Prevents any applicant for teacher certification to be required to take an examination administered by Pearson Education, Inc. and/or affiliates

BILL NUMBER:S4111

Title of bill

An act to amend the education law, in relation to teacher certification

Purpose

Prevents any applicant for teacher certification to be required to take an examination administered by Pearson Education, Inc. and/or affiliates

Summary of provisions

Section 1 amends the education law by adding a new subdivision 7 to section 3004 to prevent applicants for teacher certification to be required to take examinations administered by Pearson Education Inc.

Section 2 sets an effective date of the first of September next succeeding the date on which it shall have become law

Justification

The edTPA is a standardized assessment of teaching that is being required in many states for teacher certification. It has been branded as a way to "professionalize" the field of education. It will be administered during student teaching. It is a high stakes assessment due to the reality that certification will depend on its successful completion. It has been adopted by 34 states and the District of Columbia. New York State fully adopted the edTPA assessment in May of 2014. The edTPA assessment was created as part of the federal Race to the Top education funding granted to New York State.

Although Stanford University developed the initial version of edTPA, it is being sold and administered by Pearson Education, Inc. The anticipated cost for teaching candidates is $300. Furthermore, the assessments will not be scored by teacher evaluators. Instead, temporary workers will be paid approximately $75 per exam. These Pearson scorers will not know the teacher candidates and they will have no context for the communities in which student teaching is happening. Most alarming is that the Pearson Education Inc. assessment will require teacher candidates to submit videos of themselves teaching K-12 classes. As a result, that will mean that Pearson Education, Inc. will own videos of children who have student teachers in their classrooms.

Last year, the Board of Regents unanimously voted to allow teaching candidates who fail this new teacher performance assessment largely based on Common Core standards to receive their initial five-year certification, but only if they pass a separate written examination. Delaying the edTPA isn't enough. The State has to end its relationship with Pearson Education, Inc. with regards to teacher certification to show all New Yorkers that it is putting its people above a corporate attempt to make an undue profit from hard working taxpayers and our future teachers.

We need to take the process of developing teacher certification tests, education materials and curriculums corporations out of the hands of corporations and put it back into the hands of educators. This bill moves us toward that goal.

Legislative history

2014: S7445

Effective date

This act shall take effect on the first of September next succeeding the date on which it shall have become a law.