Want to add that Digital Literacy & Computer Science license? Here is one proposed pathway from DESE.
The Department of Elementary and Secondary Education wants YOUR opinion on their proposed model called “Structured Guidance and Supports” or SG&S. The proposed model asks educators to use items such as classroom observations and students’ assessment data as evidence the educator knows the content and curriculum.
You can read more about SG&R in at www.doe.mass.edu/licensure/academic-prek12/sgs/ and we have another post explaining more about SG&S here.
The SG&S model proposes an alternative to college coursework, professional experiences or other evidence of knowledge of the field with artifacts such as observations, measures of student learning and signatures from cooperating colleagues and administrators. There is no requirement that the candidate for license demonstrate any actual coursework or knowledge of the curriculum content.
PROPOSED DLCS License via Structured SG&S Pathway
- 150 Hour internship, field experience or employment in a school-based setting
- Coordination of a Supervising Educator who holds
- an Initial or Professional license in Instructional Technology or DLCS
- Three or more years of experience
- Proficient or Exemplary Evaluation
- Trained as a mentor
- Participation of a Supervising Administrator
- Three separate meetings with Supervising Educator and Supervising Administrator
- Portfolio of artifacts of professional practice including classroom observations, artifacts of practice, student feedback and measures of student learning to demonstrate subject matter knowledge (coursework, prior professional experience, or other demonstrations of content knowledge are not included).
- Ratings issued by the Supervising Educator and Supervising Administrator of Exemplary, Proficient, Needs Improvement or Unsatisfactory on rubric that matches the Subject Matter Knowledge Requirements of the license. Note that the rubric ratings are Exemplary = “demonstrates expertise”, Proficient = “demonstrates sound knowledge”, Needs Improvement = “Demonstrates factual knowledge”, and Unsatisfactory = “Demonstrates limited knowledge.”
- “The ultimate determination of competency is to be made by the supervising educator based on a holistic evaluation of the candidate’s demonstrated skills across the indicators.”
- Submission of completed SG&S forms only to DESE as part of the license application
While it is not entirely clear how this entire process will work in practice, it seems that DESE could allow educators to use this proposed SG&S observation process to supplement areas where an educator does not have coursework that would otherwise meet the “competency review” or subject matter knowledge requirements.
Take a look at the draft documents and submit your comments to DESE by April 1, 2018.
DRAFT Structured Guidance & Supports Guidelines
DRAFT Digital Literacy and Computer Science, 5-12 Performance Rubric and Required Forms
DRAFT Digital Literacy and Computer Science, 5-12 Potential Sources of Evidence
DRAFT Portfolio Resources
Got final thoughts? Public Comment Survey – see link here or send email to EducatorDevelopment@doe.mass.edu with “Competency Review Public Comment” in the subject line.