Fred Klonsky’s blog carries a post by retired educator Sandra Deines about a fateful decision in Illinois:
“Starting this fall Pearson will be in the business of deciding who becomes a teacher in the state of Illinois.
“The Illinois State Board of Education has adopted a rule that designates Pearson’s “edTPA” as the means by which student teachers will be evaluated and granted certification.
“As the fall semester begins, all student teachers in the state will be required to pay an extra $300 (on top of the tuition they are already paying) and arrange for videotaping so that they can submit a lengthy narrative that covers the planning, execution and evaluation of a series of lessons with one of their classes as well as a ten-minute video of themselves carrying out their lesson with a class.
“Student teachers are required to get parent permission for their children to be video-taped.
“Pearson owns the video.
“Once submitted to Pearson, an “evaluator” will apply rubrics and 2-3 hours of their time to decide whether or not the student teacher “passes” and can be licensed to teach by the State of Illinois.
“That’s right—no longer will the evaluations of cooperating teachers, university field instructors and education professors determine the success of a student teacher.”
To learn about how to resist the Pearson takeover of teacher certification in Illinois, read the test of the post.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
No surprise, given who Illinois’ governor is and, that the state’s largest city is governed by Mayor 1%.
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Pearson owns Washington State. edTPA and NES are both the gatekeepers to teaching here. Endorsements can now be added to teaching certificates simply by taking and passing a (Pearson) test. Pearson’s Envisions/Digits math is pushed in many districts.
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UK’s Pearson has invaded the United States and is obviously buying up U.S. elected leaders, who should all be labeled traitors. This is clearly an act of war. We are at War with the British Empire for the 3rd time. Instead of sending armies, the British are buying back America with lobbyists and bribes.
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American lobbyists are for sale to the highest bidder.
How much of Pearson stock is owned by the British? Mother Jones reported last fall, that the 3rd largest Pearson shareholder was the government of Libya. In 2011, the WSJ reported, the Arab Bank was a major stock holder.
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I appreciate knowing who owns American education. Libya! Arabians! And let’s not forget Turkish charter schools. My first teaching certificate was issued by the State of Illinois. It was nationally respected in the field, as was my undergraduate preparation at Millikin University, School of Music. WHAT is wrong with us??
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Not, “What is wrong with us?”
What is wrong with them, and I think we already know that answer.
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This is INSANITY to the MAX. But then, this is about $$$$$ and education DEFORMS. How HORRID. Lloyd, you are right.
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OMG
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Pearson owns Georgia as well. Sadly, and most infuriating, the same Pearson system is in place here. Lloyd, where is our REAL Tea Party revolt?
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….. and it IS INSANITY!! Plus a COLOSSAL waste of time!!!!!
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The Tea Party movement was funded by the Koch brothers who also want to see the public school dismantled but for different reasons than the neolibs and neocons. But that doesn’t matter because in the end, the results will be the same—no more democratic, transparent, non-profit public schools.
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In MA we are just now reviewing the latest release of CAP and Professional Standards (PST) for implementation in the teachers colleges. There are 6 elements and some indicators described and a cross walk between what was formerly expected and these newer ideas. What concerns me is alays “fuzzy ” concepts and varying opinions of what something actually means in practice (when you see it)…. A lot of discussion will ale place (at each college) and hopefully the kinks can be worked out…. but I am not sure if this model they have presented ties in with what NCLB and Racer have promulgated… preservice teachers and “seasoned” experienced teachers being evaluated at cross purposes— and with the public schools doing evaluations to fire people. The Lawrence Public Schools gave out evaluations in MAY and fired people baed on observations that recorded: “not rigorous” “no urgency”…. these are value judgements and they use horrific language that I peronally cannot substantiate in practice (given the CAP and PST models now coming from the State Department (DESE).. These two documents are in PDF format if anyone wants a copy from MA — to look over, review or comment….
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cx. I should have used the word “they” not “we ” as I don’t know how many people actually participated in the development…I know I didn’t and two of my colleagues (at separate colleges) are just seeing them for the first time now.
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A similar videotaping process was tried at one time in NY State. The teacher certification process grew more and more delayed as applicants awaited the results of their “review” by someone at the State Education Department. Finally, after an investigation into the delay uncovered stacks of the videotapes that had never been touched, much less reviewed, buried in a room in the State Education Department. The practice was finally abandoned and no one knows what happened to the videotapes. Obviously, whoever is advising the Illinois Board of Education is clueless regarding the history and efficacy of this practice. And adding the Pearson layer to the mix just adds insult to injury.
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And NY now uses Pearson edTPA, so we obviously didn’t learn. We were, in fact, the pilot state for the ed TPA experiment.
Therefore, in NY, Pearson owns it all, from teacher licensing to GED and everything in between.
Lord help us all.
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Reblogged this on David R. Taylor-Thoughts on Texas Education.
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So another reason not to go into teaching. Don’t worry, Pearson won’t make much off this. As ed schools decline in enrollment, the cost will be prohibitive. In fact, if anything could help TFA, this would be it. Just do your five weeks and avoid certification. Much easier.
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So the prospective teacher gets to pay $300 for his/her own noose. Lovely, eh!!
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And if they don’t pass?? Another $300, this time for a much needed sharpening of the blade, eh!!
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If I was a sane, intelligent senior in high school I’d never consider teaching. Unless I was also rich, otherwise in Illinois you’d end up indebted with a $300 fee as a cherry on the top of this mess. At least if you pay to take the bar, there is some chance you’ll be able to support yourself with your chosen field. Kids are catching on, they are not stupid.
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Who are the “graders” who sit for those 2-3 hours?? And ooohhh, oh boy some rubrics to use!! Ay ay ay. Insanity is as inanity does.
I’m sure Pearson will hire experienced teacher evaluators, eh!!
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And people think because a number is assigned to a subjective judgement that that makes the assessment objective?! And since teaching is a highly relational profession, the logic of having complete strangers make the decision as to whether someone is qualified to be a teacher escapes me.
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Quite correct 2o2t!
Hope all is going well in your neck of the woods!
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“complete strangers” who probably have never taught a day in their life—specially in an American school seeing as how these strangers probably work in the UK and are British citizens.
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EVERY single students’ parent should opt them out of the teacher evaluation videos that Pearson needs to certify the teachers. This will stop this still evaluation method dead in it’s tracks. I know I wouldn’t want my kids/grandkids in a video that our, personal, public school had no control over, would you?
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That is exactly what I’ll be doing, given the opportunity.
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TAG, cary! This was exactly my comment on Klonsky’s post! Not only to stop this nonsense, but to keep their children away from the eyes of Pear$on (a form of voyeurism, here?).
And we all know–this goes w/o saying–kids tend to act differently when they know they’re being videotaped or recorded (such as when the principal comes in to do an evaluation–unless they’re middle school kids or included B.D./E.D. sped students–they tend to be on their “best behavior,” so it’s not real).
Lastly, make sure you come back to this & the original Klonsky post–the comments keep rolling in, & they’re good ones.
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I’m horrified. Pearson is like a shadow authority governing our schools, but there is no administrative review process, no way to unseat it. Have all the DOES and legislatures been bought?
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The preceding comment is anti-Islamic hate speech and has absolutely nothing to do with the issue of edTPA that I posted on my blog and was linked to. I do not know what Diane’s protocols are for comments on her blog. It would be removed from mine.
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in the morning’s email : by Audrey Amsrein Beardsley
http://pareonline.net/getvn.asp?v=20&n=17
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The old adage, “Follow the money” couldn’t be truer than in this case. Prior to becoming the current governor of Illinois, Bruce Rauner was the Chairman of R8 Capital Partners and Chairman of the private equity firm GTCR, based in Chicago. GTCR has total assets of more than $11 million dollars. You can find out more about this charlatan in an article called Billionaire Bruce: Businessman Who Skirts The Rules & Doesn’t Pay Basic Fees (http://democraticgovernors.org/billionaire-bruce-businessman-who-skirts-the-rules-doesnt-pay-basic-fees/).
These are indeed scary times…almost makes me glad to live and teach in Indiana…well, not really…
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I find it interesting the misinformation that is continually exchanged when discussing edTPA.
@Duane and Lloyd who ask who evaluates edTPA – they are either current K-12 teachers or higher education faculty (so yes they are involved in education and many are current teachers). Half of them are K-12, half are from higher ed. Some are NBCT teachers who have scored NBCT.
There are some districts, including DC Public Schools, that are now asking job applicants to share a video of their teaching. There are various resources that show that having a teacher tape themselves and then reflect on their teaching can lead to better teaching:
https://www.teachingchannel.org/videos/improve-teaching-with-video
Yet, when teacher candidates are asked to participate in this with edTPA there is an outcry?
I wonder – do students still earn a grade for their student teaching at colleges in IL, NY or other states that tie edTPA to teacher certification? Does that grade include the voice of student supervisors, etc? If so, then their opinion IS important and not completely ignored.
@Shirley, you state: “At least if you pay to take the bar, there is some chance you’ll be able to support yourself with your chosen field” I think that proportionally the cost of the bar vs. money one can make as a lawyer may be similar to the $300 for edTPA to the money one can make as a teacher.
One has the right to disagree with edTPA. but at least have the facts correct. Hyperbole doesn’t do anyone any good in discussion.
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“There are some districts, including DC Public Schools, that are now asking job applicants to share a video of their teaching. ”
This has been one of the most contentious parts of the whole scheme….
If you look at the Beardsley article she discusses (among other things) how these strictures have oversimplified and reduced the ideas. It is the wrong paradigm.
This is a quote from Sloat as cited by Amrein-Beardsley “narrowing both content delivery and instructional variety/.. and reducing instiutiional flexibility and creativity ” as well as necessary risk taking in the context. And citing Amrein-Beardsley “advanced checklists in search of eating behaviors that likely matter… but do not necessarily excite expertise” therefore regressing teachers — the experienced, seasoned teachers who have developed expertise.
If you don’t know to what I refer it may be described as “clinical judgment”… it may be captured by Saphier in his work on classrooms and instructional practices; I don’t think it is well explained by the Don Schon Reflectve practitioner although he was describing some ideals (and I like his writings in general). The closest thing that comes to this for me is Oliver Sacks when he talks about actual cases and the expertise he built up and he had to understand ‘contingency theory”…. the nature and needs of student populations within an ongoing instructional context (Sacks would use patients where we say student).
Asking me to stick to a Danielson framework? or the Edtpa, or the new Massachusetts CPA — too rigid, reductionistic , over-simplified, … they are building data bases on the Harvard training programs that are supposed to be used by U MA and the public and private colleges in the state but I ask what if your rubrics are wrong???? Then the data are meaningless…
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