Teacher Reform: Rethinking Teacher Accreditation, Credentialing, and Tenure Policies

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Teacher Reform Rethinking Teacher
Accreditation, Credentialing, and Tenure Policies

• Jennifer Kuhn
• Director, K-12 Education
  Legislative Analysts Office
  August 2007

www.lao.ca.gov
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Ensuring Teacher Quality

• California uses three systems to try to ensure
  teacher quality.
• Accreditation
• Credentialing
• Probationary period

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Ensuring Teacher Quality (Continued)

• Accreditation
• Ensure teacher preparation institutions are of
  sufficient quality
• Credentialing
• Ensure individual teacher candidates are of
  sufficient quality
• Probationary period
• Ensure beginning teachers are of sufficient
  quality

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Outline of Workshop

• In each of these three areas
• Review existing policies
• Identify shortcomings/areas of concern
• Discuss recommendations for reform

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• Accreditation

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Three Accreditation Systems

• Types of accreditation
• Regional accreditation (required)
• State accreditation (required)
• National accreditation (voluntary)
• Systems operate independently from one another

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State Accreditation System

• Accreditation Standards
• Each teacher preparation institution must meet
• 10 general preconditions
• Program-specific preconditions
• 8 common standards
• 19 program standards
• 116 program elements

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State Accreditation System (Continued)

• Review of teacher preparation institution
  conducted by accreditation team
• Team ranges in size from 2 to 15 reviewers
• Team includes
• Reviewers selected from pool of faculty members,
  K-12 teachers, and administrators
• Staff from Commission on Teacher Credentialing
  (CTC)

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State Accreditation System (Continued)

• Team conducts site visit every 5 to 7 years
• Team examines program documents and interviews
  program participants

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State Accreditation System (Continued)

• Team makes a recommendation to CTCs Committee on
  Accreditation
• Institution can be
• Accredited
• Accredited with stipulations
• Denied accreditation

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Most Recent Accreditation Cycle

• From 1997-2002, accreditation teams visited 73
  campuses.

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Most Recent Accreditation Cycle (Continued)

• How many were denied accreditation?
• 0
• 3
• 7
• 12

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Most Recent Accreditation Cycle (Continued)

• How many received full accreditation?
• 73
• 50
• 36
• 25

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State-Accredited Institutions

• Today, 92 state-accredited teacher preparation
  institutions operate in California.
• 53 private colleges and universities
• 22 CSU campuses
• 8 UC campuses
• 9 local education agencies

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Shortcomings of Existing State Accreditation
System

• Standards vague
• Reviews subjective
• Reviews occur too infrequently
• System almost entirely input-oriented

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Moving Toward Performance-Based Accreditation
System

• Institutions would report performance data each
  year
• Intervention would be more targeted
• Data would be made easily accessible

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New System Based on Program Performance

• Teacher preparation institutions would be
  assessed based on
• Average scores on state-required teacher
  assessments
• Graduation rates
• Employment rates
• Three-year retention rates
• Employer satisfaction rates
• Student improvement

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New System Reviews Performance Every Year

• Teacher preparation institutions would provide
  performance data every year
• If met set performance thresholds, institution
  would retain accreditation

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New System Targets Assistance

• If teacher preparation institution fails to meet
  one or more performance thresholds, state would
  provide targeted assistance
• If program does not improve within reasonable
  period of time, its accreditation would be revoked

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New System Maximizes Value of Performance
Information

• Aggregated performance data would be posted on
  the Web
• Site also would display growth measures and
  similar-school rankings

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• Credentialing

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Basic Types of Credentials

• The CTC currently issues more than 40 different
  types of teacher licenses
• 20 types of teaching credentials
• 8 types of teaching certificates
• 4 types of teaching short-term permits
• 8 types of emergency permits
• 1 credential waiver
• The CTC has more than 90 different types of
  outdated licensing documents

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Most Common Types of Credentials

• Multiple Subject Credential
• Single Subject Credential
• Education Specialist Credential
• Within each of these categories, CTC issues
• Preliminary credentials
• Professional credentials
• Renewal credentials

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Types of Credential Authorizations

• Single Subject Credential
• 21 basic authorizations
• 26 subject matter authorizations
• 63 supplementary authorizations
• Education Specialist Credential
• 6 basic authorizations
• Career Technical Credential
• 173 basic authorizations

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Layers of Requirements

• Teachers need to meet
• Initial requirements to obtain preliminary
  credential
• Subsequent requirements to obtain professional
  clear credential
• Supplemental requirements to obtain an
  authorization
• Fill out paperwork to receive renewal credential

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Layers of Duplication

• Credential applications reviewed by
• Teacher preparation institution
• CTC staff
• County office of education

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Recommend Major Credential Reform

• Reduce the types of credential documents issued
• Simplify credential requirements
• Eliminate duplication

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Simplify While Still Ensuring Quality

• Authorize credentials in broad categories
• Eliminate preliminary, professional, renewal
  documents
• Eliminate most authorizations
• Fund beginning teacher support

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Eliminate Duplication

• State Option
• For in-state applications, require universities
  and CTC to process applications within 30 days of
  end of term
• For out-of-state applications, require CTC to
  process applications within 30 days
• Eliminate most temporary county certificates

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Eliminate Duplication (Continued)

• Local Option
• Require universities to process applications
  within 30 days of end of term and forward basic
  data to state
• Require county offices of education to process
  out-of-state credentials within 30 days and
  forward basic data to state

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• Tenure and Evaluation Policies

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Brief History of Californias Tenure Policies

• From 1927 to 1982
• California had a three-year probationary period
• Probationary employees had certain legal rights
  to challenge dismissal decisions

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Brief History of Californias Tenure Policies
(Continued)

• Since 1982
• California has had a two-year probationary period
• Probationary employees have reduced legal rights
  to challenge dismissal decisions

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Length of States Probationary Period for K-12
Teachers
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Californias Evaluation Policies

• Probationary teachers must be evaluated at least
  once a year
• Permanent/tenured teachers must evaluated at
  least once every two years
• Tenured teachers who receive an unsatisfactory
  evaluation must be assessed annually until they
  receive a satisfactory evaluation or are
  dismissed

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Californias Dismissal Policies

• Statute permits a tenured teacher to be dismissed
  as a result of unsatisfactory performance
• Dismissal process consists of ten-some stages

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Number of Dismissal Cases

• From 1996 to 2005, approximately how many teacher
  dismissal hearings were conducted in California?
• 0
• 100
• 1,000
• 10,000

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Concerns with Existing System

• Two-year probationary period can be too short
• Evaluation process largely disconnected from job
  retention, promotion, and compensation
• Dismissal process can be time-intensive and
  expensive

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Reform Options Probationary Period

• Consider three or four-year probationary period,
  with permission to grant permanent status any
  time after 6 months
• Allows districts to reward especially promising
  new teachers
• Allows districts time to transfer teachers to new
  sites
• Allows districts time to assist struggling
  teachers

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Reform Options Evaluation Process

• Strengthen evaluation process
• Clarify performance standards/expectations
• Link evaluation to job retention and promotion
• Train school leaders to conduct rigorous teacher
  evaluations
• Significantly improve teacher information system