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By Joanne M. Haas
Today’s college students studying to join the ranks of Wisconsin’s
elementary and secondary teachers will lead their classrooms as licensed
professionals equipped with broader visions of their roles, greater
understanding of their strengths and weaknesses, and a deeper appreciation
of the school-community relationship.
That’s the aim of PI 34, Wisconsin’s new
state law for teacher preparation and licensing. Still in the implementation
phase on nearly all levels, the law officially took hold in 2000 when
the Legislature promulgated rules requiring higher education institutions
to rework all professional education programs to include performance-based
assessments and other requirements, including testing for content knowledge.
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“The whole philosophy of PI 34 is performance |
“(PI 34) is having a huge effect,” said
Ken Zeichner, the Hoefs-Bascom Professor of Teacher Education and an
associate dean at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. And, Zeichner
added, Wisconsin is not the only place where showing what you can do
in the classroom is taking priority over earning a pile of credits for
the title of certified professional teacher. “The same kind of
reform, performance-based assessments and content, is pretty much everywhere
for a variety of reasons, and I think really causing a lot of changes.”
JoAnne Caldwell, the associate dean of Cardinal Stritch
University, agrees. “It is very far-reaching,” Caldwell said,
adding the university has been working on PI 34’s requirements
for years and was ready for its enactment.
Caldwell said the 10 professional standards outlined
in PI 34 are closely aligned to those already in place at Cardinal Stritch.
“It wasn’t a shock to us,” she said. “Basically
we have revamped our total assessment system. It is no longer driven
by credits and courses. It is basically, ‘Can you do X-Y-Z?’”
Kathryn Lind, the DPI’s director of teacher education,
professional development and licensing, has been involved with PI 34
since the start, going back to 1993 when former State Superintendent
John Benson organized the first of two task forces that developed key
recommendations leading up to the law’s enactment.
DPI has always been involved with program approval
– carefully monitoring teacher training programs at higher education
institutions statewide. But what changed with PI 34 was how program
approval was judged. The new law demands that approval be based upon
10 basic standards, which are what a teacher needs to know and be able
to do to be successful.
“The whole philosophy of PI 34 is performance
rather than credits,” Lind said. “We need to look at what
each teacher should know and be able to do. We are now reviewing programs
based upon assessments.”
Under PI 34, each college with teacher training programs
is required to create an assessment system using the law’s standards.
“They have to show us how they are assessing their students and
at what point,” she said.
Those assessments are addressed in a student’s
portfolio, which the graduate shows to potential employers.
Lind said the creation of the student portfolios has
been a challenge for institutions. “Prior to PI 34, students didn’t
have to have a portfolio and didn’t have to take a content exam,”
she said.
Institutions have the flexibility under PI 34 to develop
preparation programs reflecting the unique missions, goals and structures
of that specific organization. Lind said institutions have been developing
assessment systems for the last several years. “They (students)
are going to be assessed continually throughout the program.”
The DPI performs on-site reviews of teacher preparation
programs once every five years. “All of the institutions will be
visited under the new system by 2005,” Lind said.
The first level of licensing under PI 34 is the Initial
Educator, a non-renewable five-year license held by new graduates. Lind
said the graduates who complete their coursework after August 31, 2004,
will be the first group of certified Initial Educators.
“The first real licenses won’t be issued
until December 2004,” Lind said. “The largest group of people
with that license will be in the fall of 2005. That’s when you
will feel the impact.”
Lind said while colleges and universities have had
to invest tremendous time to creating a system to fit PI 34, reaction
so far has been positive because it has allowed for intense scrutiny
of existing programs for their effectiveness.
Cardinal Stritch’s Caldwell said “once you
get over the initial shock” of what is expected of PI 34 –
meaning assessments, content testing and portfolios among the main items
– the institution’s staff jumped right in and “enjoyed”
the process.
Students are certified as Initial Educators upon graduation.
Once they are hired, they begin work on a Professional Development Plan
(PDP), which becomes the basis for relicensure as a Professional Educator,
the next five-year and renewable license of the three-tier PI 34 system.
Cardinal Stritch will gather student feedback after
the students enter the work force and use that information to refine
the assessment system. The next step for Stritch is “wrestling
with how can we support school districts with the professional development
plans,” Caldwell said. Current teachers may use a professional
development plan to renew five-year licenses, although the college credit
system will still be available.
Caldwell said university representatives are meeting
with area superintendents to “talk about how we can support”
the districts in their efforts to support and work with new and veteran
teachers.
UW-Madison’s Zeichner is also pleased with PI
34.
“This has added a layer of analysis ... teachers
being clearer about what they have accomplished, what they are, and
what they do,” Zeichner said. Graduates are not just completing
some generic programs; “they have specific goals,” he said.
Meeting the changes dictated by Wisconsin’s new
three-tiered teacher licensing law has not been easy. As Zeichner put
it, it isn’t like the factory assembly line that can shut down
for a day or two as a key part is replaced or an entire machine is retooled.
Colleges and universities have had to retool programs while educating
existing students progressing under the old licensing program.
The act of assessing student performances was already
in play. But
PI 34 made it much more organized, translating it into a living resource
-- the portfolio -- that the graduate may use to relicense while documenting
professional growth.
UW students may use an e-portfolio, in which they
can log and provide documentation as to how they are meeting the standards,
and that portfolio is shared electronically with professors.
“Overall, there are a lot of good things that
come with being clear about what is done and having the students take
more responsibility for their own assessments,” Zeichner said.
The process is far from completed, and will be refined as students graduate and feedback is collected. “There will be a period of transition. It is a major change,” he said. “We are moving ahead.”
PI 34 transforms teacher training
programs
Resource page on teacher licensing
Posted November 10, 2003