Certification board discusses educational aide certificates, teacher and principal survey data, and more at the fifth and final SBEC meeting of 2019.

Last Friday, Dec. 6, the State Board for Educator Certification (SBEC) met for the last time this year. The board discussed several agenda items, including reader teacher certifications, allowing high school students to obtain the educational aide certificate, an update on various educator certification statistics, and the latest on the EdTPA and T-TESS pilots. The board also elected a new Chairperson, Dr. Arturo Cavazos (Superintendent of Harlingen CISD), Vice-Chairperson, Rohanna Brooks-Sykes, a counselor in Klein ISD, and Secretary, Jose Rodriguez, an elementary school teacher in Leander ISD.

ATPE Lobbyist Andrea Chevalier testified before SBEC on Dec. 6, 2019

Master Reading Teachers

The board is undertaking a standard, four-year rule review of 19 Texas Administrative Code (TAC) Chapter 239, Student Services Certificates. These rules pertain to the school counselor, school librarian, educational diagnostician, and reading specialist certificates. Under House Bill (HB) 3 of the 86th Legislature, the Master Reading Teacher (MRT) certification was repealed and replaced with a "Legacy Master Teacher" designation. For affected teachers, the Legacy designation will disappear when their existing Master Teacher certificate expires, leaving some teachers unable to maintain their current teaching assignments.

ATPE is urging SBEC to honor the work that MRT certificate holders have accomplished by allowing them to transition over to the Reading Specialist certificate, which has identical teaching assignments. ATPE previously submitted written testimony to the board on this topic at its October SBEC meeting. At Friday's meeting, ATPE Lobbyist Andrea Chevalier again provided written and oral testimony (watch archived video here at the 41:00 mark) in support of MRTs who may be negatively affected by this aspect of HB 3 and the elimination of their certificate.

Potential changes to the language in these SBEC rules will be acted upon at a future meeting. The board will accept public comments on this topic from Jan. 3 to Feb. 3, 2020, through the Texas Register. Additionally, interested educators can testify or submit written comments to the board at its next meeting on Feb. 21, 2020. (Witnesses must submit comments or register to testify at least 48 hours before the meeting.)

Other action items on the agenda:

The board voted to amend disciplinary rules contained in 19 TAC Chapter 249, implementing several educator misconduct bills passed during the 2019 legislative session, including Senate Bill (SB) 1230, SB 1476, and HB 3, as well as SB 37, which eliminates student loan default as a ground for SBEC discipline. This agenda item originally included proposed rule changes to allow SBEC to deny certification to someone who had abandoned a contract within the preceding 12 months. The proposed amendment sought to address intern and probationary certificate holders who abandon their contracts before SBEC can take disciplinary action against them, since their certificates are only valid for one year. The board voted to postpone discussing the contract abandonment language until after a planned stakeholder meeting in January, which ATPE will attend.

The board also adopted the required four-year rule review for two more sets of SBEC rules: 9 TAC Chapter 232, General Certification Provisions, which regulates certificate renewal, continuing education, and criminal history records; and 19 TAC Chapter 230, Professional Educator Preparation and Certification, which deals with procedures for issuing certificates and permits, testing requirements and fees, and the types and classes of certificates issued by the board.

In a separate agenda item, the board amended 19 TAC Chapter 230 to implement SB 1839, HB 2039, and HB 3349 (85th Legislature), plus HB 3 (86th Legislature). The changes include reducing the time for certification test retakes from 45 to 30 days, and requiring candidates to take the English as a Second Language Supplemental assessment for issuance of an intern certificate obtained through the intensive pre-service route. ATPE is pleased with a change in this chapter to allow the Educational Aide I certificate to be issued to high school students who have completed certain courses within the Education and Training career and technical education cluster. Other changes include the addition of the Early Childhood: Prekindergarten-Grade 3 certificate to the list of certificates that cannot be obtained via certification by exam.

The board also took several actions relating to EPPs, including the approval of the accreditation statuses of 10 programs. Additionally, the board approved a request by East Texas Baptist University to offer the School Counselor class of certificate. Two programs, South Texas Transition to Teaching Alternative Certification (STTT) Preparation Program and Teaching via E-Learning (TEACH) Alternative Certification, were approved to continue to operate with conditions following SBEC orders to improve their programs due to inadequate performance. The board also approved the continuing approval review and lifted the board orders from August 2015 for TeacherBuilder.com Alternative Certification Educator Preparation Program.

Discussion only agenda items (no action taken):

The board discussed several possible future revisions to 19 TAC Chapter 228, which covers requirements for EPPs. The revisions would simplify a table of requirements in the chapter; implement portions of HB 18 of the 86th Legislature; authorize teaching sites outside of Texas under certain situations such as military assignment; provide admittance policy guidance to EPPs that are closing or consolidating; restrict a summer-only practicum unless it is part of a year-round school or extended year program; add language for a dismissal policy for candidates who violate the code of ethics; provide concise reasons that an EPP would no longer support a candidate in an internship; and clarify the number (three) and spacing of the formal observations conducted during a practicum.

Later in the afternoon, the board discussed possible amendments to 19 TAC Chapter 235 on certificate standards, including a TEA-recommended split certification for special education, with separate certificates for EC-5 and 6-12. TEA staff also presented information on two supplemental certificate sets of standards: one for bilingual Spanish, grades EC-12 that focuses on bilingualism, biliteracy, and biculturalism; and another for "DeafBlind" grades EC-12. The proposals reflect input from stakeholders in the bilingual and special education communities and from an April 2019 SBEC work group meeting.

TEA also updated the board on the EdTPA performance assessment pilot, which is almost halfway through its first year. In November, 34 candidates submitted their portfolios. Thirty-two applications have been submitted for the second year of the pilot, including 15 from alternative certification programs. Dr. Stacey Edmonson, Dean of the College of Education at Sam Houston State University, is directing an alternative pilot to the EdTPA pilot that is based on the T-TESS. The pilot attempts to use the T-TESS as a performance assessment tool.

Finally, the board discussed proposed revisions to 19 TAC Chapter 232 on general certification provisions and professional development, which would implement several bills passed by the 86th Legislature. These include continuing professional education instruction regarding mental health and substance abuse training (HB 18 and SB 11); training requirements for superintendents regarding sexual abuse and human trafficking (HB 403); and the removal of student loan default as grounds to deny the renewal of a certificate (SB 37). The chapter would also be simplified and reorganized as suggested by ATPE and other stakeholders.

Facts and figures:

Texas Education Agency (TEA) staff updated the board on Texas educator certification statistics from fiscal year (FY) 2018 (September 1, 2017 to August 31, 2018) to FY 2019 (September 1, 2018 to August 31, 2019). Of note, the number of standard certificates issued increased from 67,748 to 85,708. Nearly half (49%) of all initial teacher certificates issued are through alternative certification programs. The percentage of EPPs accredited as warned or on probation greatly increased, from 5.1% to 27.6% and 5.1% to 13.4%, respectively. This increase is due to additional ASEP standards becoming operational. As for educator leadership and quality, most legal cases opened were due to contract abandonment, the number of which increased by 124% from 111 up to 249 in FY 19.

TEA staff also updated the board on the results of the 2018-19 principal survey of first-year teachers and new teacher survey, which are part of the Accountability System for Educator Preparation Programs (ASEP). The survey results show that principals find their first-year teachers from alternative certification programs to be the least prepared. Similarly, new teachers from alternative certification programs indicated they felt the least prepared. Forty-nine percent of new teachers in 2019 were prepared in alternative certification programs, compared to 32 percent from traditional, undergraduate programs.

Additionally, TEA updated the board at its request on educator testing data. The data show that pass rates even into the third test attempt can be quite low. A representative from an EPP suggested that programs be given more time to remediate candidates who cannot pass tests.

Future meetings:

Mark your calendars! The approved SBEC meeting dates for 2020 are:

• Feb. 21, 2020
• May 1, 2020
• July 24, 2020
• Oct. 9, 2020
• Dec. 11, 2020