Prospective Educator Preparation Reviewers

The Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) recruits and selects a cohort of external reviewers annually. These Ed Prep Reviewers come from a variety of roles and backgrounds, from educator preparation programs and PK–12 schools and districts. They serve a critical role in the educator preparation program approval process.

Ed Prep Reviewers are responsible for reviewing, analyzing, and evaluating evidence of educator preparation program effectiveness. Together with DESE, reviewers help to guarantee that educator preparation in Massachusetts results in effective educators ready to support the success of all students.

Given the small number of sponsoring organizations that will undergo Formal Review in 2024-2025, and the significant shifts in the review process following the release of the updated Guidelines (see below), DESE is conducting targeted outreach to members of the Educator Preparation Advisory Group (EPAG) and PK–12 educators who served as reviewers in recent years. In addition to the standard reviewer responsibilities, these individuals will provide extensive feedback on how to ensure the reviewer role is meaningful and aligned with our goals of creating an increasingly equitable, efficient, and consistent evidence-based review process.

We will begin recruiting for the next cohort of reviewers in spring 2025.

If you have any questions, please contact educatorpreparation@mass.gov .

What are Ed Prep Reviews?

In September 2023, DESE released updated Guidelines for Educator Preparation Program Approval . The updates were informed by contributions from over 450 educator preparation personnel, candidates and recent completers, district and school leaders, educators, and students and families from across Massachusetts. The Guidelines set the expectation that all aspiring educators must be prepared in evidence-based practices, including anti-racist and culturally and linguistically sustaining practices, that well serve all students in Massachusetts.

To hold educator preparation providers accountable to these expectations, DESE conducts rigorous reviews of every provider in the state. For existing providers, these are called Formal Reviews. To learn a high-level overview, you can visit the Formal Review Interactive Overview. The Formal Review process is designed to:

• recognize providers' varied contexts and structures,
• elevate stakeholder perspectives,
• gather a comprehensive evidence base for decision-making, and
• drive toward increasingly equitable experiences and outcomes for all preparation candidates and the PK–12 students they serve as educators.

At a high-level, the review process evaluates whether educator preparation providers:

• Have sufficient systems, structures, and personnel in place to enable equitable program experiences and outcomes for all candidates.
• Provide effective instruction to all candidates such that they develop the content knowledge and pedagogical skills needed to be effective educators.
• Ensure all candidates engage in a range of high-quality field-based experiences that prepare them to be effective educators for all PK–12 students.
• Provide comprehensive guidance and support to all candidates from recruitment through graduation to prepare all completers to be effective educators.
• Cultivate collaborative PK–12 school and district-level partnerships that benefit candidates/completers, schools/districts, and PK–12 students by building an increasingly diverse and effective educator workforce and creating anti-racist and culturally and linguistically sustaining learning experiences for both candidates and PK–12 students.
• Engage in continuous improvement efforts that drive toward better experiences and equitable outcomes for all candidates and the PK–12 students, schools, and districts they serve.

What Impact do Ed Prep Reviews have on the Field?

Through their role in the review process, Ed Prep Reviewers directly influence the quality of educator preparation programs in Massachusetts and support crucial improvement in PK–12 and candidate experiences and outcomes.

• At the conclusion of each review, the provider receives a detailed report outlining judgements and supporting evidence. The report elevates strengths and areas where improvement is needed. Providers are required to report progress in identified areas of improvement to DESE annually and are expected to address them by the point of their next review.
• Many providers report that review results have led to increased institutional support and resources, changes to program structures and staffing, and updates to course and fieldwork. For example, reviews have led to the creation of field-based experience offices, updated trainings for field supervisors, revisions to core coursework, new advising and support processes, the development of collaborative partnerships with PK–12 schools/districts, and more.
• These programmatic changes then impact the nearly 4,500 newly licensed educators who are hired in Massachusetts public schools each year and the roughly 63,000 students who they serve.

Who Should Apply?

Each review team is composed of 5–7 Ed Prep Reviewers. When selecting Ed Prep Reviewers, DESE looks for individuals who have:

1. The belief that educator preparation is a powerful lever to ensure that all PK–12 students are taught by effective educators
   • Open mind about different approaches to the work
2. Demonstrated commitment to disrupting cycles of racism and inequity in education
   • Experience using anti-racist and culturally and linguistically sustaining practices to improve PK–12 and/or higher education students' experiences and outcomes
   • Experience improving outcomes for racially, ethnically, socioeconomically, and linguistically diverse PK–12 and/or higher education student bodies
   • Open to continually examining personal and systemic biases
3. Proven equity-oriented approach to quantitative and qualitative data analysis
   • Experience analyzing quantitative and qualitative data and making connections across multiple data sources to understand diverse perspectives, experiences, and outcomes
   • Understanding that deep and focused attention to the data enables thorough insights, facilitates validity and transparency in interpretation of findings, and serves as a vehicle for understanding participants' perspectives and discovering relationships
4. Track record of collaboration with people with diverse identities, perspectives, and roles
   • Eager to engage in team training, calibration, and decision-making
   • Willingness to ask questions and push one's own and others' thinking
   • Ability to build strong, trusting relationships
5. Professional experience in educational settings
   • PK–12: District personnel, school administrators, instructional coaches, department heads, classroom teachers, specialists, professional support personnel, paraprofessionals, supervising practitioners and mentor teachers
   • Ed Prep: Institutional and department leaders, full and part-time faculty, advising and field-based experience staff, program supervisors
   • Other: Educational consultants, education non-profit leaders and staff

"Involvement in this process is one of the most important contributions you can make to the profession. It is worth the investment of time…We move the field forward."
— Former Ed Prep Reviewer

What Role do Ed Prep Reviewers Play?

After thoughtful selection and in-depth training, Ed Prep Reviewers support DESE in making evidence-based, equity-centered judgements about program effectiveness.

Each Ed Prep Reviewer is assigned to a review team that will work together across multiple components of one sponsoring organization's review. The review teams work closely with DESE staff and are responsible for:

• Analyzing qualitative and quantitative evidence collected through surveys, focus groups, interviews, and written submissions.
• Identifying key evidence that demonstrates whether the provider is meeting DESE's expectations.
• Collaborating with a team of education professionals to make judgements regarding provider performance.

The total time commitment is estimated to be 35–40 hours, with varying levels of intensity over the span of 8 months across the 2024-25 and 2025-26 school years. Significant portions may be completed independently based on Ed Prep Reviewers' personal schedules.

Key Terms

All: When used in reference to any group of individuals, "all" represent each member of that group, inclusive of, but not limited to, all races, ethnicities, cultures, languages, socioeconomic statues, sexual orientations, gender identities, and abilities, with particular focus on those who have been systematically marginalized or underserved, such as those who identify as Black, Hispanic and Latino, Asian, Indigenous, and/or Multiracial.

Effective educator: Effective educators in Massachusetts are those who demonstrate evidence-based practices, including those that are anti-racist and culturally and linguistically sustaining. Effective educators support all students to thrive by creating affirming environments where students have a sense of belonging, engage in deeper learning, and are held to high expectations with targeted support.

Last Updated: August 23, 2024