June 25, 2020

This newsletter provides key updates and policy changes that were presented at the May board meeting. See additional actions and annotations from this meeting.

In this issue...

• Work continues for 2021-25 strategic plan
• Waiving clinical practice and course work
• Emergency certificates to meet assessment requirements
• Clock hour providers
• Career and technical education (CTE) preparation program review workgroup
• Use of certificate fees
• Special education pre-endorsement waivers
• Certificate expiration dates extended
• Educator assessment workgroup
• Recap of the Paraeducator Board meeting
• Upcoming board meetings
• In other news

Work continues for 2021-25 strategic plan

In July 2019, members from both the Paraeducator Board and the Professional Educator Standards Board (PESB) began working on their 2021-25 strategic plan. Our four year strategic plan helps us determine long-term goals, actions we will take to reach them, and key performance indicators to help monitor progress.

Community engagement

Our next step in the strategic planning process is to engage our partners, stakeholders, and community members. The objective of these engagement opportunities is to collect your feedback on the plan’s draft components, help inform our agency’s focus areas, identify barriers, and guide future policy work as it relates to the educator career continuum.

Take our survey

Our online, public survey is now available. The survey should take about 7-10 minutes. Your responses will be kept confidential and will be presented anonymously and in aggregate. We welcome you to share this survey with others you think would be interested. Take the survey.

Waiving clinical practice and course work

In response to COVID-related school closures, PESB now allows teacher and administrator preparation programs to review a candidate’s course work, field experience, work experience, and alternative learning experience.

Based on this review, the preparation program may then waive, or reduce in length, the clinical practice and course work if they determine the candidate has the required knowledge and skills. See meeting materials to learn more.

WAC 181-78A-027

Emergency certificates to meet assessment requirements

In response to COVID-related school closures, teacher preparation programs may recommend candidates for an emergency certificate if the candidate has completed all program requirements, with the exception of one or more of the assessment requirements.

Once a candidate has completed all assessment requirements, their preparation program can then recommend them for residency certification. See meeting materials to learn more.

WAC 181-79A-228

Clock hour providers

The Board considered policy that would allow all PESB approved educator preparation programs, regardless of organization type, to be eligible to apply to serve as a clock hour provider. These preparation programs would still need to apply to serve as a clock hour provider, and meet all other clock hour requirements.

PESB anticipates making final consideration of this policy in July. See meeting materials to learn more.

WAC 181-85-045

Career and technical education (CTE) preparation program review workgroup

The CTE program review workgroup was tasked with developing model recommendations for the ongoing review of CTE administrator and CTE business and industry route preparation programs. During the May meeting, members received a presentation on the process and progress of the workgroup, as well as heard preliminary recommendations for the proposed review model. At the July meeting, members will have the opportunity to adopt amendments and hear final recommendations.

See meeting materials on tab 15 and tab 16 to learn more.

Use of certificate fees

PESB has adopted policy clarifying how certificate fees may be used. In alignment with legislation, certificate fees may be used for educator preparation, program evaluation, and in-service professional learning. See meeting materials to learn more.

WAC 181-79a-130, 131, and 134.

Special education pre-endorsement waivers

Special education pre-endorsement waivers allow a teacher to serve as a special education teacher without a special education endorsement, as long as they have completed a certain number of relevant credits.

This policy change would allow clock hours as well as credits to apply towards the waiver, providing more flexibility for educators and helping to address the special education teacher shortage.

PESB anticipates making final consideration of this policy in July. See meeting materials to learn more.

WAC 181-82-110

Certificate expiration dates extended

In response to COVID-related school closures, certificate expiration dates have been extended. Most educator certificates expiring June 30, 2020 will now expire June 30, 2021. Educators do not need to take any action in order to be granted this one year extension.

When applying to renew their certificate, educators will need to meet all requirements for their specific certificate and role, including clock hours, or the equivalent in credits or professional growth plans (PGPs). See meeting materials to learn more.

WAC 181-79a-118

Educator assessment workgroup

The Board heard recommendations from an educator assessment workgroup composed of stakeholders from around the state. The purpose of this workgroup was to develop recommendations for creating a culturally responsive and coherent assessment system to ensure a properly credentialed and diverse teaching workforce.

Ideas discussed by the board included a case-by-case exception process for content knowledge assessments, and a multiple measures pilot for the teacher performance assessment, the edTPA.

See meeting materials to learn more.

Recap of the Paraeducator Board meeting

On May 20, the Paraeducator Board heard presentations and took action on several policies, including:

• Amending WAC to clarify the use of certificate fees.
• Listening to representatives from Pasco and Kennewick school districts on their approaches to implementing the Fundamental Course of Study (FCS).
• Receiving a presentation on reimbursement for the FCS, iGrants 918.
• Hearing results from a paraeducator feedback form.

For a complete review of the board meeting, including summaries for each agenda item, please visit the meeting material folder.

Upcoming board meetings

• July 16-17, 2020 | Virtual meeting
• September 24-25, 2020 | Spokane
• November 5-6, 2020 | Vancouver

View meeting information on our website.

In other news

• Grants now available to support professional learning for educators (June 16)

• May paraeducator certificate program newsletter (June 12)

• New district training materials available for paraeducator certificate program (May 27)