West Virginia

February State of the Month

Recognizing that the single most important school influence on student learning is the quality of teaching, many states have focused education reform efforts on creating professional teaching standards that clearly articulate the expectations for what a teacher needs to know and be able to do to be effective in today’s classroom.  West Virginia, as other states, initiated a process to develop teacher standards at the direction of the WV Board of Education and State Superintendent of Schools, Steven L. Paine.  Assisted by members of the West Virginia Commission for Professional Teaching Standards (WVCPTS) (See http://wvde.state.wv.us/wvcpts/), West Virginia Department of Education (WVDE) staff and consultant Susan Saltrick, a “town hall meeting” process was used to engage a diverse group of education stakeholders in a dialogue that resulted in the articulation of West Virginia’s professional teaching standards.

The standards development process began with a focus on the words state educators used to describe characteristics of an effective 21st century teacher.  These descriptive statements were categorized into four domains of knowledge (content, learners, teaching, teaching profession) based on the work of Linda Darling-Hammond and John Bransford in Preparing Teachers for a Changing World:  What Teachers Should Learn and Be Able to Do (2005).  A crosswalk was completed between the statements in these domains and those in other national standards such as the National Council for the Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE); Interstate New Teacher Assessment and Support Consortium (INTASC); National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS); International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE); as well as other states’ standards and West Virginia’s Frameworks for High Performing 21st Century Classrooms, Schools and School Systems.

The revised standards were presented in a public forum to a 35-member task force who were guided in a discussion by Charlotte Danielson, author of Enhancing Professional Practice: A Framework for Teaching (2007).  This phase of the process, funded by the Claude Worthington Benedum Foundation, resulted in a revised document that was posted for comment on the task force website.  The WVCPTS reviewed the task force revisions and adopted a format for the standards that features a broad statement or standard, clarified by more detailed statements defined as functions, followed by indicators providing specific, measurable statements.

In the final phase of the process, a committee comprised of teachers, representatives of higher education, teacher organizations, state school board members, legislative representatives, school and district administrators and other education stakeholders, participated in a rubric development process to more clearly define the actions and behaviors that characterize these teaching standards.  Committee members worked in small groups to develop rubrics that were then posted for a “gallery walk”. 

This process allowed attendees to experience the rubric development process, and to provide valuable feedback on the clarity, detail and quality of the rubrics.  A consensus activity conducted at the close of the meeting revealed a high level of confidence of committee members in the quality of the standards and in the rubric development process.

The Appalachian Regional Comprehensive Center (ARCC) staff and Charlotte Danielson will continue to provide assistance to teams of teachers and higher education representatives as the rubrics are finalized. A review of the new standards has also been requested from national teacher organizations and from the National Commission on Teaching and America’s Future (NCTAF). 

Once the professional teaching standards are adopted as West Virginia Board of Education policy following a public comment period, work will begin to align higher education teacher preparation programs and the teacher evaluation process with the new standards. 

For more information, contact Karen Huffman, Assistant to the Superintendent, West Virginia Department of Education or Van Dempsey, Dean of the College of Education, Fairmont State University.