Candidates and cohorts. Providers of educator preparation programs recruit, select, support, and prepare diverse cohorts of candidates with potential to be outstanding educators.

(1) Providers conduct strategic and ongoing outreach to identify, recruit, admit, support, and transition promising educator candidates.

(a) Create, foster, and utilize effective partnerships to promote careers in teaching and educational leadership.

(b) Implement a targeted, data-informed outreach strategy that includes robust individualized enrollment support. 

(c) Establish and monitor attributes and dispositions beyond academic ability that candidates must demonstrate at admissions and during the program.

(d) Providers of teacher preparation programs develop and utilize candidate recruitment strategies that address state, district, and workforce shortage areas.

(e) Providers of career and technical education business and industry route programs establish and expand meaningful and effective recruitment and admissions partnerships with local school districts.

(2) Providers of educator preparation programs use strategies to recruit, admit, and prepare a greater number of candidates from underrepresented groups including, but not limited to, candidates of color in effort to prepare an educator workforce that mirrors the characteristics of the student population in Washington state public schools.

(a) Demonstrate strategic outreach that is highly accessible and responsive to local communities of color.

(b) Gather and use data to assess strategic outreach to improve responsiveness and effectiveness.

(c) Identify needs and provide supports for enrollment and success in educator preparation programs for local communities of color and candidates representing linguistic and ability diversity.

(3) Providers set, publish, and uphold program admission standards to ensure that all educator candidates and cohorts are academically capable and technically prepared to succeed in educator preparation programs.

(a) Articulate clear criteria and requirements for program entry requirements to applicants.

(b) ((Articulate clear expectations for program completion to applicants and candidates.))Publish, and provide to applicants prior to admission, a list of program completion requirements under RCW 28A.410.270(5).

(c) Inform, advise, and support applicants on assessment requirements, timelines, occupational experience requirements, and ((passing thresholds for board approved content and pedagogy assessments))other certification requirements.

Knowledge, skills, and cultural responsiveness. Providers prepare candidates who demonstrate the knowledge, skills and cultural responsiveness required for the particular certificate and areas of endorsement, which reflect the state's approved standards.

(1) Providers demonstrate effective, culturally responsive pedagogy using multiple instructional methods, formats, and assessments.

(a) Qualified faculty use multiple instructional strategies, pedagogies, and assessments to address candidates' academic language ability levels and cultural and linguistic backgrounds.

(b) Providers create opportunities for faculty members and program personnel to pursue, apply, and practice ongoing professional learning to improve their knowledge, skill, effectiveness, and cultural responsiveness.

(c) Faculty within the program and the unit collaborate among one another, with content specialists, P-12 schools, members of the broader professional community, and diverse members of local communities for continuous program improvement.

(d) Faculty members and program leaders systematically and comprehensively evaluate faculty's effectiveness in teaching and learning.

(2) Providers ensure that completers demonstrate the necessary subject matter knowledge for success as educators in schools.

(a) Candidates demonstrate knowledge and competence relative to the standards related to the role adopted by the board. Providers ensure that candidates in teacher preparation programs demonstrate the most recently published inTASC Standards, candidates in principal programs demonstrate the most recently published NELP - Building Level Standards, and candidates in superintendent programs demonstrate the most recently published NELP - District Level Standards, candidates in program administrator programs demonstrate the most recently published NELP Building or District Level Standards, and candidates in career and technical education educator preparation programs demonstrate and document the career and technical education standards approved by the professional educator standards board.

(b) Teacher candidates must take a board approved basic skills assessment prior to program admission. A provider of a teacher preparation program must assure that all candidates entering the program have successfully met the basic skills requirement under chapter 181-01 WAC at the time of admission. The provider must collect and hold evidence of candidates meeting this requirement.

(c) Teacher candidates must take a content knowledge assessment prior to beginning student teaching. The provider must collect and hold evidence of candidates meeting this requirement. Teacher candidates apply content knowledge as reflected in board approved endorsement competencies. Endorsement assessments are not required for teacher candidates in career and technical education business and industry route programs.

(d) Providers ensure that educator candidates complete ((a course))coursework on issues of abuse ((as required by))and emotional or behavioral distress in students under RCW 28A.410.035 and WAC ((181-79A-030))181-79A-200.

(e) Under RCW 28A.410.040, a teacher candidate whose only baccalaureate degree is in early childhood education, elementary education, or special education must have completed thirty quarter credits, or the equivalent in semester credits or continuing education credit hours, in one academic field in an endorsement area under WAC 181-82A-202.

(f) Candidates for an initial certificate in a career and technical education residency teacher preparation program must complete a minimum of forty-five quarter credits, or the equivalent in semester credits or continuing education credit hours, in the specific career and technical education area for which certification is sought.

(3) Providers ensure that candidates demonstrate pedagogical knowledge and skill relative to the professional standards adopted by the board for the role for which candidates are being prepared.

(a) Candidates demonstrate knowledge and competence relative to the standards related to the role, which were adopted by the board. Providers ensure that candidates in teacher preparation programs demonstrate most recently published inTASC Standards, candidates in principal programs demonstrate most recently published NELP - Building Level Standards, candidates in superintendent programs demonstrate most recently published NELP - District Level Standards, candidates in program administrator programs demonstrate the most recently published NELP Building or District Level Standards, and candidates in career and technical education educator preparation programs demonstrate and document the career and technical education standards approved by the professional educator standards board.

(b) Faculty and mentors provide regular and ongoing feedback to candidates regarding field based performance that is actionable and leads to improvement in candidates' practice.

(c) Providers demonstrate through structured observation, discussion, surveys, and/or artifacts that program completers effectively apply the professional knowledge, skills, and dispositions that the preparation program was designed to achieve.

(d) Providers ((ensure that teacher candidates achieve passing scores on))may use the edTPA teacher performance assessment((, also known as the pedagogy assessment, approved by the board. Teacher preparation program providers shall require that each candidate engage in a performance assessment process approved by the board. The teacher performance assessment is not required for teacher candidates in career and technical education business and industry route programs. Candidates who participated in the teacher performance assessment field trials or took the pedagogy assessment prior to January 1, 2014, may be recommended for certification by the preparation program without a passing score))as a formative tool as long as notification to candidates is included in all program descriptions under chapter 28A.410 RCW.

(e) Providers of career and technical educator preparation programs provide candidates all necessary guidance to document, demonstrate, and submit for approval the required hours of occupational experience.

(f) In order to ensure that teacher and principal candidates can recognize signs of emotional or behavioral distress in students and appropriately refer students for assistance and support, teacher and principal preparation program providers must incorporate the social emotional standards and benchmarks, and must provide guidance to candidates on related competencies described in RCW 28A.410.270.

(4) Providers ensure that candidates are well prepared to exhibit the knowledge and skills of culturally responsive educators.

(a) Providers offer all candidates meaningful, reflective opportunities to interact with racially and culturally diverse colleagues, faculty, P-12 practitioners, and P-12 students and families.

(b) Providers prepare candidates to adapt their practices based on students' prior experiences, cultural knowledge, and frames of reference to make learning encounters more relevant and effective.

(c) Providers ensure course work explicitly focuses on cultural responsiveness and integrates components of culturally responsive education within and throughout all courses.

(d) Faculty explicitly model equity pedagogy in course work and practica in ways that enable candidates to integrate their own cultural and linguistic backgrounds into classroom activities.

(5) Teacher candidates engage with the since time immemorial curriculum focused on history, culture, and government of American Indian peoples as prescribed in RCW 28B.10.710.

(a) There shall be a one quarter or semester course, or the equivalent in continuing education credit hours, in either Washington state history and government, or Pacific Northwest history and government in the curriculum of all teacher preparation programs.

(b) No person shall be completed from any of said programs without completing said course of study, unless otherwise determined by the Washington professional educator standards board.

(c) Any course in Washington state or Pacific Northwest history and government used to fulfill the requirement of this section shall include information on the culture, history, and government of the American Indian peoples who were the first human inhabitants of the state and the region.

(d) Teacher preparation program providers shall ensure that programs meet the requirements of this section by integrating the curriculum developed and made available free of charge by the office of the superintendent of public instruction into existing programs or courses and may modify that curriculum in order to incorporate elements that have a regionally specific focus.

(1) Alternative routes to teacher certification programs are partnerships between professional educator standards board-approved preparation program providers, Washington school districts, and other partners as appropriate. These partnerships are focused on district-specific teacher shortage areas. Approved alternative routes partnerships are eligible to apply for the alternative routes block grant and to facilitate alternative route conditional scholarship program as described in RCW 28A.660.050.

(2) Each prospective teacher preparation program provider, in cooperation with a Washington school district or consortia of school districts operating an approved alternative route to teacher certification program must meet the following requirements:

(a) Partnership requirements. Alternative routes providers shall establish an alternative routes partnership memorandum of agreement (MOA) between the approved teacher preparation program provider and each partnering district or consortia of districts. Each MOA shall require:

(i) An identification, indication of commitment, and description of the role of approved teacher preparation program provider and partnering district or consortia of districts, including specific duties of each partner;

(ii) The role of each partner in candidate recruitment, screening, selection, and oversight;

(iii) The role of each partner in field placement and student teaching and a description of when each begins within the program;

(iv) The role of each partner in mentor selection, training, and support;

(v) A description of how the district intends for the alternative route program to support its workforce development plan and how the presence of alternative route candidates will advance its school improvement plans.

(b) Programmatic requirements. Programs shall uphold the following requirements in addition to requirements and standards listed in chapter 181-78A WAC.

(i) Ensure candidates meet ((assessment)) requirements for basic skills((,))and content knowledge((, and performance-based)) assessments((per))under RCW 28A.410.220((, 28A.410.280,)) and chapter 181-78A WAC.

(ii) Fingerprint and character clearance under RCW 28A.410.010 must be current at all times during the field experience for candidates who do not hold a valid Washington certificate.

(iii) Clinical practice for teacher candidates should consist of no less than five hundred forty hours in classroom settings.

(iv) Mentorship requirements must be met in accordance with chapter 181-78A WAC and each candidate must be assigned a mentor. The candidate must receive mentoring for the duration of the residency.

(v) Teacher development plan: Ensure the design and use of a teacher development plan for each candidate. The plan shall specify the alternative route coursework and training required of each candidate and shall be developed by comparing the candidate's prior experience and coursework with the state's standards for residency certification. The plan must also include:

(A) Identification of one or more tools to be used to assess a candidate's performance once the candidate is about halfway through their residency;

(B) Recognition for relevant prior learning that demonstrates meeting residency certification competencies; and

(C) A description of the criteria that would result in early exit from the program with residency certification.

(vi) Shortage areas. Alternative route programs shall enroll candidates in a subject or geographic endorsement shortage area, as defined by the professional educator standards board.