Educator Services
Preparing Educators

Program Development

The Educator Preparation unit provides assistance to higher education institutions, school districts, charter schools, collaboratives, professional associations, and others to help in the development of programs to prepare educators for licensure under the Regulations for Educator Licensure and Preparation Program Approval 603 CMR 7.00.

The unit also develops regulations, policies, and guidelines for Educator licensure.

We inform higher education institutions and other educator preparation sponsoring organizations of:

• new policy directions, and
• opportunities for collaboration on program improvement

	Guidelines for the Mathematical Preparation of Elementary Teachers On April 24, 2007 the Massachusetts Board of Education added the following Subject Matter Knowledge Requirement for elementary teachers to regulation 603 CMR 7.06(7)(b). To support this requirement, the Department has Developed "Guidelines for the Mathematical Preparation of Elementary Teachers". The purpose of these Guidelines is to strengthen the mathematics preparation of teachers at the elementary level. the Commissioner’s Guidelines articulate the scope and depth of mathematics knowledge—both skills and understanding—that are expected of elementary teachers and that will be assessed on the test. In addition, the Board has also directed that beginning January 2009, the Massachusetts Tests for Educator Licensure (MTEL) "General Curriculum Test" will include a separately scored section of 40 questions on the mathematics specified in the new regulation. As additional information become available, please refer to the MTEL website.
	Listing of State-Approved Sponsoring Organizations and Programs A complete listing of organizations with educator preparation programs that are approved by the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education is available here. Individuals who would like to become licensed, may qualify for licensure through successful completion of an approved preparation program leading to the license sought, providing they meet all other requirements of the license. See Licensure web page for details for each license.
	Teacher Preservice Performance Assessment Guidelines and Forms to be used for candidates seeking an Initial Teaching License. This instrument is to be used to assess each candidate's end-of-practicum performance while a candidate is performing their supervised practice teaching.
	Practicum or Practicum Equivalent Form for Professional Support Personnel This instrument is to be used to assess each candidate's end-of-practicum performance.
	Administrator Practicum or Practicum Equivalent Form