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Teacher certification requires balance Finding the right balance between encouraging participation and recognising the best will be a key challenge to implementing an Australian teacher certification system, according to an international expert in teacher assessment. Dr Drew Gitomer, Director of the Understanding Teaching Quality Centre at the Educational Testing Service in the USA, this week presented a series of workshops for staff at the Australian Council for Education Research (ACER) on recent developments in teacher assessment. Speaking on day four of the five day workshop program, Dr Gitomer said there is a tension between encouraging participation at the ‘highly accomplished’ certification level and selecting appropriately high standards so that you are recognising the very best. “One of the concerns (in the USA) that were raised by our research was whether the standards were indeed high enough,” said Gitomer. “Was the bar set high enough to differentiate highly accomplished teachers from accomplished teachers?” “The question is; if you try to move the bar to differentiate people more clearly, will you still have the participation?” ACER drew upon Dr Gitomer’s wealth of experience in developing and implementing assessment systems for teachers in the USA to further enhance ACER’s capacity to develop and operate standards-based systems for the assessment of teacher professional knowledge and performance. Teacher certification is a current focus area for educational policy-makers. Based on the findings of the 2009 report by ACER Chief Executive Officer Professor Geoff Masters, A Shared Challenge: Improving Literacy, Numeracy and Science Learning in Queensland Primary Schools, the Queensland government is introducing a pre-registration test for aspiring primary teachers. Under the Queensland Education Performance Review, from 2011 all teaching graduates will need to pass the beginning teacher certification assessment before they can register with the Queensland College of Teachers and take up a classroom position. During this year’s election campaign, the federal Labor Government announced that bonuses will be paid to highly accomplished teachers in 2014, based on their performance in 2013. To do this the teacher certification systems that identify highly accomplished teachers need to be developed, tested and ready for implementation within the next two to three years. Dr Gitomer believes that successful implementation of a teacher certification system requires partnerships, commitment, and a staggered roll-out. “If it was easy, it would have been done already.” « Back to eNews
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Finding the right balance between encouraging participation and recognising the best will be a key challenge to implementing an Australian teacher certification system, according to an international expert in teacher assessment.

Dr Drew Gitomer, Director of the Understanding Teaching Quality Centre at the Educational Testing Service in the USA, this week presented a series of workshops for staff at the Australian Council for Education Research (ACER) on recent developments in teacher assessment.

Speaking on day four of the five day workshop program, Dr Gitomer said there is a tension between encouraging participation at the ‘highly accomplished’ certification level and selecting appropriately high standards so that you are recognising the very best.

“One of the concerns (in the USA) that were raised by our research was whether the standards were indeed high enough,” said Gitomer. “Was the bar set high enough to differentiate highly accomplished teachers from accomplished teachers?”

“The question is; if you try to move the bar to differentiate people more clearly, will you still have the participation?”

ACER drew upon Dr Gitomer’s wealth of experience in developing and implementing assessment systems for teachers in the USA to further enhance ACER’s capacity to develop and operate standards-based systems for the assessment of teacher professional knowledge and performance.

Teacher certification is a current focus area for educational policy-makers.

Based on the findings of the 2009 report by ACER Chief Executive Officer Professor Geoff Masters, A Shared Challenge: Improving Literacy, Numeracy and Science Learning in Queensland Primary Schools, the Queensland government is introducing a pre-registration test for aspiring primary teachers.

Under the Queensland Education Performance Review, from 2011 all teaching graduates will need to pass the beginning teacher certification assessment before they can register with the Queensland College of Teachers and take up a classroom position.

During this year’s election campaign, the federal Labor Government announced that bonuses will be paid to highly accomplished teachers in 2014, based on their performance in 2013.

To do this the teacher certification systems that identify highly accomplished teachers need to be developed, tested and ready for implementation within the next two to three years.

Dr Gitomer believes that successful implementation of a teacher certification system requires partnerships, commitment, and a staggered roll-out.

“If it was easy, it would have been done already.”

Teacher certification requires balance