IACTE WEBSITE: CREATE AN ACCOUNT 

There is plenty of great news and information you can see on the IACTE website as an anonymous user of the site. However, there is a lot more behind the scenes, which is accessible by members only. As a member of the IACTE site, you will get:

• Detailed meeting agendas,
• Access to the IACTE online directory, and
• Access the IACTE forum.

This is just the beginning of many services for members who have registered with the site. If you are from one of the IACTE member institutions, apply for your account today!

All you need to do is provide some very brief information to verify your identity. Once you have completed a few short steps, your account application will be reviewed by the site administrator and approved within 24 hours. Once you login to the site, you will see all the features you have been missing!

The first IACTE meeting for the 2009-2010 academic year will be Friday, September 18th. The focus of the meeting will be to prepare for the public hearings and comments phase of the Rules for Educator Preparation and Accountability (REPA) promulgation. A copy of the public REPA draft is attached. You are encouraged to attend and to invite additional interested administrators and faculty. Also, we encourage individuals to bring along lap tops if available. The meeting details are:

WHEN: Friday, September, 18th
9:30 - 2:30 (Indianapolis Time)

WHERE: University of Indianapolis
Schwitzer Center Room 013
http://www.uindy.edu/maps/

CHARGE: $10/Person

RSVP: Please advise Jill Shedd (jshedd@indiana.edu) NO LATER THAN TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 15TH of your plans to attend and number of individuals coming from your institution

MEMBERS: Please see the "Events" section for a complete agenda.

The meeting of the Advisory Board for Thursday, September 3 at 10:00am will be in a NEW location.

Indiana State Library, History Reference Room , 2nd floor
315 West Ohio Street

Agenda
A. Call meeting to order.
B. Pledge of Allegiance
C. Approve minutes from the July 29th and August 20th meetings.
D. Dr. Bennett comments

Old Business
E. Review Rules for Educator Preparation and Accountability

New Business
F. ETS presentation on School Leaders exam

Public comment: Public comment is limited to 3 minutes in length.

Members of the IACTE Executive Committee will be making public comments; final drafts of those comments are being written presently.

REPA Update and IACTE Next Steps

A number of individuals attended the professional standards advisory board work session last week on August 20th. The majority of the questions involved licensing issues and little on teacher preparation. Attached is a document distributed by the Department of Education which outlines changes made thus far or anticipated. While some issues about teacher and administrator preparation were corrected there are several remaining concerns.

Also attached is a new IACTE position paper which is being sent to the Advisory Board this week. The IACTE Executive Committee has decided that it will be best that the Association focus on these main issues. It is so easy to get lost in the details. Please contact individual Advisory Board members regarding additional, individual matters if you are so inclined. Note: Advisory Board members are receiving a large number of e-mails about many topics. It will be important that any contact be direct, concise and include supportive data and/or rationale.

Education Curricula Requirements

An important remaining issue in the proposed rules concerns the limitations on education curricula. We wish to collect data from each institution re: your secondary and elementary programs. Currently, the proposed rules require that secondary majors earn a major determined by the department (DOE) to substantially apply to a content area...". Secondary candidates would complete only a minor in education, consisting of 18 credit hours plus student teaching. Advisory Board members have been advised that in fact secondary education or teaching majors are required to complete more credit hours in the content areas than students in the arts and sciences. IACTE wants to share data from ALL of our members to reinforce this fact.

With respect to elementary programs, the proposed rules include:

Response to Rules for Educator Preparation and Accountability (REPA)

Indiana Association of Colleges for Teacher Education 
August 17, 2009

Members of the Indiana Association of Colleges of Teacher Education (IACTE) are putting forward their own recommendations in light of the proposed changes in the Rules for Educator Preparation and Accountability (REPA) proposed by Indiana Superintendent of Public Instruction, Dr. Tony Bennett. We as teacher educators praise efforts to strengthen the support and evaluation of beginning teachers through the recommended three-year residency. Proposals to increase the principals' involvement in teachers' professional development structured to improve students' learning are also a positive move. The proposed rules simplify and streamline the license renewal process.

IACTE Response to REPA Proposals

Thanks to those of you who were able to attend our work session on August 6th. We had over 20 institutions represented and close to 50 individuals participate in the discussions.

Below is the message sent to each member of the Professional Standards Advisory Board along with these attachments. Work is being completed on a press release to be sent out Monday morning. As soon as we have it done, we will send a copy to each of you. We have been in conversations with the IAPSS (school superintendent association) about a possible joint press release, but have decided that individual ones will have the potential for greater impact.

Federal Race to the Top Guidelines

Members of the IACTE Executive Committee wanted to share with the membership the federal proposed guidelines for the "Race to the Top" funding. To be eligible for these "Race to the Top" funds is one reason provided for the proposed rule changes for teacher and administrator licensing in the state of Indiana. There are sections of the guidelines that I have highlighted; sections which seem relevant to the state of Indiana REPA proposed rules. Admittedly, these guidelines are interesting in their entirety as they may impact the direction of public education.

These guidelines, you will note, still are open for public comment, until August 28th and are not final.

Rules for Educator Preparation and Accountability REPA

We have work to do! Teacher education was represented well at the Professional Standards Advisory Board, and the leadership provided by our higher education representatives was excellent. The Board tabled its vote to forward proposed rules for revisions to educator preparation to allow Board members time to read through the materials and proposals. The Advisory Board will be meeting again in a work session on August 20th at 10:00.

IACTE will host a meeting on Thursday, August 6th on the campus of the University of Indianapolis to review the proposed rule revisions, to identify concerns/issues, AND to discuss proposals/alternatives that we might provide. The proposed rules are attached.

NOTE TIME CHANGE - July 29 - Office of Educator Licensing and Development Advisory Board Meeting

PLEASE note that the time of the OELD Advisory Board meeting has been changed for Wednesday, July 29th. The NEW time for the meeting will be 1:00 in the Riley Room of the Indiana Department of Education at 151 West Ohio Street.

To date, the agenda for the meeting has not been posted, so the IACTE Executive Committee is not planning to make any formal remarks at the meeting, though the Executive Committee will be well represented. The Executive Committee has shared with the three higher education representatives on the Advisory Board issues for additional information and clarification related to four topics, listed below, which may be on the agenda July 29th.