Candidate Proficiencies

The educator, believing in the worth and dignity of each human being, recognizes the supreme importance of the pursuit of truth, devotion to excellence, and the nurture of the democratic principles. Essential to these goals is the protection of freedom to learn and to teach, and the guarantee of equal educational opportunity for all. The educator accepts the responsibility to adhere to the highest ethical standards.

-Preamble to the Code of Ethics of the Education Profession, National Education Association (1975)

An essential precondition for achieving our mission is to translate our vision into concrete measures or standards that can be used to inform our instruction and assess the achievements of our candidates and the effectiveness of our programs. However, to successfully operationalize these abstract principles, it is necessary to individualize them and adapt them to the specific needs of our candidates. D-TALE is divided into two broad sub-units --the one relating to teacher education, the other relating to the education of educational leaders and administrators -- and we have developed two roughly parallel sets of candidate proficiencies that express a shared vision, but that do so in a way appropriate to the needs of each group. The teacher education candidate proficiencies are closely aligned with the Model Core Teaching Standards (2011) of the Interstate Teacher Assessment Support Consortium (InTASC).

The aim of our teacher education programs is to prepare candidates who:

1. Understand how learners grow and develop, recognizing that patterns of learning and development vary individually within and across the cognitive, linguistic, social, emotional, and physical areas, and designs and implements developmentally appropriate and challenging learning experiences.
2. Understand the individual differences and diverse cultures and communities to ensure inclusive learning environments that enable each learner to meet high standards.
3. Work with others to create environments that support individual and collaborative learning, and that encourage positive social interaction, active engagement in learning, and self-motivation.
4. Understand the central concepts, tools of inquiry, and structures of the discipline(s) s/he teaches and creates learning experiences that make these aspects of the discipline accessible and meaningful for learners to assure mastery of the content.
5. Understand how to connect concepts and use differing perspectives to engage learners in critical thinking, creativity, and collaborative problem solving related to authentic local and global issues.
6. Understand and use multiple methods of assessment to engage learners in their own growth, to monitor learner progress, and to guide the teacher's and learner's decision making.
7. Plan instruction that supports every student in meeting rigorous learning goals by drawing upon knowledge of content areas, curriculum, cross-disciplinary skills and pedagogy as well as knowledge of learners and the community context.
8. Understand and use a variety of instructional strategies to encourage learners to develop deep understanding of content areas and their connections and to build skills to apply knowledge in meaningful ways. 
9. Engage in ongoing professional learning and use evidence to continually evaluate his/her practice, particularly the effects of his/her choices and actions on others (learners, families, other professionals, and the learning community), and adapt practice to meet the needs of each learner.
10. Seek appropriate leadership roles and opportunities to take responsibility for student learning, to collaborate with learners, families, colleagues, other school professionals, and community members to ensure learner growth and to advance the profession.

The aim of our educational leadership programs is to produce candidates who:

1. Develop and demonstrate the skills needed to work with a board of education to facilitate the development of a vision of learning for a school district that promotes the success of all students.
2. Demonstrate the ability to plan programs to motivate staff, students, and families to achieve a school district's vision.
3. Demonstrate the ability to bring together and communicate effectively with stakeholders within the district and the larger community concerning implementation and realization of the vision.
4. Develop a sustained approach to improve and maintain a positive district culture for learning that capitalizes on multiple aspects of diversity to meet the learning needs of all students.
5. Demonstrate an ability to assist school and district personnel in understanding and applying best practices for student learning.
6. Collaborate with families and other community members.
7. Respond to community interests and needs.
8. Demonstrate a respect for rights of others with regard to confidentiality and dignity and engage in honest interactions.
9. Demonstrate the ability to combine impartiality, sensitivity to student diversity, and ethical considerations with their interactions with others.
10. Make and explain decisions based upon ethical and legal principles.
11. Espouse positions in response to proposed policy changes that would benefit or harm districts and explain how policies and laws might improve educational and social opportunities for specific communities.

Both sets of proficiencies are aligned with D-TALE and Stony Brook University missions, the D-TALE themes, New York State standards, and INTASC/PSEL standards (respectively).