Teacher Standards and Practices Commission



Teacher Standards and Practices Commission250 Division St NESalem OR 97301April 26-27, 2012ITEM:PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT PLANNING RULES/IMPLEMENTATION PLANACTION:ACTION ITEMRECOMMENDATION:The Licensure Committee recommends adoption of the following resolution:RESOLVED that, OARs 584-090-0115 Professional Development Requirements and 584-090-0120 Approval of Continuing Professional Development are referred to hearing for adoption at a later Commission RMATION:Revised rules for Professional Development related to licensure were adopted at the February Commission meeting, following a rulemaking hearing on January 23, 2012. However, the rules have not yet been filed with the Secretary of State. The rules were filed to become effective upon filing, with an established full implementation date to be established by the Commission,An implementation plan is now being proposed to the Commission. Some of these planning elements will need to be adopted in rule, while others can be provided on the agency’s web site, as program guidance. All proposed rule amendments, including those that were voted on at the last meeting as well as additional amendments needed to implement the revised program, are provided as 5.3a. Since the rules have not yet been filed, the two rules proposed to be sent back to hearing will be considered “new adoptions” after the next hearing date on the proposed changes to the two rules cited above in the resolution.At the February Commission meeting, the Commission reviewed revisions to the administrative rules governing Professional Development Units (PDUs). Following that meeting, staff met with a group of interested school districts and educators on February 22nd to discuss specific issues concerning implementation of the new rules.Decisions made at the February Commission meeting:PDUs requirements will apply to all educators who have obtained a final license type, regardless of whether or not the educator is contracted less than half-time with a school district.For educators holding a Substitute Teaching License or Restricted Substitute Teaching License, these educators will have to complete 10 PDUs per year, rather than the 25 PDUs per year required of other teachers.The lesser requirement (10 PDUs per year) applies to the license type, NOT to the job of a substitute. This means that substitutes who hold a full teaching license (Basic, Standard, Initial II, Continuing, Five Year Teaching (not CTE)), will need to complete the full 25 PDUs per year to be eligible for renewal.School districts and educators will not be required to submit professional development plans to the Commission. Instead, school districts will verify completion of required PDUs for their contracted and otherwise employed educators by checking the appropriate box on the Professional Education Experience Report (PEER) form.Substitutes, unemployed, and retired educators will be required to submit a form to TSPC verifying completion of PDUs. These educators will not be required to submit a professional development plan.PDUs completed during the life of the license will be accepted; PDUs will not be required to be completed during any specific year of the license. For example, educators required to complete 75 PDUs total do not need to complete 25 PDUs each year of the license; they could complete all required units any time during the life of the license. If national board certification is used to fulfill PDU requirements, that certification will apply to two renewal cycles: both to the license period during which the certification is obtained as well as the following renewal cycle.The national “Learning Forward” professional development standards are appropriate to use as the domains for Oregon’s professional development renewal requirements.Recommendations of the ad-hoc Implementation Committee:An ad-hoc committee of interested parties was convened on February 22nd to discuss some of the issues involved with expanding the professional development renewal requirements to include substitutes, retirees, and unemployed educators. (The members of the group are listed at the end of this agenda item.) This group discussed the following issues and made recommendations for the Commission to consider, as follows:Will there be a list of “approved” professional development opportunities?Proposal from committee: The committee agreed that a list of generally-allowable professional development activities would be helpful to teachers and districts. The committee reviewed a list of general types of professional development opportunities and then voted on each type of training.Allowable “unlimited” activities:The following activities are recommended as “allowable” by consensus of the informal committee.These activities would be “unlimited” in that educators could choose to earn ALL required PDUs using any one of these activities, if the activity is germane to the educator’s license and also meets the domains set forth in the revised rule.Unlimited ActivitiesNumber of PDUs allowedProfessional workshops and conferencesnumber of hours spent attendingUniversity and community college classes20 PDUs for each quarter credit; 30 PDUs for each semester creditAuditing university or college classessame number as would be earned if obtaining credit; transcript needs to be obtainedTrainings listed on ODE’s web sitenumber of credits as specified for individual activitiesOnline classes and webinarsnumber of hours spent listening/ participatingCPR trainingnumber of hours spent attendingFirst aid trainingnumber of hours spent attendingBlood-borne pathogen trainingnumber of hours spent attendingCurriculum trainingnumber of hours spent in trainingInservice meetingsnumber of hours spent in meetingsActivities listed on ESD or school district websitesnumber of hours spent in training; these opportunities may be limited to educators within the same districtAllowable “limited” activities:These activities are proposed as “limited” in that educators could only earn up to the stated number of PDUs per year. Limited ActivitiesNumber of PDUs allowedPresentation at conference or inservicenumber of hours spent preparing and attending; not to exceed 5 PDUs per yearServing on board of professional associationnumber of hours spent in board meetings; not to exceed 5 PDUs per yearAttendance at district board meetings or site council meetingsnumber of hours spent in meetings; not to exceed 5 PDUs per yearTechnology training (whether hands on training or online training)number of hours spent in training; not to exceed 3 PDUs per yearWriting article that is then published in a professional journal or newsletternumber of hours spent researching and writing; not to exceed 5 PDUs per yearActivities that did NOT have consensus:The Implementation Committee could not reach consensus concerning the following activities:ActivityReasons some participants opposedDays spent substitute teachingLooks like recency; why only substitute teaching? Would not be fair to other teachersDays/hours spent volunteering in a schoolHow would this be evaluated? Although some volunteering might be worthy of PDUs credit, much of it would notTime spent developing instructional materials or gamesHow would this work be evaluated?Coaching sport eventsStrong split vote on this issue. Mentoring students in classroomHow would this be evaluated? Although some volunteering might be worthy of PDUs credit, much of it would notStaff recommendation: If an educator wishes to use a training opportunity that is not included in the lists above, the educator may request that the training be allowed, if the educator can show the relation to their own teaching license as well as to the domains listed in the administrative rules and also provide solid evidence of completion of the training.How will educators who are not employed by a district report their PDUs?Proposal from committee: Substitutes/retirees/unemployed educators will need to track their own activities and classes, using a form downloaded from the TSPC web site. At the end of the reporting period, these educators will return the form to TSPC, along with other renewal materials.In addition to the reporting form, the committee also agreed that TSPC would post a form for educators to take to trainings, if the training provider did not provide a “statement of completion” for that particular activity. For example, if an educator attends a school board meeting, the board does not supply forms at the end of the meeting, verifying attendance. In such a case, the individual educator would be responsible for taking a “statement of completion” form to the meeting and requesting that the authority responsible for holding the meeting sign the statement, verifying that the educator did in fact attend.Staff recommendation: The committee specifically focused on professional development opportunities for substitutes/retirees/unemployed educators. For educators who are employed by school districts, we recommend that the individual districts determine how educators will report PDUs. Although educators and districts will need to ensure that the PDUs completed meet the domains set forth in administrative rule, the only documentation that needs to be submitted to TSPC is the PEER form, verifying whether or not an educator has completed the PDUs. However, individual school districts may certainly decide to adopt the same TSPC forms for reporting, should they so choose.How will TSPC review all of the PDU forms turned in by these educators?Proposal from committee: TSPC will not review all of the forms; the agency does not have adequate staffing to complete this task. Instead, TSPC will audit a subset of PDU forms to determine compliance. If an educator is audited, that person will need to submit all the forms and “statements of completion” verifying that the PDUs were completed. The Commission staff will use the same random sampling technique currently used for the C-2 audit process with universities. Staff recommendation: TSPC should also reserve the right to audit teachers fully employed by school districts, as well. Specifically, the purpose of the audit would be to determine if the educator completed sufficient PDUs, and if those PDUs met the domains provided in administrative rule.Recommendations from Agency Staff:The Ad-Hoc Committee did not have sufficient time to address additional issues. The following recommendations are from staff.When will this new requirement for substitutes, etc., go into effect?Staff recommendation: We recommend that this requirement be phased in, beginning in January of 2013. Specifically, we suggest that educators who have not previously been required to report PDUs complete PDUs according to the following schedule:License TypeNext Renewal PeriodReq’d number of PDUsSubstitutes and Restricted SubstitutesDuring 201310 totalDuring 201420 totalDuring 2015 or later30 total (10 PDUs for each year of the license)All other educators with final license type who have not previously reported (retired, etc)During 201325 totalDuring 201450 totalDuring 2015 or later75 total (25 PDUs for each year of the license) 2.Does TSPC have staff capacity needed to approve eligible courses and review each substitute’s application accordingly? Both OEA and the Oregon Substitute Teachers Association (OSTA) have stated that educators should know upfront which PDUs will be accepted by TSPC and how many units each training opportunity is worth. Staff recommendation: We agree with this statement, but acknowledge that we do not have the staff to review and approve courses for eligibility. However, we believe that the process of convening an ad-hoc committee to review professional development opportunities worked well. We recommend convening a similar group, appointed by the Commission, periodically to review new training opportunities and then make recommendations to the Commission.3. Should a more specific appeals process be included in the rule?OEA, in particular, has requested that appeals language that more closely approximates previous appeals language be reinstated. The concern is that although educators are ultimately responsible for their PDUs, these new requirements allow the school districts a great deal of discretion in identifying and approving PDUs.Staff recommendation: We believe that the current rule language allows educators to appeal to TSPC if they disagree with the decision of a school district. The previous process was more onerous and was very rarely used. In fact, the process currently outlined in OAR 584-090-0120 is more “user friendly” to the educator and does not require the educator to “exhaust available in-district appeals procedures” before submitting information to TSPC. However, to clarify the rule, we recommend adding language to paragraph (3) of that section, so that this paragraph reads, “(3) Educators who are employed, but are unable to obtain district or employer “sign off” of PDUs completed during the life of the license may appeal this decision of the employer and submit evidence of the completed PDUs to TSPC for review in accordance with these rules.”Commission Discussion: Would this language provide a satisfactory resolution to this concern?Should the Commission make exceptions for non-provisionally licensed educators who retire during the life of their license? (e.g., work three years, substitute for two.)Staff recommendation: Yes, we support this type of exception. If educators decide to retire during the life of a license, we are comfortable accepting this change in status, particularly if it can be documented by correspondence from an employer. For example, if an educator holding a Standard Teaching License decides to retire completely during the life of the license, TSPC would request that the educator obtain a letter from the district which most regularly employed the educator, or some other evidence of their retirement if TSPC is unable to determine from employment data the educator’s status as a retiree. Ad-Hoc Implementation Committee:Bob Sconce, Chair of the CommissionShirley Blanchard, TSPC CommissionerShirley Madathil, TSPC CommissionerLynn Beaton, TSPC StaffMonte Alderson, Educator, Oregon Substitute Teachers Association (OSTA)Maria Araiza, HR Staff, Salem-Keizer School DistrictLoressa Dunn, Educator, Eugene Association of Substitute Teachers (EAST)Teresa Ferrer, Oregon Educators Association (OEA)Tom Heiser, Substitute, OSTAKaye Jones, Educator, OSTAPhyllis Kirkwood, Educator, OSTAPam LaFreniere, HR Staff, Salem-Keizer School DistrictLiz LaRocque, Oregon Substitute Teachers AssociationLynn MacLachlan-Winner, Educator, OSTARui Neves, HR Staff, Beaverton School DistrictKathie Sellars, HR Manager, Neah-Kah-Nie School District (Please see agenda item 5.3a) ................
................

In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.

Google Online Preview   Download