsistently implemented across the state. One program was sued for its application of that assessment.
The bill eliminates the edTPA and requires each teacher preparation program to develop their own assessment based on the PESB standards, including the InTASC standards, which will be 29 separate assessments based on the revision of the edTPA. Start up costs will be more than a million dollars and costs will be $800,000 per year.
The PESB put together a work group to review educator assessments. Sixty five percent of work group members asked to keep edTPA with a multiple measure element, while another 20 percent of work group members asked to use the edTPA as a formative assessment. There are additional challenges with assessments due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but the PESB has addressed those with the pilot of a multiple measures process. For candidates within one standard deviation of the edTPA passing score, the teacher preparation program can look at other evidence of whether a candidate would be a good teacher. Teacher preparation programs using the multiple measures were surveyed: half of respondents had a positive view of the process; and half of the respondents were waiting for more data. No assessment is perfect, but the edTPA should not be removed without further study.
(Other) Last year, the PESB convened a diverse workgroup to examine the educator assessment system, including the edTPA. The work group recommended keeping edTPA, but authorized teacher preparation programs to use multiple measures of evidence of effective teaching for candidates that came close to passing the edTPA. The PESB is piloting this multiple-measures process and there is a bill that implements this process as an ongoing policy. The priority is to provide equitable solutions to candidates and programs. All students should learn from well-trained, equity minded professional educators.
The demographics in Washington are changing and teachers must be prepared for these changes. Using multiple measures to determine the preparedness of teacher candidates is more equitable than using a single assessment and allows for the development of a more diverse teacher workforce. The pedagogy performance assessment used prior to the edTPA does not offer the same validity and reliability as the edTPA and will require time and resources to update. If teacher preparation programs develop their own assessments, then there will be limited comparability across programs. Any fiscal note will not consider the investments that independent colleges need to make to implement the provisions of the bill.
The Appropriations Committee recommended the addition that each board-approved teacher preparation program must publish and provide to candidates, prior to admission, a list of program completion requirements.
(In support) Substitute House Bill 1028 would allow many teachers to enter the workforce and improve student outcomes. A lack of access to teacher certification programs is causing a teacher shortage in Washington, and this leads to less equity for the state's most vulnerable students by reducing their education and hurting their potential. Passing this bill would help this generation of teachers and the next generation of teachers.
Many teachers are being denied permanent teaching licenses due to not passing the edTPA. The edTPA places undue stress and financial burden on teachers of color. Not requiring a candidate to pass the edTPA will help candidates save money and allow for improved internship experiences. The edTPA is a large financial and time cost for students, and it does not indicate future teaching success of students. The edTPA has not lived up to its potential, and numerous studies have shown it does not diversify or improve the educator workforce in Washington.
Western Washington University would have no fiscal impact because its education programs have multiple measures in place to help assess teachers. Eliminating the edTPA would not take significant resources because current law requires that programs have parallel assessments that work in conjunction with the edTPA.
The bill does not require that institutions develop a new assessment to replace the edTPA. If an institution wants to create a new assessment, then it would take on that cost itself. The standards required in statute should already be part of program curriculum.
(Opposed) The bill eliminates the only statewide standard for teaching and would cost a significant amount of money. The purpose of a certification program is to ensure that teacher candidates have the skills necessary to teach, and there will be no final teaching assessment if this bill passes. The PESB has addressed some of the issues with the edTPA, and the edTPA vendor is working to address the problems discussed.
It made sense at the time for the state to provide emergency licenses during the pandemic, but permanently removing the edTPA requirement does not make sense. The assessment is cost-effective, and waivers are available for individual testing.