Advice and Assistance  

 Participant Responsibilities and Assessment of Progress

Once they are notified of their enrollment, participating teachers must attend an orientation to the BTSA/Induction Program.  Additionally, they must meet with the BTSA/Induction Program staff at least twice per year for both the first and second years of the program in order to review progress towards program completion.  These “assessment of progress/advice and assistance” credential meetings are arranged by the BTSA/Induction Program staff and are designed to prompt individual reflection and continuous improvement of teaching goals, strategies, and results.  It is the goal of the BTSA/Induction Program to foster a culture in which teaching and learning are valued, talked about, inquired into, and continuously improved. It is the responsibility of participants to come to these credential meetings on time, with both this Pathways to Your Professional Credential portfolio and their formative assessment binder demonstrating their work with their Support Provider.   Participants who arrive at meetings unprepared and/or late are required to reschedule at a later date.

The “assessment of progress/advice and assistance” credential meetings are conducted as participant-led conferences, lasting thirty to forty-five minutes.  Participants are expected to come prepared to share authentic, robust evidence of their teaching growth and effectiveness and should be prepared to persuasively present that evidence to the induction program staff through methods such as:

• Providing in-depth reflections on specific teaching and learning issues;

• Articulating key examples;

• Showing connections between apparently disparate items;

• Consolidating complex data; and/or,

• Comparing and contrasting past and present experiences/practices with reflective next steps.

 It is also the responsibility of participating teachers to be proactive in their work with their Support Provider in order to ensure that formative assessments are thoughtfully completed in a timely manner.  Such proactive behavior includes honoring scheduled classroom observations by and after-school meetings with Support Providers.

 This Pathways to Your Professional Credential portfolio allows participating teachers to clearly and easily document and provide robust evidence and careful reflection/interpretation of that evidence in alignment with the credentialing requirements in order to be recommended for a professional clear credential.  Once a participating teacher has completed the requirements set forth in this portfolio, that teacher is responsible to arrange a final “assessment of progress” meeting with the program staff.  If all program requirements have been met, the program director will sign a certification of completion letter that is then sent to both the participant and RUSD’s Human Resources Department.  Participants then work directly with the district’s Human Resources staff to complete the necessary application for recommendation of the professional clear credential.