Goals 2000 Five Year Master Plan
Goal 2 Table of Contents
Enhance the Quality & Professionalism of Teachers
Line-Item 1: Professional Standards for Teachers
Line-Item 2: Teacher Preparation Programs
Line-Item 3: Statewide Professional Development for Teachers
Line-Item 4: Professional Standards, Preparation, and Development for Education Administrators
Line-Item 5: Early Retirement Incentives
In recognition of the primary role that each teacher and administrator plays
in improving student learning, this goal is placed second, directly following
student performance. Like Goal One, this goal focuses on improving quality by
establishing clear standards of performance. By the Year 2000, all educators
will be challenged to meet these high standards of professionalism through new
professional performance and certification standards and through ongoing
professional development linked to recertification.
Just as the Common Core of Learning articulates a statewide consensus about
what all students should know and be able to do, professional standards will be
established articulating common expectations for teachers.
Initiative
# 7: Teacher Performance Standards and Evaluation Guidelines
In December, 1994, the Board of Education voted its intent to establish
baseline performance standards for all teachers. In doing so, the Board made
it clear that, while school committees may establish additional standards
through collective bargaining, all districts would be expected to include the
state's standards as a minimum in all contracts. When fully developed in the Spring of 1995, these standards will support
the recommended teaching practices described in the Curriculum Frameworks and
will include guidelines for comprehensive, performance-based teacher
evaluations. Principals, teacher's union representatives, and other
educational supervisors will be trained in the use of these evaluation
guidelines to support professional performance and accountability [see
Initiative #18].
Initiative
# 8: Recognition of Distinguished Teachers
Teachers who exhibit exemplary professional performance will be recognized
as distinguished teachers and should be encouraged and compensated to serve as
mentors to pre-service and provisionally certified teachers [see Initiative
#9]. Both private and public funding will be sought to identify distinguished
teachers and acknowledge their exceptional professional performance. In doing
so, Massachusetts will seek to become aligned with the work of the National
Board for Professional Teaching Standards and other efforts that focus on
enhancing the professionalism of teachers.
Over the next five years significant changes will occur in the Massachusetts
system of teacher certification. Although the statute concerning teacher
certification was changed dramatically through the Education Reform Act,
teacher preparation programs have remained fundamentally the same. In essence,
the system will shift from one which only emphasizes seat time as a measure of
professional performance toward a true performance-based system that expects
teacher preparation programs to add measurable value to each prospective
teachers' professional skills. In many cases this may mean a shift of
resources and responsibilities from institutions of higher education to
school-based programs.
Initiative
# 9: Teacher Certification System Development
Substantial work will be done over the next five years to put in place the
components necessary to fulfill the statutory charge to create a
performance-based certification system. The first step will be to integrate
the professional preparation standards [see Initiative #7] and Curriculum
Frameworks [see Initiative #1] with the existing regulations to establish clear
performance standards for provisional and full certification. The second step will be to define authentic assessments of professional
performance for teachers at both the provisional and full level. The standards
for provisional certification will focus on prospective teachers' content
knowledge and will be closely linked to the learning standards of the
Curriculum Frameworks. As such, a standardized assessment will most likely be
used. Full certification will focus on pedagogy articulated in the Frameworks
[see Initiative #1]. Assessment of professional performance will utilize such
authentic evaluation instruments as peer evaluation and the presentation of a
professional portfolio. The final step will be to establish a system of support and training for
prospective provisional and full certification candidates. Institutions of
higher education will need to form cooperative relationships with participating
schools to provide teachers with high quality professional internships and
guidance. A system will be developed to compensate distinguished teachers [see
Initiative #8] and other qualified educators who mentor prospective teachers.
Where possible, schools will be encouraged to develop school- or district-based
teacher training programs that meet the distinct needs of each school
system.
Initiative
# 10: Teacher Recruitment
Since the average Massachusetts teacher has over twenty years of
experience, it is expected that a high percentage of the teachers currently
employed in the Commonwealth will retire by the Year 2000. In order to recruit
talented undergraduate and graduate students to fill this impending gap, the
Executive Office of Education will administer a program called "Attracting Excellence to Teaching," which will provide financial incentives to teacher
candidates ranking in the top of their class. Additional recruitment programs
will be developed as well to attract teacher candidates for underserved subject
areas and underrepresented segments of the population.
Initiative
# 11: Certification Administration
One of the major responsibilities of the Department is to administer the
system for certifying qualified educators. Over the next few years this system
will continue to be substantially simplified, automated, and expedited. Since
for many educators this process is their first introduction to the Department,
it is especially important that they receive prompt, helpful service in the
evaluation of their application.
The success of Education Reform depends on substantial local, state, and
federal resources devoted to high quality professional development linked to
improving student learning. Public education is in the process of fundamental
change. Teachers can not depend solely on textbooks and lectures to fulfill
their roles as instructional leaders. They are expected to design and use
cooperative, project-based, interdisciplinary curriculum units that integrate
technology, the community, the work place, the state's Curriculum Frameworks,
and an authentic system of assessment. Taken together, each component of this
new vision for the classroom poses an enormous challenge to seasoned and novice
teachers alike.
In this context, professional development will mean more than just taking
classes at a local teacher training institution. Teachers need a supportive
professional environment at the school site which nurtures new ideas,
encourages innovation, and places a high priority on peer support. Teachers
must have the time to investigate new approaches, the resources to access the
state-of-the-art teaching practices, and the flexibility to regularly
communicate and collaborate with fellow educators.
Each year the Department will develop a statewide plan for professional
development which will clearly identify priorities, resources, and a detailed
action plan for linking state initiatives to district, building, and individual
educator professional development plans. Over the next four years, the top
priority of all teachers' professional development plans should be the
implementation of the Curriculum Frameworks and assessment. Most state
professional development resources will be targeted towards that end. In
addition to this primary focus, a statewide network of professional development
providers will be approved by the state for educators and districts to contract
with for additional professional development services. Although the state will
devote significant attention and resources to professional development, the
responsibility to design and pursue professional development is local, shared
by each educator and his or her school district.
Initiative
# 12: Recertification Guidelines and System Development
Recertification is the engine that drives professional development, but it
does not direct educators how to fulfill their professional development
requirements. The recertification regulations approved by the Board in
December, 1994, require all teachers to engage in at least 120 hours of
professional development every five years with at least half of those hours
spent on activities specifically connected with their primary area of
certification. This approach assumes that the vast majority of teachers are
responsible professionals capable of managing their own professional
growth.
Initiative
# 13: Curriculum Frameworks Professional Development
Over the next four years, the state will provide substantial support to
school districts' implementation of the Curriculum Frameworks [see Initiative
#1]. Beginning in the summer of 1995, Department staff will lead a
comprehensive statewide initiative consisting of summer institutes, intensive
training for curriculum specialists, distribution of resource guides, MCET
broadcasts [see Initiative #69], seminars, workshops, in-service events, grants
to districts, and other activities. The goal of this work will be to prepare
all 60,000 teachers in the use of the Curriculum Frameworks.
Initiative
# 14: Professional Development Providers Network
In 1994-95, the Department developed a process for registering professional
development offerings. This information will be made available through
resource guides and the Mass EdOnline LearnNet [see Initiative #71]. Teachers
and schools will use this information to choose providers who best meet their
specific needs. In addition, over the next few years, the Department will
begin to increasingly evaluate provider performance and approve only those
providers who meet high standards of quality.
While some aspects of the teachers' systems of performance standards,
certification, and professional development can be applied to education
administrators as well, many new systems will need to be developed to meet the
distinct needs of educational administrators. Administrators must be
supported, encouraged, and required to exhibit strong fiscal, managerial, and
planning skills in addition to educational expertise. They must demonstrate
leadership and collegiality to assist teachers in creating the conditions in
which students can best learn. The changes begun by Education Reform will especially impact principals.
Unprecedented authority and responsibility has been granted to them to give
both the flexibility to pursue educational excellence and the accountability
for their school's success. Principals should be given support so that they
can proactively manage the change process through relevant opportunities for
professional development and collaboration. They will be called upon to engage
in a rich dialogue with their teachers, students, and the community about how
to develop and implement an effective system of school improvement [see
Initiative #24]. Schools will be expected to make steady progress towards the state standard
of school performance [see Initiative #20]. Principals are accountable for the
performance of their schools. If a school is declared "chronically"
underperforming," the state will replace the prinicipal with a state receiver"
[see Initiative #25], who will have expanded authority to implement a school
improvement plan.
Initiative
# 15: Administrative Performance Standards and Evaluation Guidelines
State standards are currently being developed to articulate the skills
educational administrators need to fulfill their new roles. Like those for
teachers [see Initiative #7], the administrative performance standards
established by the Board of Education will form a base for all local employment
contracts and will include guidelines for how each administrator should be
evaluated.
Initiative
# 16: Recognition of Distinguished Administrators
Distinguished Administrators will be acknowledged in much the same way as
Distinguished Teachers [see Initiative #8]. Based on the state standards,
Distinguished Administrators will be selected to work with their peers and lead
state sponsored events.
Initiative
# 17: Administrator Recruitment and Certification
While it is essential that administrators be well versed in pedagogy, the
skills they should develop for certification should be related as much to
management as to direct instruction. This distinction calls for a different
type of training for administrators than teachers. Beginning in FY'96, the
Department will lead a two-year study to develop a new performance-based system
of certification for administrators. Candidates for this new system will be recruited from diverse
socio-economic and ethnic backgrounds. In addition to teachers, lawyers,
social workers, business people and others will be encouraged to enter the
educational field as administrators.
Initiative
# 18: Professional Development for Administrators
Administrators must embody the ideal of "life-long learners" if they are to
keep up-to-date with the rapid pace of reforms. The state will do its best to
provide administrators with ongoing institutes, workshops, and other resources
to connect them with the state-of-the-art. Additional resources will be made
available to contract with approved providers [see Initiative #14] for
contracted consulting or training services.
Initiative # 19
A two-year system of early retirement incentives for teachers and
administrators was enacted as part of the Education Reform Act. .
Approximately 850 educators took advantage of this program each of the first
two years. No additional educators will receive this incentive, but the state
is obligated to pay its share of the cost for the next five years.
[ previous | next ]
[ table of contents ]
last updated: May 15, 1995
|
State Government · State Services 
