Massachusetts Subject
Matter Knowledge Guidelines
Everyone
who has an interest in public education may follow up on the announcement
below. The quality of education greatly depends on the professional level of
teachers. Massachusetts Department of Education has developed new Subject Matter Knowledge Guidelines for
teacher licensing procedure. These Guidelines
will define the quality of teacher preparation for years ahead. Public is
welcome to comment on the draft, which is available until November 3, 2017.
To
education community.
We are pleased to announce the release of draft Subject Matter Knowledge (SMK) Guidelines for a
period of public comment. As you know, in June 2012 the Board of
Elementary and Secondary Education approved revisions to Regulations
for Educator Licensure and Preparation Program Approval, 603 CMR 7.00, and included in these revisions was the shift of
SMK requirements from Regulations to Guidelines.
These draft SMKs were developed with working groups representing
educators from K-12 and institutions of higher education. The SMK
requirements were revised to align to the following updated MA
Curriculum Frameworks:
á 2017 English Language Arts and Literacy
Framework: http://www.doe.mass.edu/frameworks/ela/2017-06.pdf
á 2017 Mathematics Curriculum Framework: http://www.doe.mass.edu/frameworks/math/2017-06.pdf
á 2016 Massachusetts Science and
Technology/Engineering Curriculum Framework: http://www.doe.mass.edu/frameworks/scitech/2016-04.pdf
á 2016 Massachusetts Digital Literacy and Computer
Science Curriculum Framework: http://www.doe.mass.edu/frameworks/dlcs.pdf
Please use the following survey: http://www.surveygizmo.com/s3/3620828/DRAFT-Public-Comment-SMK-Updates (this
survey link will also be available on the website at: http://www.doe.mass.edu/edprep/) to share your feedback on the draft
SMK Guidelines.
Public comment will be open through Friday, November 3,
2017. ESE will use the feedback from the public comment period to
make additional revisions, as needed, to the SMK requirements. The final
SMK Guidelines will be released in December 2017 for full implementation
beginning July 1, 2019. The final draft of these Guidelines will include
the subject matter knowledge requirements for all licenses included in the
Regulations, 603 CMR 7.00, however, for the purposes
of this period of public comment, we are only including licenses with proposed
revisions.
Marianne Dunne
Science Education Specialist
Center for Instructional Support
Department of Elementary & Secondary Education
75 Pleasant Street
Malden, MA 02148
STEM: http://www.doe.mass.edu/stem/
Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary
Education
75 Pleasant Street,
Malden, Massachusetts 02148-4906
Telephone: (781) 338-3000
October
2, 2017
Dear
Valentin,
We
are writing to express our gratitude and appreciation for supporting the revisions
of the Science subject matter knowledge requirements for the Subject Matter
Knowledge (SMK) Guidelines. The work that you participated in has allowed the
Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (ESE) to align the SMK Guidelines
that set expectations for our educator preparation programs and Massachusetts
Tests for Educator Licensure (MTEL) with the 2016 STE Curriculum Frameworks.
We
know your top priority is providing the best education possible to the students
in your district and at your colleges and universities.
Your
collaborative effort with the working groups at WPI
after working hours is invaluable to ESE as we move forward with revising the
multiple K-12 science licenses. Our hope is that the work, in turn, provided you
with new insight and ideas that are essential for the implementation of the
more rigorous and relevant 2016 MA STE standards that
not only strengthen your instruction,
but also support your science initiatives in your districts and at your
institutions.
We
will be releasing the SMK Guidelines for public comment the week of October 2nd. The SMKs may look different than when
you last worked on them as edits were made to align across license areas. We will be including additional details as
a resource appendix in the SMK Guidelines so you will likely see some of the
detail included in the original templates in this resource section.
Please
contact us with any questions and thank you again for all your work with us.
Sincerely,
Elizabeth
C. Losee Marianne
Dunne
Director
for Educator Preparation and Educator Assessment Science Education Specialist
Center for Instructional
Support
Department of Elementary
and Secondary Education
75 Pleasant Street
Malden, MA 02148
Phone: 781-338-3264 Phone:
781-338-3529