The NCTE is an advisory group to the Nebraska State Board of Education and is comprised of approximately 60 members representing higher education institutions, teachers, school administrators, school board members, and others. In mid-February, members of the NCTE Mathematics Endorsement Ad Hoc Committee gathered to review the state’s current requirements for earning a secondary mathematics teaching endorsement. As is required by NCTE Organizational Policies, the Ad Hoc Committee consists of over 20 members representing active practitioners, higher education, school administrators, general public, and others from each state school board district, along with NDE representatives to review and or/revise each endorsement.
After a lengthy approval process spearheaded by NCTE, the secondary mathematics teaching endorsement requirements will help colleges and universities in the state that offer a mathematics educator program in their college or school of education to determine which courses are necessary to prepare candidates to teach mathematics to secondary students. This particular review is especially important in light of the new Nebraska mathematics standards and the widespread Common Core State Standards (CCSS), both of which increase the expectations placed on secondary teachers in order to better assist students with learning mathematics, no matter where the candidate might find himself or herself teaching.
Title 92, Nebraska Administrative Code, Chapter 24 (commonly referred to as “Rule 24 Regulations for Certificate Endorsements) is opened only one time each year. Each endorsement is reviewed once every seven years, provided sufficient staffing and budget are available to do that.
Interestingly enough, the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) is also in the process of revising their recommendations for secondary teacher preparation in light of the increased expectations of the Common Core Standards. (Note: Nebraska has not adopted the Common Core Standards at this time.) The NCTM Standards for the Preparation of Secondary Mathematics teachers serves as the basis for developing revised recommendations, or “Rule 24 Guidelines”, and are the standards each Nebraska institution that offers a mathematics educator preparation program are held accountable to as they prepare candidates. The Ad Hoc Committee spent time carefully reviewing each line of the NCTM’s current draft recommendations for secondary mathematics teacher preparation to make certain that the recommendations are a “good fit” for Nebraska. (For the reader’s information, the committee made very few changes to the NCTM draft. It is important to have Nebraska’s requirements aligned with NCTM’s recommendations, as the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education or NCATE, uses them to establish accreditation standards. All but three of Nebraska’s institutions of higher learning are nationally accredited at this time.) If you would like to view the current draft of NCTM’s secondary teacher preparation standards, visit NCTM’s webpage titled “NCATE Mathematics Program Standards” at http://www.nctm.org/standards/content.aspx?id=2978 .
Recommendations made by the Ad Hoc Committee will be sent to the NCTE Executive Committee’s April meeting with the intention to have the mathematics endorsement placed on the NCTE agenda for first and second hearings at their June 7, 2012 meeting. (NCTE meets in October, March, and June each year.) If the revised endorsement and guidelines are approved by the NCTE Undergraduate Standing Committee, the full council will vote in October to recommend the revised endorsement to the State Board of Education at their November meeting. If accepted by the State Board, a public hearing will be conducted in December or January, and the board will consider the results of the public hearing at their meeting following the public hearing. The board will authorize that the revised Rule 24 be sent forward for the Attorney General’s review and the Governor’s approval. Rule 24 will go into effect August 1, 2013, provided approvals are given at the appropriate times.
To read the proposed Rule 24 mathematics teaching endorsement and the corresponding guidelines, please visit http://www.education.ne.gov/EducatorPrep/NCTE/FullCouncilMeetings/MeetingMaterials.html
(after March 26.)
If you are interested in providing input to Nebraska’s secondary mathematics teacher preparation requirements, or if you want more information, please contact:
Deb Romanek, NDE Director of Mathematics Education deb.romanek@nebraska.gov or Pat Madsen, Education Specialist, Adult Program Services pat.madsen@nebraska.gov.
More details at: http://www.education.ne.gov/EducatorPrep/NCTE/FullCouncilMeetings/MeetingMaterials.html