Advanced Programs

Candidates for advanced preparation demonstrate their proficiencies to understand and apply knowledge and skills appropriate to their professional field of specialization so that learning and development opportunities for all P-12 are enhanced, through:

• Applications of data literacy;
• Use of research and understanding of qualitative, quantitative and/or mixed methods research methodologies;
• Employment of data analysis and evidence to develop supportive, diverse, equitable, and inclusive school environments;
• Leading and/or participating in collaborative activities with others such as peers, colleagues, teachers, administrators, community organizations, and parents;
• Supporting appropriate applications of technology for their field of specialization; and
• Application of professional dispositions, laws and policies, codes of ethics and professional standards appropriate to their field of specialization

RA1.2 Provider Responsibilities

Providers ensure that program completers have opportunities to learn and apply specialized content and discipline knowledge contained in approved state and/or national discipline-specific standards. These specialized standards include, but are not limited to, Specialized Professional Association (SPA) standards,
individual state standards, standards of the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards, and standards of other accrediting bodies [e.g., Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs (CACREP)]. Evidence of candidate content knowledge appropriate for the professional specialty should be documented.

Partners co-construct mutually beneficial P-12 school and community arrangements for clinical preparation and share responsibility for continuous improvement of candidate preparation.

RA2.2 Clinical Experiences

The provider works with partners to design varied and developmental clinical experiences that allow opportunities for candidates to practice applications of content knowledge and skills that the courses and other experiences of the advanced preparation emphasize. The opportunities lead to appropriate culminating experiences in which candidates demonstrate their proficiencies, through problem-based tasks or research (e.g., qualitative, quantitative, mixed methods, action) that are characteristic of their professional specialization as detailed in component A1.1.

The provider presents goals and progress evidence for recruitment of high-quality candidates from a broad range of backgrounds and diverse populations that align with their mission. The provider demonstrates efforts to know and address community, state, national, regional, or local needs for hard-to-staff schools and shortage fields. The goals and evidence should address progress towards a candidate pool which reflects the diversity of America’s P-12 students.

RA3.2 Candidates Demonstrate Academic Achievement and Ability to Complete Preparation Successfully

The provider sets admissions requirements for academic achievement, including CAEP minimum criteria (group average college GPA of 3.0 or group average performance in top 50th percent of those assessed on nationally normed assessment), the state’s minimum criteria, or graduate school minimum criteria, whichever is highest, and gathers data to monitor candidates from admission to completion.

RA3.3 Monitoring and Supporting Candidate Progression

The provider creates criteria for program progression and uses disaggregated data to monitor candidates’ advancement from admissions through completion. The provider ensures that knowledge of and progression through transition points are transparent to candidates. The provider plans and documents the need for candidate support, as identified in disaggregated data by race and ethnicity and such other categories as may be relevant for the EPP’s mission, so candidates meet milestones. The provider has a system for effectively maintaining records of candidate complaints, including complaints made to CAEP, and documents the resolution.

RA3.4 Competency at Completion

The provider ensures candidates possess academic competency to help facilitate learning with positive impacts on diverse P-12 student learning and development through application of content knowledge, data literacy and research-driven decision making, effective use of collaborative skills, and application of technology in the field(s) where certification is sought. Multiple measures are provided and data are disaggregated and analyzed based on race, ethnicity, and such other categories as may be relevant
for the EPP’s mission.

The provider demonstrates that employers are satisfied with the completers’ preparation for their assigned responsibilities.

RA4.2 Satisfaction of Completers

The provider demonstrates that program completers perceive their preparation as relevant to the responsibilities they confront on the job, and their preparation was effective.

The provider has developed, implemented, and modified, as needed, a functioning quality assurance system that ensures a sustainable process to document operational effectiveness. This system documents how data enter the system, how data are reported and used in decision making, and how the outcomes of those decisions inform programmatic improvement.

RA5.2 Data Quality

This provider’s quality assurance system from RA5.1 relies on relevant, verifiable, representative, cumulative, and actionable measures to ensure interpretations of data are valid and consistent.

RA5.3 Stakeholder Involvement

The provider includes relevant internal (e.g., EPP administrators, faculty, staff, candidates) and external (e.g., alumni, practitioners, school and community partners, employers) stakeholders in the program design, evaluation, and continuous improvement processes.

RA5.4 Continuous Improvement

The provider regularly, systematically, and continuously assesses performance against its goals and relevant standards, tracks results over time, documents modifications and/or innovations and their effects on EPP outcomes.

The EPP has the fiscal capacity as appropriate to the scale of its operations. The budget for curriculum, instruction, faculty, clinical work, scholarship, etc., supports high-quality work within the EPP and its school partners for the preparation of professional educators.

R6.2 Administrative Capacity

The EPP has administrative capacity as appropriate to the scale of its operations, including leadership and authority to plan, deliver, and operate coherent programs of study so that their candidates are prepared to meet all standards. Academic calendars, catalogs, publications, grading policies, and advertising are current, accurate, and transparent.

R6.3 Faculty Resources

The EPP has professional education faculty that have earned doctorates or equivalent P-12 teaching experience that qualifies them for their assignments. The EPP provides adequate resources and opportunities for professional development of faculty, including training in the use of technology.

6.4 Infrastructure

The EPP has adequate campus and school facilities, equipment, and supplies to support candidates in meeting standards. The infrastructure supports faculty and candidate use of information technology in instruction.