05- 071 C.M.R. ch. 114, § 1
The preparation of educators cannot be a static process in an ever-changing environment. Maine higher education units with programs that have been approved for this purpose are expected to be dynamic, to strive for continuous improvement, and to utilize the outcomes of new knowledge, practices, and technologies. They are expected to be involved in a process by which faculty and administrators, in collaboration with practitioners, are thinking and talking about the preparation of teachers and other educators. They are expected to be committed to assuring that teacher candidates are prepared with the knowledge and skills necessary to assist Maine students to meet Maine's Learning Standards. They are expected to collect and analyze data about their effectiveness, and make changes to improve their programs. They are expected to be engaged in ongoing self-assessment in which they assess the needs of schools and candidates, identify potential problems and points of vulnerability, and develop strategies for becoming more effective. They are expected to be in a transitional mode where an early and on-going emphasis upon clinical practice experiences becomes the norm. The evolving world of education and educational reform demands the continuous development of education programs. For this reason, state program approval must be initially conducted and periodically revisited.
A preparation program for education personnel must meet the state adopted standards and be authorized as an accredited degree-granting unit to recommend its graduates for certification. All units preparing educators for certification must have State approved programs. Successful completion of an approved program entitles an individual to be recommended for certification in the appropriate categories for which the unit is approved.
Following a unit's initial approval to offer educator preparation programs, approval must be reaffirmed every five (5) or seven (7) years, so long as a unit continues to satisfy the standards and requirements as established by the Maine State Board of Education as demonstrated in an annual Program Update as described in Section 4.4(1).
The State Board of Education and the Department of Education are committed to promoting the development of innovative and collaborative practices in programs for the preparation of educator personnel. The six program approval standards encourage innovations and interactive practices in such areas as gender equity, cultural diversity, involvement of parents and community and to preparing education personnel. Additionally, the Board and the Department clearly support innovation in unit/school relationships in areas such as collaborative program development, and school-and classroom-based research. These innovative and collaborative approaches must be evident in unit policies and practices.
The Maine State Board of Education has formally adopted and recognizes that the Maine Learning Standards are built on the following Guiding Principles.
Each student must leave school as:
A clear and effective communicator A self-directed and lifelong learner A creative and practical problem solver A responsible and involved citizen An integrative and informed thinkerThe Maine State Board of Education's vision for schools in Maine includes:
Personal learning plans that target each student's individual and common learning goals that will, throughout his or her school career, lead toward Maine's Guiding Principles and the goals that are built around Maine's Learning Standards following a timeline for learning that is individualized. Processes in place which allow students to reach the goals identified in the personal learning plan; teams of teachers, at all levels, who have sufficient time and resources to learn, to plan, and to confer with individual students, colleagues and families. Creating assessments of individual student progress based on multiple measures, using both formative and summative assessments. Resources, such as after-school programs, technology resources and training every student and educator, professional learning communities, professional development, rubrics to establish shared expectations, and ongoing collaborations between parents and educators. School environments where learning governs the allocation of time, space, facilities, services and individual timelines.The following definitions refer to the specific use of terms in this Chapter only as they relate to the program review and approval process for certification of education personnel.
Accreditation:
A process for assessing and enhancing academic and educational quality through voluntary peer review; also the decision rendered by an accrediting agency when an institution/agency or professional education unit meets its standards and requirements.
Accredited:
When an educational institution meets required standards or accepted criteria of quality in its educational program as established by a regional or national accrediting agency that is recognized by the US Secretary of Education.
ACT Exam:
The ACT (American College Test) is a national college admission and placement exam that assesses high school students' general educational development and their ability to complete college-level work.
Administrator:
An administrator is a leader in a district, school building or program area who focuses on improved learning by managing, supervising, mentoring and evaluating professional staff and by overseeing programs, curriculum, instruction, and student assessment. He/she is an individual certified to provide services in any of the following capacities: superintendent, assistant superintendent, principal, assistant principal, teaching principal, administrator of special education, assistant administrator of special education, administrator of career and technical education, assistant administrator of career and technical education, curriculum coordinator/instructional supervisor, director of adult and community education, or assistant director of adult and community education.
Advanced Program:
A professional education program leading to certification offered at a level other than for P-12 provisional or professional teacher or administrator certification at the post-baccalaureate level designed for the continuing education of teachers who have previously completed an initial preparation program or for the preparation of other school personnel. Advanced preparation programs award graduate credit at the masters, specialist, and doctoral degree levels as well as non-degree licensure programs offered at the graduate level.
Alternate Route Program:
An organized, performance-and-standards-based professional preparation and support program leading to initial teacher certification. A participant in such a program has an appropriate undergraduate degree or non-traditional preparation path designed for individuals who did not prepare as educators during their undergraduate studies. These programs or paths lead to initial teacher certification, often in teacher shortage areas. A participant in an alternate route program or path will have earned an appropriate undergraduate degree.
Alternate Route Teacher Candidate:
An individual with a minimum of a bachelor's degree in a content field or a degree that supports the academic content knowledge of the teaching field for which the individual is seeking initial certification, but whose undergraduate or graduate work did not include pedagogical knowledge and skills. The alternate route teacher candidate will not have held an initial teaching certificate before.
Approved Program:
A professional education program developed and offered by a unit that includes a Maine college or university that has been assessed by a review team utilizing the standards contained within Chapter 114 and authorized by the Maine State Board of Education to prepare PK-12 educators. (See definition of "unit" below).
Assessment System :
A comprehensive and integrated set of evaluation measures that provide information for use in monitoring candidate performance and managing and improving unit operations and programs for the preparation of professional educators.
Basic Skills Assessment:
Before a traditional or non-traditional student can be admitted to candidacy status in a state approved teacher education program, he/she must take and successfully pass the rigorous basic skills assessment as defined by the Maine State Board of Education.
CAEP:
Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation (CAEP) is the national professional accrediting body for educator preparation programs.
Candidacy Status:
The designation assigned to a student who has taken and successfully passed the PRAXIS I exam or its equivalent, rigorous basic skills assessment as defined by the Maine State Board of Education, and any other institutional benchmarks.
Candidates:
Individuals admitted to, or enrolled in, programs for the initial or advanced preparation of teachers, teachers continuing their professional development, or other professional school personnel. Candidates are distinguished from "students" in PK-12 schools.
Candidate Performance Data:
Information derived from assessments of candidate proficiencies in areas of teaching and effects on student learning, candidate knowledge and dispositions. Candidate performance data may be derived from a wide variety of sources, such as projects, essays or tests demonstrating subject content mastery, employer evaluations, state licensure tests and mentoring year "portfolios," as well as assessments, projects, reflections, clinical observations and other evidence of pedagogical and professional teaching proficiencies.
Commissioner:
The Commissioner of the Department of Education or a designee.
Clinical Experiences:
Direct experiences for candidates in PK-12 schools, including field experiences, prior to student teaching or internship; internships for preparation programs other than teacher preparation; and student teaching.
Clinical Faculty:
Higher education faculty responsible for instruction, supervision, and assessment of candidates during field experience and clinical practice.
Clinical Focus of Program:
In the redesign of educator preparation programs there is the expectation that an early, expanded, and on-going emphasis will be placed upon clinical practice experiences and that these experiences will become the norm.
Common Core State Standards - CCSS :
Performance-based norms, aligned with college and work expectations, as well as being internationally benchmarked, define the knowledge and skills that students must develop within their PK-12 education careers so that they will graduate from high school able to succeed in entry-level, credit-bearing academic college courses and in workforce training programs.
Conceptual Framework:
A conceptual framework(s) establishes the shared vision for a unit's efforts in preparing educators to work in PK-12 schools. It provides direction for programs, courses, teaching, candidate performance, scholarship, service, and unit accountability. The conceptual framework(s) is knowledge-based, articulated, widely shared, coherent, consistent with the unit and/or unit mission, and continuously evaluated. The conceptual framework(s) provides the unit's intellectual philosophy.
Content Area Methods:
A grade level and subject area specific course, integrating pedagogy and content, offered as a component of an approved teacher preparation program.
Content Knowledge:
Understanding of the central concepts, methods of inquiry, and structures of a subject area.
Cooperating Teachers:
Certified school-based faculty who advise, supervise, and assist with the evaluation of unit candidates placed with them during field experiences, practical, and clinical practice.
Department:
Maine Department of Education.
Dispositions:
The values, commitments and professional ethics that influence behaviors toward students, families, colleagues, and communities and affect student learning, motivation, and development as well as the educator's own professional growth. Dispositions are guided by beliefs and attitudes related to values such as caring, fairness, honesty, responsibility, and social justice.
Diversity:
Differences among groups of people and individuals based on age, race, culture, ethnicity, experiences, socioeconomic status, gender, language, exceptionalities, religion, sexual orientation, learning style, and geographic region in which they live.
Educator:
A person involved in PK-12 education that requires certification including, but not limited to teachers, administrators and specialists; or 2) a person in a higher education institution with responsibility for educator preparation programs.
Education Personnel:
Persons employed in PK-12 educational settings in an instructional or instructional support capacity requiring certification or authorization in accordance with the provisions of Maine Department of Education Regulation Chapter 115.
Educational Specialist:
School-based personnel with job designations in one or more of the following capacities: athletic director; school counselor; library-media specialist; literacy specialist; school psychological service provider psychologist; school nurse; special education consultant; speech and language clinician; or career and technical education evaluator.
Exceptionalities:
Physical, mental, or emotional conditions, including gifted/talented abilities, that requires individualized instruction and/or other educational support or services.
Exhibit:
Materials that are presented by the unit to the Review Team during the site visit including the conceptual framework(s), self assessment, supporting documents and other materials and evidence prepared by the unit for the site visit .
Faculty:
Professional education faculty members who are employed by higher education units and PK-12 school faculty who supervise clinical practice.
Field Experiences:
A variety of early and on-going field-based opportunities in which candidates may observe, assist, tutor, instruct, and/or conduct research. Field experiences may occur in off-campus settings such as schools, community centers or homeless shelters that are designed to permit pre-service candidates to engage in observation of teachers in a classroom setting and to assume progressive levels of teaching responsibility that shall take place prior to the culminating student teaching experience.
General Education Program:
The component of the college or university baccalaureate degree program that emphasizes the study of the behavioral and social sciences, fine arts, humanities, natural sciences, and mathematics.
Governance:
The system and structure for defining policy, providing leadership, and managing and coordinating the procedures and resources that ensure the quality of all school personnel prepared at the unit.
GRE Exam:
The Graduate Record Examination (GRE) is a standardized test that is an admissions requirement for many graduate schools in the United States. It aims to measure verbal reasoning, quantitative reasoning, analytical writing and critical thinking skills that have been acquired over a long period of time - not related to any specific field of study.
Higher Education Institution:
An accredited institution approved by the state to grant baccalaureate and/or graduate degrees that offers programs for the professional preparation of educators.
Indicators:
A knowledge, skill or ability used to demonstrate mastery of a designated standard. The operational definitions that define the evidence that professional education programs will provide to demonstrate that a standard is met.
Initial Program:
The program that when completed qualifies an individual for his or her first certification as a P-12 teacher. A program that prepares candidates at the baccalaureate or post-baccalaureate level for their first certification as a PK-12 teacher, specialist, or school leader.
InTASC
The Interstate Teacher Assessment and Support Consortium (InTASC) is a project of the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) that has developed model performance-based standards and assessments for the certification of teachers which are known as the "Common Core Teaching Standards".
ISLLC:
Interstate School Leaders Licensure Consortium, a source of national standards for school administrators developed by the Council of Chief School Officers (CCSSO).
Institutional Standards:
Candidate knowledge, skills and dispositions identified by the institution to reflect its mission and the unit's conceptual framework.
Instructional Technologies:
The study of computer/technology operations and concepts, the personal and professional uses of technology, the application of technology in instruction, specialty content preparation in educational computing and technology literacy, and the uses of technology-based productivity tools to support instruction and student learning. Technology operations and concepts that include the application of technology in instruction; specialty content preparation in educational computing; technology literacy, and the uses of technology-based productivity tools to support instruction and student learning.
Learning Community:
A learning community consists of program stakeholders whose members share accountability for supporting the distinct learning needs of one another and for advancing the knowledge of the community.
Knowledge Bases:
The research and theoretical bases upon which a program of study in professional education is founded. Examples might include: empirical research; action research; disciplined inquiry, and informed theory.
Local Support Team (LST):
A Local Support Team (LST) is established in a school administrative unit where a teacher candidate is employed. The LST exists to support such candidates as they pedagogically prepare to qualify for initial teacher certification. LSTs are comprised of a school-based administrator; a school-based mentor or teaching coach; a supervisor employed by the non-traditional preparation path provider; and a content specialist (if either the mentor or supervisor are not also a content specialist in the candidate's teaching field).
Maine Learning Results Standards:
These are the Maine PK-12 Maine Kindergarten-Grade 12 student standards which identify the knowledge and skills that are essential to prepare students for work, for higher education, for citizenship, and for personal fulfillment.
Major:
A field of study in which a candidate completes an academic specialization as part of an approved program leading to certification.
Mentor :
A professional teacher, master teacher, administrator, educational specialist or other educator from inside or outside the school unit who may perform functions of support for an initial educator.
Minor:
A field of study in which a candidate completes an academic specialization as part of an approved program leading to certification in addition to the major.
NETS
The National Educational Technology Standards (NETS) are a set of standards published by the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) for the purpose of leveraging the use of technology in K-12 education. There are three groupings: NETS.S - student technology standards; NETS.T - teacher technology standards; and NETS.A - Administrator technology standards.
NCATE:
The National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE) is a national professional accrediting body for educator preparation programs.
Non-Traditional Teacher Preparation Paths:
Alternate teacher preparation paths which prepare individuals with a minimum of a four-year bachelor's degree, or a verifiable equivalent, in a content field that supports the academic content knowledge of the content field for which the individual is seeking initial teacher certification, but whose undergraduate or graduate work did not include pedagogical knowledge and skills. Alternate teacher preparation path candidates will not have held an initial teaching certificate before.
Non-Traditional Preparation Path Provider:
Any Maine State Board of Education approved professional education unit that accommodates the preparation needs of alternate route teacher candidates and supervises their instruction as they seek to acquire the necessary pedagogical skills to qualify for initial teacher certification.
Paraprofessional:
An educational technician who assists appropriately certified personnel with the supervision of PK-12 pupil activities.
Pedagogical Content Knowledge:
An integration of teacher understanding that combines content (subject matter), pedagogy (instructional methods), and learner characteristics (cultural backgrounds, prior knowledge, and experiences) - in its simplest form, it is the knowledge of how to teach a subject.
Pedagogical Knowledge:
An understanding of learning, human development, professional ethics, motivational techniques, cultural and individual differences, instructional strategies, classroom management, and assessment strategies that have an impact on the learner designed to have a positive impact on learners.
Performance Assessment:
A comprehensive assessment through which candidates demonstrate their proficiencies in subject, professional and pedagogical knowledge, and skills including their abilities to have positive effects on student learning.
Performance-Based Program:
A professional preparation program that systematically gathers, analyzes, and uses data for self-improvement and candidate advisement; especially data that demonstrate candidate proficiencies, including positive effects on student learning (also referred to as Proficiency-Based Program).
Performance Criteria:
Descriptions or rubrics that specify qualities or levels of candidate proficiency and are used to evaluate candidate performance.
PLT Exam:
The Principles of Learning and Teaching (PLT) Exam is the set of standardized tests that individuals seeking to be certified to teach in the state of Maine must successfully pass, if they have not completed a state approved educator preparation program offered by a regionally accredited institution. The exam measures both general and subject-specific knowledge and teaching skills.
Portfolio:
A collection of artifacts designed to demonstrate mastery of a set of professionally accepted standards for teaching.
Practicum:
A supervised experience in a school, clinic or other setting which provides practical applications of theory and experience for candidates in approved programs is designed especially for the preparation of education candidates that involves the practical application of previously studied theory under the supervision of professional education faculty. When referring to more than one practicum the word practica is used.
Pre-Candidacy Status:
The pre-admission status of a traditional or non-traditional student who is admitted to a state approved teacher education program but has not yet taken and passed the required rigorous basic skills assessment as defined by the Maine State Board of Education.
Preparation Program:
A series or combination of courses, related instructional services and practicuma, internship or other student experience designed to meet the academic and professional requirements necessary to establish eligibility for certification as a teacher, administrator or educational specialist.
Professional Community:
The full-and-part-time faculty (including clinical faculty) in the professional education unit; the faculty in other units of the college/university; the PK-12 practitioners; the candidates; and others involved in professional education.
Professional Education Faculty:
Those individuals who teach one or more courses designed to meet essential competencies for certification endorsement areas as well as provide services to education candidates (e.g., advising or supervising student teaching) or administer some portion of the education program.
Professional Educator:
A person qualified to hold a PK-12 certificate as a teacher, administrator or a specialist as defined in Maine Department of Education Regulation Chapter 115 and who demonstrates, through performance, the knowledge, skills, and abilities to improve student learning.
Proficiencies:
Required knowledge, skills and dispositions identified in the professional, state, national, or institutional standards.
Proficiency-Based Program:
A professional preparation program that systematically gathers, analyzes, and uses data for self-improvement and candidate advisement; especially data that demonstrate candidate proficiencies, including positive effects on student learning (also referred to as Performance-Based Program).
Program Approval Process:
Process by which a state governmental agency reviews a professional education program to determine if it meets the state's standards for the preparation of school personnel. A process for assessing and enhancing academic and education quality through peer review, to assure the public that a professional education unit and/or program has met the state's standards for the preparation of school personnel.
Program Completer:
A candidate who, by successfully completing all of a state approved educator preparation program's requirements, has qualified for a recommendation for certification.
Review Team:
A team of educators recommended to the State Board of Education by the Commissioner for the tasks of: visiting the unit seeking program approval or renewal; applying the program standards against the information gathered and submitted by the unit; and making a recommendation to the State Board, through the Commissioner, as to whether the unit has successfully met, or continues to meet the standards for program approval.
Rubrics:
Criteria for judging performance that indicate the qualities by which levels of performance can be differentiated, and that anchor judgments about the degree of proficiency on a given standard. In a standards-based system the rubric (or scale) is used at each level of content and for each reporting or measurement topic.
Scholarship:
Systematic inquiry into the areas related to teaching, learning and the education of teachers and other school personnel. Scholarship includes traditional research and publication as well as the rigorous and systematic study of pedagogy and the application of current research findings in new settings. Scholarship further presupposes submission of one's work for professional review and evaluation.
School:
An institution serving any of the grades pre-kindergarten through 12 PK-12.
School Partners:
PK-12 schools that collaborate with the higher education institution in designing, developing and implementing field experiences, clinical practice, delivery of instruction and research.
School Leader:
An administrator whose position requires possession of an administrative certificate.
Self-Assessment:
The unit's information and data as to how showing how it has met the six program standards. The self-assessment document may also include other relevant information and data as may be necessary to support the program's request for approval or renewal.
Semester Hour:
15 contact hours or the equivalent spent in an approved preparation program or in a course offered by an accredited institution of higher education.
Standard:
A standard is a candidate proficiency norm or a unit requirement to be met by candidates during the implementation of preparation programs for education personnel.
Standards-Based System:
A performance-based system that is centered around a defined number of learning levels; where students advance through the system by demonstrating proficiency at each level; where standards are used to guide the curriculum; where student progress is measured and used to determine advancement;where students advance through the system at their own pace; and where learning is the constant and time is the variable. Such systems may also be referred to as Performance-Based or Proficiency-Based.
Standards-Referenced System:
An organized system based on traditional grade levels; where students advance through the system at the same pace as other students of the same age; where students will advance with varying levels of knowledge and skills; where standards are used to guide curriculum and measure student progress; where some promotion decisions may be made based on standards; and where time is the constant and learning is variable.
Student Teaching:
Classroom practice A clinical practice or internship that provides candidates with an intensive and extensive culminating activity t Through observation, participation, and actual teaching, under the direction of a college or university supervisor of student teachers and by a cooperating teacher as a part of the professional education program offered by an institution with an approved educator preparation program candidates are immersed in the learning community and provided opportunities to develop and demonstrate competence in the professional roles for which they are preparing.
TEAC:
The Teacher Education Accreditation Council (TEAC) is a national professional accrediting body for educator preparation programs.
Teacher:
An individual who is eligible for employment as a member of a PK-12 school's professional staff with responsibility for planning, delivering and evaluating instruction which is primarily delivered in a classroom or vocational setting; but, this definition does not include the educational specialist.
Teacher of Record:
A person An educator employedby a School Administrative Unit (SAU) or an approved private school who is issued a standard contract for teachers and has been so identified in the SAU's or approved private school's staff information system as required by the Maine Department of Education is responsible for a specified proportion of a student's learning activities that are within a subject or course and are aligned to performance measures.
Technology Education:
The study of technology which provides an opportunity for students to learn about the processes and knowledge related to technology that are needed to solve problems.
Technology, Use of:
What candidates must know and understand about information technology in order to use it in working effectively with students and professional colleagues in the (1) delivery, development, prescription and assessment of instruction; (2) problem solving; (3) school and classroom administration; (4) educational research; (5) electronic information access and exchange; and (6) personal and professional productivity.
Transcript Analysis:
The process whereby a prospective educator submits official undergraduate and/or graduate records concerning all courses for which academic credit has been received for evaluation of compliance with certification requirements as contained in Maine Department of Education Regulation Chapter 115.
Unit:
For the purposes of this chapter, a unit must meet either definition A or B:
Unit Head:
The individual officially designated to provide leadership for the unit (e.g., dean, director or chair), with the authority and responsibility for its overall administration and operation.
05- 071 C.M.R. ch. 114, § 1