Mansfield University Home PageSpring 2008 - Changes in Teacher Certification
I am writing to bring you an update on a significant change in state regulations for teacher certification. This will affect every college in Pennsylvania that offers teacher education. Since teacher training is such an important part of Mansfield’s history and landscape, the entire community should be aware of these changes.
On May 17th 2007, the State Board of Education approved sweeping changes to the regulations concerning teacher certification, known as “Chapter 49.” The changes in certification include:
- Integrating 12 credits of standards about Inclusive Education and English Language Learners into all teacher certification programs including secondary, music and art programs.
- Developing a new, combined Early Childhood/Elementary Education Certificate for Pre-K through grade 4.
- Developing a new Elementary/Middle Certificate for grades 4-8.
- Dividing Special Education into two levels and designing the certification to be offered only with another teacher education certification such as the Early Childhood/Elementary, Middle/Elementary or Secondary.
The effective date for all new instructional certificates is January 1, 2013. This means that all applications for teaching certificates issued after December 31, 2012 must meet the new certification requirements, even if the applicant has completed a curriculum that met the old requirements. If you work backwards from this deadline, students who begin a four year program in Fall 2009 will be required to meet these new requirements when they graduate, so all revisions required in our teacher education curriculum must be completed for publication in the Fall, 2009 catalogue. We will also need to work with current students to make them aware of these new requirements, and that they must graduate and apply for certification by December 2012 if they wish to be certified under the present regulations.
This is a very short timeline. To make it even more challenging, the final standards are still in the process of being reviewed and revised. Any new programs required by these changes must come before the PASSHE Board of Governors in January of 2009, because it is the last opportunity for BoG approval before the deadlines for the 2009 catalogue. PASSHE has requested that its campuses have their proposed program changes completed and through internal reviews by Mid-November so that PASSHE can work with PDE (the state Department of Education) to review and pre-approve the changes. Accordingly, curriculum changes that require Board of Governors approval must begin moving through Mansfield’s curriculum process as soon as the fall semester begins.
The teacher education faculty has worked hard through the spring semester and is continuing their efforts to redesign our programs. Conversations have already been taking place between Education/Special Education faculty and faculty members from Music, Art, and the Secondary content areas to brainstorm the best ways to integrate the additional 12 credit hours into these existing programs. The faculty are also working on the new Early Childhood/Elementary Pre-K through grade 4 certificate and revising the Special Education curriculum.
Due to the short timeline, we have decided not to add the Elementary/Middle level program (grades 4-8) at this time. The design requires 66 credit hours of content coursework aligned with the PDE K-12 standards. Designing such a program will require many discussions, including a broad range of faculty, to create an appropriate configuration. We plan to start those discussions as soon as the first set of programs are approved and ready for PASSHE and PDE review.
In summary, there are many changes coming for our teacher education programs. We look forward to your input as we move through this process.
Deborah Erickson
Associate Provost for Education and Graduate Studies