The State Board for Educator Certification (SBEC) met last week for its first regular meeting of 2017. The board welcomed its newest member, Yes Prep' alternative certification program Director Carlos Villagrana, and continued discussion on the Texas Education Agency’s (TEA) interest in developing a Pre-Kindergarten to Grade 3 Educator Certificate.

As we previously reported, TEA, through its Office of Early Childhood Education, began discussions with SBEC in December 2016 regarding internal interest in developing a new certificate dedicated to early childhood education. Following the December discussion, the board instructed TEA to (1) gather input from stakeholders on the new certificate and (2) explore the possibility of an early childhood endorsement that would be added to the existing Early Childhood through Grade 6 Certificate (EC-6), the current generalist certificate that would remain under either scenario.

TEA gathered input via a public survey tool and through conversations with stakeholders. When the data from the survey was presented to SBEC at last Friday’s meeting, members of the board expressed frustration over the fact that the survey and subsequent discussion failed to involve consideration of an endorsement, instead focusing solely on the potential new certificate. One board member also highlighted that data from the survey showed that the majority of respondents expressed some level of concern with offering a new Prekindergarten-Grade 3 Certificate in addition to the current EC-6.

Public testifiers were largely in support of the discussion to offer more specific and focused training to educators of early childhood educators, but several expressed concerns with the additional certification. I previously outlined some of the concerns based on historical context here.

Ultimately, SBEC instructed TEA to take a step back in order to gather better information and stakeholder input on both options. The item will be back before the board at its next meeting in June.