State Representative Will Guzzardi, Leslie Combs from Congresswomen Jan Schakowsky’s office and State Representative Laura Fine at our S.O.R.E. luncheon yesterday.
Sandy Deines is a member of our Skokie Organization of Retired Educators, a chapter of the Illinois Education Association Retired.
Yet Sandy has been most active in the Illinois Coalition for edTPA Rule Change.
It was Sandy who educated me on this subject.
Not just me.
She has been educating members of the Illinois legislature as well.
When Illinois State Representatives Will Guzzardi and Laura Fine spoke at S.O.R.E.’s September luncheon yesterday I asked both of them about it.
Representative Guzzardi admitted that had it not been for Sandy Deines contacting him he wouldn’t know much about it.
Representative Fine agreed.
“With all that is going on in Springfield right now, I don’t think many legislators are aware of this,” Fine admitted.
“This” is the out-sourcing of teacher certification in Illinois to the education monopoly, Pearson.
What role does the legislature have in issues like teacher certification?
“Normally, not much,” Guzzardi told me. “It is a function of the Illinois State Board of Education. But since hearing from Sandy Deines, we have a new head of the ISBE. He has expressed an interest in looking into edTPA.”
Out-sourcing teacher certification is but one part of the corporate education agenda. But it is one that has flown pretty much under the radar.
Let’s shine a light on it.
Fred Klonsky 
It has already gotten harder to get certified without adding edTPA into the mix. I have yet to figure out how a nationally standardized teacher certification process serves the needs and each and every state. Some things should not be “brought to scale.” It benefits only those who stand to make money off of it and ties the hands of teacher education programs.
This is outrageous. The stealthy way this is being implemented is an indication edTPAers know this would not survive due diligence by responsible state authorities in charge of teacher certifications.