New: Innovative EPP Commendation Call  
In October of 2019, the SBEC approved a framework and procedures for determining EPP Commendations. Commendation Category 4, the Innovative Educator Preparation category, gives the SBEC the opportunity to designate EPPs that have implemented innovative approaches in a defined area of emphasis.  

 For 2020-2021, the SBEC seeks to recognize EPPs that engage in comprehensive partnerships with LEAs to support district-specific needs in one or more of the following areas:   

• supporting districts and mentor teachers through the pandemic,   
• accelerating learning in response to COVID-related learning loss,   
• addressing staffing challenges, and   
• implementing best practices that emerged from EPP and/or district responses to the COVID pandemic.   

The call for applications can be found here and will also be posted to the Program Provider Resources page, along with the application template, on October 22, 2021. EPPs must respond to the call by December 1, 2021 with a complete set of materials to be eligible for recognition. The TEA reviews applications for topic alignment and completeness. Complete and appropriate applications are reviewed by an SBEC committee which recommends EPPs for the commendation, which is then approved by the full SBEC. Recognition is awarded at the discretion of the committee and the SBEC.   

New: Public Data Sets 
TEA has posted the de-identified public data sets from the 2020-2021 surveys, along with the Indicator 3 data set to the program provider webpage. The following data sets are now available on the Program Provider Resources page: 

• Principal Survey 2020-2021 
• Exit Survey 2020-2021 
• Teacher Survey 2020-2021 
• Student Growth Indicator 2018-2019 

As a reminder, TEA sent EPPs their local data for the principal survey, teacher survey, and student growth indicator on 10/4. Since personally identifiable information is not collected as part of the Exit survey, TEA does not have an identified data set available for that survey to distribute to EPPs. 

EPP ASEP Fee Invoices 
On Friday, 10/15, TEA distributed invoices for the ASEP Technology Fee for 2020-2021 to EPPs. This fee is assessed for each candidate who was admitted to your educator preparation program during the 2020-2021 academic year. The number of candidates is taken from the number of individuals reported as admitted by your educator preparation program in ECOS.  

Q: A 2017-2018 Health EC-12 finisher candidate contacted our EPP requesting test approval for the TExES #157 Health EC-12. Since the test and standards have not changed, how do we provide test approval for the finisher candidate whose approval was previously removed? 
A: If the finisher candidate qualifies for test approval, log into ECOS, click on the Test Approval drop-down menu, and select either “Search/Maintain Candidates” or “Maintain Test List”. 

If you choose the “Search/Maintain Candidates” option, you will need the candidate’s SSN, first and last name, or TEA ID # to find the candidate’s ECOS profile. Once you get to the Maintain Test Approval Information screen, you can click on the exam hyperlink under the Test Code/Description column. This will take you to the Add/Edit Test Approvals screen and allow you to edit the test approval in the Approval row.  

If you choose the “Maintain Test List” option from the Test Approval drop-down menu in ECOS, you will filter for “Removed” and the academic year the candidate was admitted to the EPP. You can then find the candidate’s name and revise the test approval status under the Status column.  

Don’t forget to save the test approval revision before you leave ECOS. 

Q: Does a candidate receive an automatic email from TEA once test approval is identified as “eligible” in ECOS? 
A: Yes, candidates receive an automatic email from TEA once the EPP uploads test approval to the candidate’s ECOS account. Since this can cause confusion, TEA recommends notifying candidates of this and explaining the test approval process, including the program’s test readiness requirements and how to request “approved for one attempt” status. A candidate’s test approval status must be changed to “approved for one attempt” for it to show on the educator’s account when scheduling an exam with Pearson.