CCSSO State Consortium on Educator Effectiveness scee.groupsite.com

On September 27 and 28, SCEE will hold a Topical Meeting on Educator Preparation and Entry into the Profession at the Charlotte Marriot City Center in Charlotte, North Carolina. A departure from more traditional meetings involving attending sessions and listening to experts, this meeting offers participants an opportunity to provide input regarding key policy and practice levers regarding teacher and leader preparation. In addition to SCEE Team members, for the first time, almost 20 current and former state Teachers of the Year will join the conversation. They bring with them relevant background and interests as well as fresh experiences from the field that will be valuable to the conversations throughout the two-day meeting.

Soon after being elected as President of the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO), Tom Luna, Superintendent of Public Instruction in the State of Idaho, called for the creation of a Task Force committed to ensuring states' proactive leadership in creating an education workforce that is prepared to positively impact all students' achievement upon their entry into classrooms and schools, regardless of where they teach. The Task Force is comprised of seven current chief state school officers and three former chiefs, several of whom have experiences as leaders in P-12 and education preparation.  The result is a report, Our Responsibility, Our Promise:Transforming Educator Preparation and Entry into the Profession, which participants at the SCEE Topical Meeting will have the opportunity to review closely and offer their insights and responses. 

"If we are to assist students in achieving their potential...then making fundamental changes to our policies and practices that determine the vision, preparation, and practice of teaching and leading is imperative" ( Our Responsibility, Our Promise: Transforming Educator Preparation and Entry into the Profession, p. 2).  Recognizing that recent education reforms are driving significant changes in the system of education, the Topical Meeting offers an opportunity to address an area that is still striving to address how to prepare teachers and leaders to help students reach higher levels of success and attainment. 

These responses will help to further refine the report, which explores the issue of teacher and leader preparation through four key levers: licensure, program approval, assessment of candidates to determine readiness, and data collection and reporting.