Certification Examination Development
| To: | Deans/Directors of Institutions of Higher Education Offering Teacher Preparation and/or School Leadership Programs; Other Interested Parties |
| From: | John L. D’Agati, Deputy Commissioner of Office of Higher Education |
| Date: | December 3, 2012 |
| Subject: | Certification Examination Development |
(103KB) As we continue moving toward the implementation of our new teacher and school building leader certification requirements, I would like to provide you with information about upcoming assessment development activities for the New York State Teacher Certification Examinations (NYSTCE) and the edTPA.
As you know, New York State, as part of the Regents Reform Agenda, will be requiring new and revised teacher assessments for initial teacher certification. These include the edTPA, the Academic Literacy Skills Test (ALST) and the Educating All Students (EAS) test. The assessments for initial school building leader certification include the Educating All Students test and an updated School Building Leader (SBL) assessment. Each of these assessments has been aligned to reflect increased rigor and the Common Core Learning Standards. For additional information regarding the new assessments, please see www.nystce.nesinc.com/NY_annProgramUpdate.asp.
Upcoming Field Tests
Starting in January 2013, these assessments, including the edTPA, are scheduled to be field tested in New York State. I would like to encourage you to participate in these field tests as they provide an excellent opportunity for students and faculty to learn about and become familiar with these new assessments. We are hoping that a wide variety of students studying in each of the certification areas will participate. There is no charge to the student for participating in any of the field tests.
Data from the field testing of the Academic Literacy Skills Test, Educating All Students test, and School Building Leader assessment will be used to finalize the pool of items that will be eligible for inclusion on test forms beginning in September 2013. Data from the edTPA field tests, along with data from the national field test for the edTPA, will be shared and reviewed by a committee of New York educators in the summer of 2013 helping to ensure the accuracy and validity of the assessment. You will receive further information about opportunities to participate in these field tests.
Testing Center Recruitment
The field testing for the Academic Literacy Skills Test, Educating All Students test, and School Building Leader assessment will only be available at Pearson VUE Professional Centers and Pearson VUE Authorized Test Centers. I would like to encourage you to consider becoming a Pearson VUE authorized test center. Becoming an authorized test center would allow your students to take field tests and operational NYSTCE tests on your campus.
There are several benefits to serving as a computer-based testing center for the NYSTCE assessments, including:
- providing the convenience of testing on-campus to your students and other NYSTCE examinees in the surrounding community;
- offering flexibility to candidates in scheduling to optimize testing dates and times; and
- utilizing existing facilities for testing.
Pearson will send you an email in the near future to inquire about your institution’s interest in becoming a test center to administer the NYSTCE certification assessments. At that time they will provide more detailed information about how to become a test center.
If you have a question concerning teacher certification or which tests to take to become certified, please send an email to TCERT@nysed.gov.
If you have a question concerning how the teacher certification tests are developed, please send an email to emscassessinfo@nysed.gov.
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