October Board of Ed: MTEL alternative assessment pilot

 and there are some materials there

Claire Abbott, Office of Educator Effectiveness
third of what will be four updates on MTEL alternative assessment
Aubree Webb, also works there
and there are people here from CALDER (Center for analysis for longitudinal data in educational research)

pilot was to "strengthen equitable access to education" and allow prospective teachers to "demonstrate in other ways while maintaining high standards for literacy skills and content knowledge"
October 2020-June 2025
thus alongside emergency provision licensure, working alongside that
5 approved alternatives for communications and literacy (877 participants so far)
most also standardized tests, many from other states, many are coming from other states
18 approved alternatives for subject matter knowledge (1043 participants so far in MTEL Flex; 56 in preparation program attestation; additional still enrolling)
Flex option most popular; written assessment
notes small number, thus still gathering data 

Calder asking who is participating; why are they making this choice; are participants making progress towards licensure and employment
MTEL does predict student achievement on MCAS; content knowledge
likelihood of retake is lower for candidates of color

students taking these other options are more likely to be candidates of color
cost matters; ease of access (note: many students are out of state)

within 18 months of testing, likelihood of completing program, have earned license and have become employed, which varies a bit

data is suggestive that those coming through alternative assessments appear to be as effective as their traditionally tested peers
more precise data next year with inclusion of '22-23 data

West: what is the comparison to? Is it to all other teachers? to those who narrowly passed?

A: candidates who are eligible who had the option to retake the test; we see that they're performing similarly 

West: want to think of how this changes the overall effectiveness of the teacher workforce in Massachusetts
Hills: what if we want to compare it to not having the position filled at all?
Is there a way to broaden to very untraditional teacher hires?

Abbott: are operating within a statutory requirement, have to have an assessment
that said one of the opportunities this pilot is giving us is to bring people into the profession who otherwise wouldn't have joined (because they didn't pass the test the first time or never would have tried the MTEL)
hope in a year or year and a half hope to be able to fill some findings both in terms of expansion of workforce and the impact

Gardiner: clear increase in Black and Hispanic candidates taking the alternative assessment; is that being translated into more diverse candidates in the workforce?
Not yet; next year of data is going to be informative, just due to where candidates are in their career pipelines
given what we do know. we would expect that to be the case