November 19, 2018
EDCAL 7
CTC looks at state report card, teacher competency assessments
ACSA CTC Liaison Doug Gephart filed
this report on the most recent meeting of the
Commission on Teacher Credentialing.
State Report Card for 2016-17
Title 2 requires annual reports from each
institution of higher education that con-
ducts a traditional initial teacher preparation
program or an alternative route program to
state certification. States report through a
web-based reporting system called the State
Report Card System, an online tool used by
states to meet the annual reporting require-
ments on teacher preparation, certification,
and licensing. In the academic year 2016-
17, a total of 146 California Institution
and Program Report Cards were submitted
to the U.S. Department of Education. A
sample of the data analysis is as follows:
Enrollment: About two-thirds (62
percent) of the teacher candidates were
enrolled in a private/independent college or
university (Private/Independent) compared
to one-third (34 percent) enrolled at a
California State University campus.
Note: This data should be of concern
to the higher education community given
that the California State University systems’
initial role and function was to educate and
train teachers for California schools.
Logical questions are:
• Why are candidates shifting away
from California State University programs
to more costly private/independent colleges
and universities?
• What is preventing the California
State University system from creating and
sustaining education and training programs
to serve as the primary source for all teacher
credentialing programs?
Diversity: Overall, the race or ethnic
distribution of teacher candidates enrolled
in the teacher preparation programs has
become more diverse in recent years. In
2008-09, 57 percent of those responding to
ethnicity information identified themselves
as White, 39 percent non-White, and four
percent two or more ethnic categories. In the
2016-17 report, nearly half (48 percent) of
those voluntarily providing ethnicity infor-
mation identified themselves as White, and
45 percent non-White (Hispanic/Latino 30
percent, Asian 8 percent, African American
5 percent, Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific
Islander 1 percent, and American Indian or
Alaska Native 1 percent)
Gender distribution: Approximately
three-fourths (71 percent) of those enrolled
in the initial teacher preparation program
were female and less than one-third (29
percent) were male.
Total teacher preparation candidates for
2016-17: The Title 2 enrollment data indi-
cates there has been a steady increase in the
past four years. Between 2015-16 and 2016-
17, there was an increase of about 2,500
candidates or 11.5 percent. There has been
an increase of about 3,900 candidates (by
19.6 percent) in the past five years.
Teacher competency
Since the Ryan Act of 1970, California
has required candidates to demonstrate
competency in the content area they will
teach. Historically, candidates have had two
options to demonstrate subject matter com-
petence; passage of a subject matter exami-
nation or completion of a commission-
approved subject matter preparation pro-
gram. Content knowledge is almost always
assessed prior to a candidate’s entry into a
program of professional preparation, and
verification of subject matter competency
is required prior to the commencement of
student teaching.
• CSET: Recent commission action
to approve institutions to offer elemen-
tary subject matter programs provide the
candidates the option of fulfilling subject
matter requirement through a commis-
sion-approved program now. Educational
Specialist program completers have the
option of taking CSET subject matter
exams in one of the core subjects. In 2016-
17, 74 percent of Single Subject credential
candidates used the subject matter examina-
tion option to demonstrate subject matter
expertise.
Multiple Subject program completers
can fulfill the subject matter require-
ment either by taking and passing CSET
Multiple Subjects exams or by attending a
commission-approved elementary subject
matter program.
• CBEST: Multiple subject, single sub-
ject, and education specialist teacher candi-
dates are required to satisfy the basic skills
requirement in order to obtain an initial
teaching credential. The California Basic
Educational Skills Test provides an assess-
ment of a candidate’s basic knowledge and
skills in reading, writing, and mathematics.
All candidates must pass the CBEST, or the
equivalent, before they can begin student
teaching.
• RICA: The RICA is designed spe-
cifically for testing professional knowledge
in the area of teaching reading, which is
typically acquired by candidates through
a program of professional preparation. All
multiple subject and special education prep-
aration programs are required to include
instruction in the teaching of reading in
their methodology coursework.
• Teacher Performance Assessment: The
Education Code allows for multiple ver-
sions of a teaching performance assessment
to be used, including both the Commission-
developed TPA and other TPA models
that meet the CTC’s Assessment Design
Standards. All TPA models include both
formative assessment as well as summative
assessment for each credential and must be
embedded into the preparation program.
Paid Advertisement
Subject matter requirements for
teaching credentials
Multiple subject, single subject, and
education specialist teaching credential
candidates must meet the subject matter
requirement prior to being assigned to a
classroom as an intern or a student teacher.
In California, a distinction is made between
the subject matter knowledge that serves
as a foundation for each type of teaching
credential issued by the commission and
the content- specific pedagogy and other
preparation completed as part of the teacher
preparation programs.
Current statute establishes candidates
are expected to demonstrate content knowl-
edge prior to acquiring pedagogical (how)
content knowledge. Accordingly, a candi-
date must demonstrate that he or she has
content knowledge of the subject they will
be teaching at a different time and within a
different program or examination than his/
her demonstration of knowledge of how
to teach that content effectively to K-12
students.
The distinction between development of
content knowledge and pedagogical content
knowledge has been the subject of debate in
California for many decades. The Fischer
Act of 1961 established the requirement
that teacher candidates complete an aca-
demic degree not in education followed by a
“fifth year of study” focused on pedagogical
preparation, and the Ryan Act of 1970 laid
the groundwork for the adoption of a statu-
tory requirement in 1976 that candidates
must pass subject matter examination prior
to completing preparation and earning a
preliminary teaching credential.
The decision whether to provide a sub-
ject matter program is an institutional deci-
sion and not all institutions choose to
develop a subject matter program.
For more information, please go to www.
ctc.ca.gov.