Public Comment Spring 2024 – Professional Standards for Teachers and Candidate Assessment of Performance Guidelines

We Want YOUR Feedback 
Through this survey, we hope to gather input about the draft Guidelines for the Professional Standards for Teachers and the draft Guidelines for the Candidate Assessment of Performance. The survey will remain open through June 2nd, 2024 at 11:59pm.

Anyone is welcome to provide feedback, but the Guidelines are particularly relevant for: 

• educator preparation leaders and faculty 
• program supervisors 
• supervising practitioners 
• PK-12 administrators  
• classroom teachers 
• recent preparation program completers 

Thank you in advance for taking the time to consider the individual impact these policies might have for you as well as their potential impact statewide. Your responses will directly inform how evidence-based practices, including anti-racist and culturally and linguistically sustaining practices, are emphasized and evaluated in educator preparation programs across Massachusetts. They will ultimately impact all new teachers who complete these programs and the PK-12 students in their care.

 

Context 
Professional Standards for Teachers (PSTs)

• Define the knowledge and skills required of all teachers as they complete preparation programs in Massachusetts.  
• Determine which practices are emphasized and evaluated in coursework and field-based experiences.  
• Mirror the Standards for Effective Teaching Practice and Model Rubric for Teacher Evaluation to align expectations from preparation throughout teachers’ careers. 

Candidate Assessment of Performance (CAP) 

• Assesses teacher candidates’ readiness in relation to the PSTs to ensure they are ready to be effective on day one in the classroom. 
• Measures teacher candidates' practice across a range of key elements and supports them in improving their practice based on the results.  
• Successful completion of CAP is required to finish all teacher preparation programs in Massachusetts. 

Updates to the PST and CAP Guidelines 

• DESE is updating the PST and CAP Guidelines to ensure continued alignment between expectations for pre-service and in-service teachers that center evidence-based practices, including those that are anti-racist and culturally and linguistically sustaining, that support all students to attain academic knowledge and skills, understand and value themselves and others, and engage with the world.  
• DESE collected feedback from over 200 stakeholders from across Massachusetts and partnered closely with a working group of educator preparation faculty and leaders, program supervisors, supervising practitioners, recent completers, and other PK-12 representatives to update the Guidelines during the 2023-2024 school year.  
• We are currently seeking the public’s feedback on the updated Guidelines to inform final revisions before their release in summer 2024. 

 

Directions 
There are three ways to provide feedback. Each is summarized below. You will be able to select your preference on the next page of the survey. Regardless of the pathway selected, all questions are optional and individual items may be skipped if desired. 

• Option 1: Complete a series of rating and open response survey questions about the draft PST Guidelines only. 
• Option 2: Complete a series of rating and open response survey questions about the draft CAP Guidelines only. 
• Option 3: Complete a series of rating and open response survey questions about the draft PST Guidelines and draft CAP Guidelines. 

The option to add comments directly within either or both of the draft Guideline documents will be available on the final page regardless of the pathway selected.