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Teacher Candidates: Do You Qualify for the Meritorious New Teacher Candidate Designation

INTRODUCTION

The Mid-Atlantic Region Teacher Project (MARTP) is a regional consortium initiated in 2000 by the Laboratory for Student Success (LSS) at The Temple University, in cooperation with the Council for Basic Education (CBE) and the Maryland State Department of Education.

As its first project, MARTP undertook a teacher supply and demand data gap analysis. The goal of the project was to collect data on various indices that define the regional teacher supply and demand profile. Seven geographic partners—all key players in the Mid-Atlantic educational enterprise—comprise the MARTP project team. Participating entities are Delaware, the District of Columbia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and New Jersey. An analysis of the data collected from the participating entities clearly defined several strategies to enhance the teaching and the teaching environment among the consortium members. A key strategy was the creation and implementation of a Meritorious New Teacher Candidate designation for graduates of approved teacher education programs.

The new teacher candidate designation was created to provide the following:
A symbol of excellence to be noted on the initial license of exceptionally well prepared and high-performing new teachers;

New teachers who have met the rigorous criteria for this designation will be fully certified to teach in any of the cooperating states.
CRITERIA FOR OBTAINING THE MERITORIOUS NEW TEACHER CANDIDATE DESIGNATION

Teacher candidates who earn this designation will have demonstrated exemplary levels of performance at every stage of preparation. A committee with broad representation from schools of education, state departments of education, local districts, research organizations, and a teachers association agreed on the selection criteria. They chose only those criteria that show a strong correlation with gains in student learning. These criteria fall into three important categories: performance in the professional education program, evidence of content knowledge, and evidence of verbal skills. Criteria within each of these categories follow:

1. PERFORMANCE IN PROFESSIONAL EDUCATION PROGRAM

ALL of the following must be met:

  1. Minimum 3.5 GPA in undergraduate professional studies program, or 3.5 overall GPA. 3.7 GPA in a graduate program.
  2. Minimum 400 hours of supervised clinical experience, of which at least 300 hours are directed instructional student teaching.
  3. Highest standard of both university supervisor and cooperating teacher based upon state and/or state-recognized standards.
  4. Recommendation by the college or school of education based on candidate performance.

2. EVIDENCE OF CONTENT KNOWLEDGE
(See attached document on “upper quartile scores”

For Elementary Education (Pre-K – 6):

  • Scores in upper quartile in math, science, social studies and language arts in the Praxis II Content Knowledge for Elementary Teachers test

For Secondary Education (6-12)

  • Has academic major in the subject area he or she will teach, with a minimum 3.5 GPA in those courses
  • Scores in upper quartile in the Praxis II test in his or her content specialty area.

3. EVIDENCE OF VERBAL SKILLS

Upper quartile of educators on SAT, ACT or GRE verbal section.

Download and complete the application form and submit to the Dean’s Office, VCU School of Education, Oliver Hall, Room 2090.