Teacher Education Council

September 15, 20141:00 pm to 3:00 pmExhibition Lounge, Corey Union

TEC Meeting Minutes & Notes The following members were in attendance:Abby Thomas, Amy Schutt, Andrea Lachance, Charlotte Pass, Chris Widdall, Codruta Temple, Cynthia Moriarity, David Dickerson, David Smukler, Dennis Farnsworth, Eileen Gravani, Esa Merson, Gigi Peterson, Janet Duncan,John Cottone, Judith Johns, Karen Stearns, Kevin Sheets, Kimberly Rombach, Lisa Czirr, Matthew Moyer, Randi Storch, Rena Janke, Ronnie Casella, Stephen Chemsak, Stephen Cunningham, Thomas Hanford, Eric Malmberg, John Shirley, Mary Reagan, Laura Winger

The meeting was called to order at approximately 1:10pm by Andrea Lachance and introductions were made with new members being acknowledged.1AnnouncementsTEC Membership Updates: Please check to be sure you have designated the appropriate members for your programs. Members include:The Chair or designee from each academic department housing a teacher education program. Program coordinators from teacher education programs.

Dr. Lachance reminded all current members of the new member guidelines that were adopted as part of the revised Teacher Education Council Bylaws at the last meeting of the Spring 2014 semester, as outlined above.2NYSED UpdatesNo word yet on ELL requirements. Indications are that it will be similar to SPE requirement (3 credit course), but that could change. Option for semester long student teaching placement. Must file application with NYSED.See handout with criteria for alternate models of student teaching.

See next slide for details.3

DASA, CARR, SAVE WorkshopsRegistration for these workshops are now on-line and follow the same process as registering for a course.Web registration is available during regular pre-registration periods: November/December for Spring classes and April/May for Fall classes and Drop/Add periods.Walk in registration is available through the Registrars Office. Students must be ready to pay workshop fees.Last day to register for a workshop for this semester is October 14th.See: http://www2.cortland.edu/offices/registrars-office/index.dotNote: SAVE workshops are NOT included in HLH courses any longer.

Dr. Thom Hanford was on hand to answer any questions that might arise with regard to the registration process or other matters related to the required Teacher Education Workshops.There were a few questions about the registration process, particularly with regard to ongoing (rolling) registration. Thom indicated that this is not possible at this point but may be in the future, as the process evolves.Andrea stressed that enrollment for all 3 of the workshops is brisk at this point but reinforced that the SAVE Workshop is no longer embedded in the HLH courses as in the past. There is some concern here as the numbers of students who are registering for this workshop seem to be lagging behind the other workshops.5Workshops and Student TeachingLast spring, TEC passed the resolution to have DASA, CARR and SAVE workshops serve as prerequisites for student teaching.For Spring 2015, we were not able to program these prereqs into the Banner system. Candidates without these workshops WILL be able to register for student teaching without the workshops.We will informally enforcing this requirement through Banner Reports once registration has been completed.Please let candidates in their last methods class prior to ST know of the workshop requirement.

It was noted that after the registration period for Spring 2015, all candidates will need to have completed their 3 teacher education workshops and this requirement will be strictly enforced from that point forward.6NYSTCE Updates: edTPAUnit pass rate is around 80%.Safety net will remain in place until June 30, 2015.For candidates to take advantage of safety net, they must have ALL certification requirements completed, apply for certification and pay for certification by June 30, 2015.Candidates need to be made aware of deadlines around edTPA as well as high pass rates state-wide and impact on employment.edTPA Advisors remain in place through the 2014-2015 academic year. edTPA Website has been recently updated:http://www2.cortland.edu/schools/education/edtpa/index.dot

NYSTCE Update: Other ExamsPass rates for ALST (n=300)Institutional vs. State: 69% vs. 68% (with retakes)Institutional vs. State: 52% vs. 56% (first attempt)Pass rates for EAS (n=322)Institutional vs. State: 77% vs. 78% (with retakes)Institutional vs. State: 67% vs. 64% (first attempt)Vouchers for Practice Tests AvailableHow to distribute.New more rigorous CSTs are expected to roll out this month according to schedule posted by NYSED.Testing Center is up and running at Library.Other AnnouncementsRetirement Party for Dennis Farnsworth:October 2, 2014, 3-5 pm, Fireplace Lounge

Announcements from the MembershipDavid Smukler alerted the council to an upcoming presentation by Dr. Marilyn Friend, Co-Teaching: Helping All Students Succeed, will be held on the SUNY Cortland Campus on October 16, 2014 with lunch included. The workshop is open to all inservice teachers and faculty and registration is free. If interested please register by September 26th by contacting Alexis Abramo.Data DiscussionBreak into small groups.Examine Data Packets:Summary of Unit DataSummary of edTPA Data for UnitSummary of ALST and EAS Data for UnitQuestions:For each assessment, what appear the strengths and weaknesses in candidate performance?What patterns in performance (strengths vs. weaknesses) are we seeing across assessments?What changes have programs initiated to better support candidates?

Whole Group Discussion

Data packets were provided to the council members and they were instructed to break into small groups to examine the data packets. At the conclusion of small group discussions the entire group engaged in general feedback with regard to the data they reviewed. The following points resulted from those discussions:The average pass rate on a rubric seems to be around a 2.7We seem to be doing very well in the domains of planningWe are doing OK on instruction rubricsWe are not doing so well on the assessment rubrics. Rubrics 13 and 14 seem to be generally problematicThe predictive elements of the rubrics can be seen where there are low student counts. In fact, you can almost relate performance scores to individual student results.It was recommended that we ask Codruta Temple to give a presentation on how they prepare candidates to complete the edTPA as Modern Languages candidates seem to do very well on all rubrics.Codruta pointed out that they are accostumed to looking at language and so they may be more adept at interpreting what they are looking for in acceptable or target performance on the rubrics.It was also noted that academic language is not an issue for teachers of English as a second language.Codruted noted that they have their candidates write 4 planning commentaries and 3 instruction related commentaries as candidates prepare to take the edTPA.Andrea made it a point to review the updates on edTPA and draw member attention to the power point.The group then moved on to a discussion of the data related to the EAS and the ALST.With regard to the EAS it was noted that in some cases the questions were irrelevant to our candidates, for example, questions on home schoolingNon-specific issues were noted with competency #3It was also noted that candidates should make it a point to save manuals and handouts from the 3 teacher education workshops to address some of the legal issues on the EAS assessment.Feedback from the ALST was as follows:It appears that this is the assessment where we have the most work to do with our candidates as we are further away from the current state average on this assessment.Writing ability seems to be a particular challenge for our candidates.Questions and significant concern were raised over scoring of items and the issue of robo scoring.We should instruct candidates to do the writing elements first as they require the most time and leave the reading and multiple choice questions for the end.There was concern over the consistency of test administration. John Shirley highlighted a situation where a student left the test area to use bathroom facilities and was refuse readmittance to the test area.There is concern over what our candidates are required to read and write during their K-12 years.Feedback from some faculty members who actually took the practice tests that even they had difficulty completing the assessment in the time allotted. Codruta noted that we should emphasize with our students the need to read closely (improve ability)John Shirley recommend that if at all possible candidates should be encouraged to take the tests at our site.It was recommended that we develop tutorials on tools that can be used in a technological environment.There are 2 forms for this test so its 50/50 as to which form you get. Is one less difficult than the other? 10