PESB Program standards - Professional Educator Standards Board

Preparation program approval standards are established in WAC 181-78A-220. The domains of practice and program components identify program features and activities required for initial and ongoing program approval.

Domain 1: Candidates and cohorts

Providers of educator preparation programs recruit, select, and prepare diverse cohorts of candidates with potential to be outstanding educators.
(A) Providers conduct strategic and ongoing outreach to identify, recruit, admit, support, and transition promising educator candidates.
(i) Create, foster, and utilize effective partnerships to promote careers in teaching and educational leadership.
(ii) Implement a targeted, data-informed outreach strategy that includes robust individualized enrollment support.
(iii) Establish and monitor attributes and dispositions beyond academic ability that candidates must demonstrate at admissions and during the program.
(iv) Providers of teacher preparation programs develop and utilize candidate recruitment strategies that address state, district, and workforce shortage areas.
(v) Providers of career and technical education business and industry route programs establish and expand meaningful and effective recruitment and admissions partnerships with local school districts.
(B) Providers of preparation programs use strategies to recruit and prepare a greater number of candidates from underrepresented groups including, but not limited to, candidates of color in effort to prepare an educator workforce that mirrors the characteristics of the student population in Washington state public schools.
(i) Demonstrate strategic outreach that is highly accessible and responsive to local communities of color.
(ii) Gather and use data to assess strategic outreach to improve responsiveness and effectiveness.
(iii) Identify needs and provide supports for enrollment and success in educator preparation programs for local communities of color and candidates representing linguistic and ability diversity.
(C) Providers set, publish and uphold admission standards to ensure that candidates and cohorts are academically capable and prepared to succeed in educator preparation programs.
(i) Articulate clear criteria and requirements for program entry to applicants.
(ii) Publish, and provide to applicants prior to admission, a list of program completion requirements under RCW 28A.410.270(5).
(iii) Inform, advise, and support applicants on assessment requirements, timelines, occupational experience requirements, and other certification requirements.

Domain 2: Knowledge, skills, and cultural responsiveness

Providers prepare candidates who demonstrate the knowledge, skills and cultural responsiveness required for the particular certificate and areas of endorsement, which reflect the state’s approved standards.
(A) Providers demonstrate effective, culturally responsive pedagogy using multiple instructional methods, formats, and assessments.
(i) Qualified faculty use multiple instructional strategies, pedagogies, and assessments to address candidates’ academic language ability levels and cultural and linguistic backgrounds.
(ii) Providers create opportunities for faculty members and program personnel to pursue, apply, and practice ongoing professional learning to improve their knowledge, skill, effectiveness, and cultural responsiveness.
(iii) Faculty within the program and the unit collaborate among one another, with content specialists, P-12 schools, members of the broader professional community, and diverse members of local communities for continuous program improvement.
(iv) Faculty members and program leaders systematically and comprehensively evaluate faculty’s effectiveness in teaching and learning, and competence on the cultural competency, diversity, equity, and inclusion standards under WAC 181-85-204.
(B) Providers ensure that completers demonstrate the necessary subject matter knowledge for success as educators in schools.
(i) Candidates demonstrate knowledge and competence relative to the standards related to the role adopted by the board. Providers ensure that candidates in teacher preparation programs demonstrate the most recently published inTASC Standards, candidates in principal programs demonstrate the most recently published NELP – Building Level Standards, and candidates in superintendent programs demonstrate the most recently published NELP – District Level Standards, candidates in program administrator programs demonstrate the most recently published NELP Building or District Level Standards, and candidates in career and technical education educator preparation programs demonstrate and document the career and technical education standards approved by the professional educator standards board.
(ii) Teacher candidates must take a board approved basic skills assessment prior to program admission. A provider of a teacher preparation program must assure that all candidates entering the program have successfully met the basic skills requirement under chapter 181-01 WAC at the time of admission. The provider must collect and hold evidence of candidates meeting this requirement.
(iii) Teacher candidates must take a content knowledge assessment prior to beginning student teaching. The provider must collect and hold evidence of candidates meeting this requirement. Teacher candidates apply content knowledge as reflected in board approved endorsement competencies. Endorsement assessments are not required for teacher candidates in career and technical education business and industry route programs.
(iv) Providers ensure that educator candidates complete coursework on issues of abuse and emotional or behavioral distress in students under RCW 28A.410.035 and WAC 181-79A-200.
(v) Under RCW 28A.410.040, a teacher candidate whose only baccalaureate degree is in early childhood education, elementary education, or special education must have completed thirty quarter credits, or the equivalent in semester credits or continuing education credit hours, in one academic field in an endorsement area under WAC 181-82A-202.
(vi) Candidates for an initial certificate in a career and technical education residency teacher preparation program must complete a minimum of forty-five quarter credits, or the equivalent in semester credits or continuing education credit hours, in the specific career and technical education area for which certification is sought.
(C) Providers ensure that candidates demonstrate pedagogical knowledge and skill relative to the professional standards adopted by the board for the role for which candidates are being prepared.
(i) Candidates demonstrate knowledge and competence relative to the standards related to the role, which were adopted by the board. Providers ensure that candidates in teacher preparation programs demonstrate most recently published inTASC Standards, candidates in principal programs demonstrate most recently published NELP – Building Level Standards, candidates in superintendent programs demonstrate most recently published NELP – District Level Standards, candidates in program administrator programs demonstrate the most recently published NELP Building or District Level Standards, and candidates in career and technical education educator preparation programs demonstrate and document the career and technical education standards approved by the professional educator standards board.
(ii) Faculty and mentors provide regular and ongoing feedback to candidates regarding field based performance that is actionable and leads to improvement in candidates’ practice.
(iii) Providers demonstrate through structured observation, discussion, surveys, and/or artifacts that program completers effectively apply the professional knowledge, skills, and dispositions that the preparation program was designed to achieve.
(iv) Providers may use the edTPA teacher performance assessment as a formative tool as long as notification to candidates is included in all program descriptions under chapter 28A.410 RCW.
(v) Providers of career and technical educator preparation programs provide candidates all necessary guidance to document, demonstrate, and submit for approval the required hours of occupational experience.
(vi) In order to ensure that teacher and principal candidates can recognize signs of emotional or behavioral distress in students and appropriately refer students for assistance and support, teacher and principal preparation program providers must incorporate the social emotional standards and benchmarks, and must provide guidance to candidates on related competencies described in RCW 28A.410.270.
(D) Providers ensure that candidates are well prepared to exhibit the knowledge and skills of culturally responsive educators as described in the cultural competency, diversity, equity, and inclusion standards under WAC 181-85-204.
(i) Providers ensure that candidates demonstrate knowledge and competence relative to cultural competency, diversity, equity, and inclusion standards under WAC 181-85-204.
(ii) Providers offer all candidates meaningful, reflective opportunities to interact with racially and culturally diverse colleagues, faculty, P-12 practitioners, and P-12 students and families.
(iii) Providers prepare candidates to adapt their practices based on students’ prior experiences, cultural knowledge, and frames of reference to make learning encounters more relevant and effective.
(iv) Providers ensure course work explicitly focuses on cultural responsiveness and integrates components of culturally responsive education within and throughout all courses.
(v) Faculty explicitly model equity pedagogy in course work and practica in ways that enable candidates to integrate their own cultural and linguistic backgrounds into classroom activities.
(E) Providers ensure that teacher candidates engage with the since time immemorial curriculum focused on history, culture, and government of American Indian peoples as prescribed in RCW 28B.10.710 and WAC 181-78A-232.
(i) There shall be a one quarter or semester course, or the equivalent in continuing education credit hours, in either Washington state history and government, or Pacific Northwest history and government in the curriculum of all teacher preparation programs.
(ii) No person shall be completed from any of said programs without completing said course of study, unless otherwise determined by the Washington professional educator standards board.
(iii) Any course in Washington state or Pacific Northwest history and government used to fulfill the requirement of this section shall include information on the culture, history, and government of the American Indian peoples who were the first human inhabitants of the state and the region.
(iv) Teacher preparation program providers shall ensure that programs meet the requirements of this section by integrating the curriculum developed and made available free of charge by the office of the superintendent of public instruction into existing programs or courses and may modify that curriculum in order to incorporate elements that have a regionally specific focus.

Domain 3: Novice practitioners

Providers prepare candidates who are role ready.
(A) Providers prepare candidates who are ready to engage effectively in their role and context upon completion of educator preparation programs.
(i) The provider demonstrates that program completers perceive their preparation as relevant to the responsibilities they confront on the job, and that the preparation was effective.
(ii) Providers demonstrate that completers effectively apply the professional knowledge, skills, dispositions, and technical proficiency that the preparation experiences were designed to achieve.
(iii) Faculty and supervisors contextualize educators’ practice within contemporary socio-political context and within the administrative regulations in schools and districts.
(iv) Inform and orient candidates to Washington state processes of certification, licensure, endorsements and ongoing professional learning opportunities and requirements as they apply to the role for which the candidate is being certified.
(B) Providers prepare candidates to develop reflective, collaborative, and professional growth-centered practices through regular evaluation of the effects of their teaching through feedback and reflection.
(i) Prepare educator candidates to understand and demonstrate achievement and improvement in their practice.
(ii) Providers prepare candidates to seek new learning to remain current in subject area(s), educational theories, practices, research, and ethical practice.
(iii) Ensure that all candidates who complete the program exit the program with a professional growth plan (PGP) for program completion according to the guidance published by the professional educator standards board. Candidates will align their PGPs to the most recently published standards.
(C) Providers prepare candidates for their role in directing, supervising, and evaluating paraeducators.
(i) Prepare teacher candidates to direct paraeducators working with students in the classroom.
(ii) Prepare administrator candidates to supervise and evaluate paraeducators in schools.
(iii) Providers ensure that all educator candidates demonstrate knowledge of the paraeducator standards of practice, as published by the paraeducator board.
(D) Providers require candidates to demonstrate knowledge of teacher evaluation research and Washington’s evaluation requirements.
(i) Providers ensure educator candidates examine Washington’s evaluation requirements specific to their role, including criteria, four-tiered performance rating system, student growth goals, and the preferred instructional frameworks used to describe the evaluation criteria.
(ii) Providers ensure educator candidates demonstrate knowledge and skill in self-assessment, goal setting, and reflective practice.
(iii) Providers of administrator programs ensure candidates examine and practice classroom observation skills that recognize and limit bias and promote rater agreement on the four-tiered system.
(iv) Providers of administrator programs ensure candidates demonstrate knowledge and skill using student growth data and multiple measures of performance for use in evaluations.
(v) Providers of administrator programs ensure candidates demonstrate knowledge and skill conducting evaluation conferences and developing teacher and principal support plans resulting from evaluations.
(vi) Providers of administrator programs ensure candidates demonstrate knowledge and skill in the use of an online tool to manage the collection of observation notes, teacher and principal submitted materials, and other information related to the conduct of the evaluation.

Domain 4: State and local workforce needs

Providers contribute positively to state and local educator workforce needs.
(A) Providers partner with local schools to assess and respond to educator workforce, student learning, and educator professional learning needs.
(i) Establish and develop partnerships (e.g., schools, districts, community colleges, workforce boards, etc.) to understand educator workforce surplus and shortages.
(ii) Maintain and use partnerships to gather anecdotes, contacts, and data that identify and describe local workforce needs.
(B) Providers use preparation program and workforce data in cooperation with professional educator advisory boards to assess and respond to local and state workforce needs.
(i) Providers use local and state workforce data to identify and monitor state and local educator and workforce shortages across local districts, industries, and content areas relevant for the roles for which the program recommends certification.
(ii) Analyze enrollment, preparation process, and program outcomes data to understand programs’ process and performance relative to the local and state educator and industry workforce needs relevant for the roles for which the program recommends certification.
(iii) Present to professional educator advisory boards workforce data and program analyses to develop program goals and strategies that can be enacted to meaningfully address state and local workforce needs.
(iv) Share among faculty, staff, and professional educator advisory boards program’s current practice and effectiveness addressing state and local workforce needs.
(C) Providers of teacher educator preparation programs prepare and recommend increasing numbers of candidates in endorsement areas identified by the professional educator standards board workforce priorities.
(i) Recruit and prepare candidates for content areas in response to local and state workforce needs.
(ii) Meet the content area needs identified by workforce data of the state and the region.

Domain 5: Data systems

Providers maintain data systems that are sufficient to direct program decision making, inform state-level priorities, and report to the professional educator standards board.
(A) Providers develop and maintain effective data systems that are sufficient for program growth, evaluation, and mandated reporting.
(i) Maintain a data infrastructure that enables storage, tracking, and reporting functions to meet annual data submission requirements and assess program design and outcomes in alignment with state standards.
(ii) Collect, store, and report data according to the data manual and report guidance published by the professional educator standards board.
(iii) Systematically and comprehensively gather data and evidence on recruitment, retention, candidate learning, and program operations.
(iv) Include in data and assessment systems processes and safeguards that ensure fair and unbiased assessment of candidates.
(B) Providers utilize secure data practices for storing, monitoring, reporting, and using data for program improvement.
(i) Develop, publish, and maintain program-specific standards for data security, access, and governance.
(ii) The professional educator advisory board annually reviews and analyzes data for the purposes of determining whether candidates have a positive impact on student learning and report to the program provider recommendations for programmatic change.
(iii) Program leaders aggregate program and candidate data over time and incorporate perspectives of faculty, data administrators, professional educator advisory boards, candidates, and district and school P-12 partners to inform program decision making.
(iv) Program providers consider and respond in writing to recommendations for program change from the members of the professional education advisory board.
(C) Providers produce and utilize data reports in accordance with data and reporting guidance published by the professional educator standards board.
(i) Faculty, administrators, and professional educator advisory board members collaborate for program review and improvement.
(ii) Data administrators submit annual data according to data manual, schedule, and reporting guidance published by the board.
(iii) Gather and submit additional program and candidate data as requested by the board as needed to complete all aspects of the program review process.

Domain 6: Field experience and clinical practice

Providers offer field-based learning experiences and formalized clinical practice experiences for candidates to develop and demonstrate the knowledge and skills needed for their role.
(A) Providers establish and maintain field placement practices, relationships, and agreements with all school districts in which candidates are placed for field experiences leading to certification or endorsement per WAC 181-78A-125.
(i) The program provider and school partners cooperatively design, implement, and evaluate field experiences and clinical practices conforming to board standards and requirements for the role.
(ii) Clinical practice for teacher candidates in programs approved to offer traditional routes to teacher certification must consist of no less than four hundred fifty hours in a classroom setting, with a qualifying mentor teacher. Clinical practice for teacher candidates in programs approved to offer alternative routes to certification must consist of no less than five hundred forty hours in a classroom setting with a qualifying mentor.
(iii) Principal candidates complete an internship for a full school year, consisting of at least five hundred forty hours, half of which must be during school hours when students and/or staff are present. Interning candidates must demonstrate that they have the appropriate, specific skills pursuant to the standards identified in WAC 181-78A-220 and 181-78A-232.
(iv) Superintendent candidates must complete an internship of at least three hundred sixty hours. Interning candidates must demonstrate that they have the appropriate, specific skills pursuant to the standards identified in WAC 181-78A-220 and 181-78A-232.
(v) Candidates in career and technical education teacher preparation programs as described in WAC 181-77-031 must complete a student teaching experience of at least four hundred fifty hours. Candidates must demonstrate that they have the appropriate, specific skills pursuant to the standards identified in the career and technical education standards approved by the professional educator standards board.
(vi) Candidates in career and technical education administrator and business and industry route programs must complete a practicum of at least sixty hours. Candidates must demonstrate that they have the appropriate, specific skills pursuant to the standards identified in the career and technical education standards approved by the professional educator standards board.
(vii) Providers articulate in writing clear entry and exit criteria as well as a process for mitigating concerns during clinical practice for candidates, school leader(s), and the mentor.
(B) Providers ensure that candidates integrate knowledge and skills developed through field experiences with the content of programs’ course work.
(i) Providers offer field experiences in which teacher and principal candidates plan, practice, discuss, and reflect upon methods of instruction and differentiation, and all educator candidates demonstrate that they have the appropriate, specific relevant skills pursuant to WAC 181-78A-220 and 181-78A-232 to be effective in the role.
(ii) Integrate assignments, assessments, and actionable feedback throughout candidates’ field experiences.
(iii) Provide faculty supervision, including supervisory visits, on an ongoing basis.
(iv) Identify and recruit mentors for candidates who are educational leaders collaboratively with the partner school(s) or district(s).
(v) Ensure that candidates’ mentors are fully certificated school personnel and have a minimum of three years of professional experience in the role they are supervising.
(vi) Mentors and school leaders are provided with a set of internship expectations and receive, or provide evidence of having received, training and experience mentoring adult learners and culturally responsive teaching and learning.
(vii) Effectiveness of mentor preparation and communication are reviewed annually by program faculty.
(C) Providers offer field experiences that are in accordance with chapter 181-78A WAC and the board approved candidate assessment requirements.
(i) Ensure that educator candidates are placed in settings where they can be evaluated and given actionable feedback, including on the cultural competency, diversity, equity, and inclusion standards under WAC 181-85-204.
(ii) Ensure that educator candidates are fingerprinted and have completed required character clearance prior to placement in field experience settings.
(D) Providers ensure that candidates participate in field experiences in school settings with students and teachers who differ from themselves in race, ethnicity, home language, socio-economic status, or local population density.
(i) Field experiences provide opportunities to work in communities or with student populations with backgrounds dissimilar to the background of the candidate.
(ii) Course assignments and discussions offer candidates opportunities to reflect upon interactions with diverse populations and communities in order to integrate professional growth in cultural responsiveness as a habit of practice.
(iii) Candidates have opportunities to design, implement and receive feedback on cultural responsiveness in lessons, assignments, and activities.

Domain 7: Program resources and governance

Providers ensure that programs have adequate resources, facilities, and governance structures to enable effective administration and fiscal sustainability.
(A) Providers ensure that programs utilize a separate administrate unit responsible for the composition and organization of the preparation program.
(i) An officially designated administrator is responsible for the composition and organization of the preparation program.
(ii) Budgetary allocations are sufficient for the program to assure that candidates meet standards and requirements of the board.
(B) Providers ensure the program has adequate personnel to promote teaching and learning.
(i) Workload policies allow program personnel to effectively perform their assigned responsibilities within the program.
(ii) Specific program personnel are assigned the responsibility of advising applicants for certification and endorsements and for maintaining certification records.
(iii) The program has adequate field supervisors and other support personnel.
(C) Providers ensure the program has adequate facilities and resources to promote teaching and learning.
(i) The program has the necessary classrooms, lab space, office space, and/or other facilities.
(ii) The program has technology, library, curricular, and electronic information resources.
(iii) The facilities support faculty and candidate use of technology.

Approved May, 2018. Updated August, 2021.