A state board on Friday voted in favor of requiring a new teacher certification exam in an effort to higher put together new lecturers and preserve them within the occupation.
The 11-member State Board for Educator Certification, which oversees the preparation, certification and requirements of conduct of public college educators, adopted the Educative Teacher Performance Assessment, also referred to as the edTPA exam, in a 8-to-1 vote. Board member Tommy Coleman was not current, and board member Jean Streepey abstained.
The State Board of Education should nonetheless approve the take a look at earlier than it’s formally adopted for brand spanking new Texas lecturers. The board is predicted to think about the matter in June.
This new licensing take a look at would change the outdated Pedagogy and Professional Responsibilities exam, a take a look at of 100 a number of selection questions that has been in use since 2002. Critics of the PPR teacher certification exam have known as it a less-than-precise method of testing a new teacher’s potential. All 100 questions on the take a look at are a number of selection, making it simpler to move.
The edTPA, which was developed at Stanford University, requires lecturers to submit solutions to essay questions and supply a pattern lesson plan, a 15-minute video of themselves educating within the classroom and a report on their college students’ progress.
Proponents of the brand new exam say it is going to higher help and retain new lecturers as a result of it could actually pinpoint precisely what a teacher lacks by the video recordings and written analyses offered. Those towards the edTPA say it creates a barrier for folks of coloration getting into the occupation as a result of it prices almost $200 more than the PPR. It has been scrapped in New York and Washington, two states the place it had been required.
If it’s permitted by the State Board of Education, the edTPA will turn out to be an non-obligatory take a look at in 2022-23 after which be required as a move/fail exam in 2023-24 earlier than it’s absolutely applied in 2024-25.
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“Texas moves one step closer to adopting a new, more rigorous teacher certification exam” was first printed by The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan media group that informs Texans — and engages with them — about public coverage, politics, authorities and statewide points.
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This article initially appeared in The Texas Tribune at https://www.texastribune.org/2022/04/29/texas-teacher-certfication/.
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