Standards
Standards Preface
Rather than re-print the same Preface for each Standard, we decided to post the Preface once for the reader. In hard copy, this Preface is placed in the front of each Standard.
About The Board
The Indiana Professional Standards Board is established to govern teacher training and licensing programs. Notwithstanding any other law, the board and the board's staff have sole authority and responsibility for making recommendations concerning and otherwise governing teacher training and teacher licensing matters. Public Law 46-1992
With these words the state legislature in 1992 created and empowered the Indiana Professional Standards Board. The Board's mandate encompasses all components of the education profession. The Board consists of nineteen members, eighteen of whom are appointed by the Governor, and the nineteenth is the State Superintendent of Public Instruction, who serves ex officio. Thirteen of the eighteen appointed members are required to hold an Indiana teacher's license and must be actively employed by a school corporation. These members represent specific subjects, positions, and grade levels. These include: a superintendent, two principals, a director of special education, an early childhood teacher, an elementary education teacher, a middle/junior high school teacher, a special education teacher, a vocational education teacher, a student services representative, an English/language arts teacher, a mathematics teacher, and a science teacher. Three members must represent Indiana teacher preparation units within Indiana public and private institutions of higher education. There are two public members, one a school board's representative, a second a business representative.
Fulfilling the Mission
In its first year, the Board decided to undertake two tasks. It moved to maintain and support the program areas of the state Department of Education, which had been placed under the Board's jurisdiction. It determined its mission and vision, which would serve as guides to long term goals and specific decisions. The Board determined that before it could adequately determine its mission and vision statements, it first had to understand the current research, trends, and issues in pre-kindergarten through grade twelve (P-12) education. Accordingly, the Board undertook a year of study during which its members both read extensively and heard from many national and state leaders in the preparation of education professionals and the fields of P-12 education. After this year of research, the Board wrote and adopted its Mission and Vision Statements.
The first portion of the Board's Mission Statement reads " . . . to establish and maintain rigorous, achievable standards for educators beginning with pre-service and continuing throughout their professional careers." Initially, the Board assessed the current systems and practices in these areas and found that Indiana had strong programs in the preparation and induction of education professionals. However, the Board also believed, based on its research and dialogue with education leaders, that new goals and standards could elevate to even higher levels the quality of education professionals in the state. This belief was put into action in August of 1994, when the Board voted to adopt performance-based standards for the preparation and licensure of education professionals.
The Board believes that performance-based standards will bring three advantageous results. First, these performance standards will reflect the growing national consensus on the knowledge, skills and dispositions needed to provide a high quality of instruction. Second, these standards will provide a linkage to Indiana's goals for students in P-12 education, and last, these standards will focus on demonstrated ability to impart knowledge rather than considering only if an education professional has knowledge.
A Unified System of Quality Assurance: Standards Supporting the Redesign
The new performance-based licensing system will encompass the same three phases as the current model (preparation, induction and continued practice). The differences between the new and current models center on how education professionals are prepared and how candidates for licensure are assessed. The focus will be on achieving standards and the actual demonstration of understanding and application. Just as the goal for P-12 education is making learning a lifelong process for students, so the goal for teacher preparation is to make knowledge and skills related to teaching a career long process. Key to the reform of teacher preparation and licensure is a unified system of standards and assessments throughout the career of the education professional.
An important foundation for Indiana's new system is the work done by professional organizations at the national level in setting standards for all phases which are interrelated and consistent. These groups include:
The National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE). NCATE provides a mechanism for voluntary peer regulation of the professional education. NCATE is designed to establish and uphold professional standards of excellence related to best practice. In Indiana, approval of pre-service programs that prepare tomorrow's teachers is based on these standards. Indiana's partnership with NCATE enables simultaneous state and national review of pre-service preparation programs. This partnership complements the state's move to a performance-based licensure system.
The Interstate New Teacher Assessment and Support Consortium (INTASC). INTASC, established in 1987 by the Council of Chief State School Officers, supports collaboration among states interested in rethinking teacher preparation, induction, licensing and assessment for the education profession. INTASC began its work by articulating standards for a common core of teaching knowledge and skills essential to all beginning teachers. Thus far, INTASC has developed standards for beginning teachers of mathematics, English/language arts, and science. Indiana is a member of INTASC.
The National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS). The NBPTS is an independent non-profit organization, founded in 1987, governed by a sixty-three member board of directors, the majority of whom are classroom teachers. The NBPTS establishes standards for what accomplished teachers should know and be able to do. The NBPTS operates a national voluntary system to assess and certify teachers who meet these standards.
All of these organizations share the view that the complex art of teaching requires performance-based standards and assessment strategies that evaluate what teachers can actually do in authentic teaching situations. Taken together, the standards developed by these groups embody the most up-to-date professional knowledge about preparation programs for education professionals.
The Core Standards
In 1994, the Indiana Professional Standards Board adopted the INTASC model standards for initial licensing of teachers as the basis for Indiana's new system for preparing and licensing teachers. The INTASC standards describe what every beginning education professional should know and be able to do. Each standard includes knowledge, disposition and performance statements used in meeting the standard. Knowledge statements describe the body of knowledge critical to successful teaching; a performance statements describe the application of that knowledge; disposition statements describe the habitual behaviors which communicate the qualities or traits valued by the teaching profession. Through performances, candidates demonstrate their ability to combine content knowledge and professional dispositions necessary for the successful teaching of students.
The IPSB has adopted the INTASC core standards, including knowledge, disposition and performance statements, because its members believe that it is the responsibility of the profession and of policy makers to be explicit about those characteristics, to insure that the opportunity to develop them is honored in the preparation process, and that fair and disciplined judgments are made over time by appropriate professionals knowledgeable about the candidate.
The Standards Development Process
At the same time that the Board adopted the INTASC standards, it also formed two pilot groups, one for beginning teachers of mathematics encompassing the full spectrum of students' developmental stages from pre-kindergarten through grade 12, and one for beginning teachers of early adolescence generalist students, encompassing the core content areas. These groups were asked to recommend performance-based standards in their specific content and developmental areas and to recommend a process for the development of performance-based standards in other content and developmental areas. The standards were to be based on the INTASC Core Model Standards.
As the result of these two pilot groups, the IPSB adopted a charge, framework, and generic composition for the remaining advisory groups and adopted the following ten principles to guide the development of the standards for teacher preparation and licensure:
The new standards for preparing and licensing education professionals will be proficiency-driven.
The new standards will reflect the continuum of professional development for education professionals.
The new standards will describe the performances to be assessed for purposes of granting licensure.
The new standards will be linked to Indiana's pre-kindergarten through grade 12 (P-12) initiatives for students, including curriculum standards and school to work initiatives.
The new standards will be developed by educators through advisory group process adopted by the IPSB.
The new standards will be associated with a quality assurance system encompassing the three phases of the professional development continuum.
The new system for preparing and licensing education professionals will be simplified.
Each group of standards will address the need for interdisciplinary education.
The new standards will be based upon students' developmental stages rather than grade levels.
An ongoing evaluation system will be designed and implemented such that the standards and corresponding rules pertaining to each licensing area are reviewed on a regular basis, according to a prearranged schedule.
The standards framework is shown in the illustration at right. Using the metaphor of the solar system, the relationship between the INTASC core standards, developmental standards, and content standards is clearly depicted. Developmental and content areas are identified as well.
It is important to understand that the standards developed for each of the content and developmental areas are intended to describe effective practice for education professionals throughout the preparation continuum; that is, the standards will be the same for the beginning educator, the intern, and the experienced educator. What will vary is the level of proficiency expected, becoming more comprehensive and more skillful at each successive stage of the educator's career.
The Standards Assessment Process
The Board realizes that the development of standards for performance-based preparation and licensing of education professionals is clearly an important step, but, to create a coherent system for an entire professional career, other areas need also to be considered. The Board is, therefore, also engaged in a redesign of preparation program accountability requirements, the redesign of licensing assessments, and the redesign of licensing renewal assessments.
To organize these three initiatives, the Board created a Continuum Linkage Committee, which would recommend to the Board a framework that (1) holds preparation programs accountable for providing learning opportunities that lead to the successful attainment of the knowledge, dispositions, and performances needed to teach, and their demonstration on structured assessments that are based on the standards; (2) bases licensing on completion of an approved program and on successful completion of performance-based assessments during an induction period; and (3) provides incentives as part of the licensing renewal system for education professionals to enhance their knowledge and skills based on the standards.
Assessing Dispositions
It is the Board's belief that dispositions cannot be assessed independently; rather, they must be demonstrated through habitual performance over time and that these judgments can only be made by professionals who themselves have demonstrated that they recognize, understand, and value identified dispositions.
Summary
There are three stages to the IPSB Rules Revision Process: (1) Standards Development; (2) Assessment Development, and (3) Licensure Development. All stages are interdependent; that is, assessments must be integrally connected to the standards.
The illustration on the next page summarizes the efforts of the Indiana Professional Standards Board to create a system that will be driven by standards which reflect the most up-to-date knowledge about teaching and learning. The licensing system will be an active partnership with higher education, school corporations, and the state. The Board has made a conscientious effort to involve educators across the state in building the system.
When the new system is implemented, standards and assessments for preparing and licensing teachers will be purposefully linked to each other and to standards and assessments validating increased learning by Indiana's students. For this reason, the Board believes that Indiana will have teachers who are effective in helping all students respond to the new world in which they live.
For further information about topics included in the Preface, see:
The IPSB Position Paper, February 16, 1995.
Interstate New Teacher Assessment and Support Consortium (INTASC) Model.
Standards for Beginning Teacher Licensing and Development: A Resource for State Dialogue,September 1992.
Reframing the School Reform Agenda: Developing Capacity for School Transformation, Phi Delta Kappan, June 1993.
The IPSB Continuum Linkage Committee, Assessment System Recommendations, June 19, 1997. What Matters Most: Teaching for America's Future, September 1996.
