MATC Standards and Goals

MATC Program Standards

Standard 1:

Understanding and commitment to students and their

Diversity

Is there clear, consistent, compelling evidence of this?

Thoughtful, accomplished teachers understand and are deeply committed to students as individuals, their diversity, their capacity to learn, and their development as whole persons. Accomplished teachers create learning communities in their classrooms where positive, productive relationships are formed, and differences are respected and embraced.

Standard 2:

Understanding of subject matter, how to teach It, and how to design curriculum, instruction, and assessment to foster students’ understanding

Is there clear, consistent, compelling evidence of this?

Thoughtful, accomplished teachers deeply understand the subjects they teach as academic disciplines, how to teach subject matter in different ways to students, and how to relate content to students’ prior knowledge, interests, and lives in meaningful ways. They craft coherent units of study around “big ideas.” They provide different pathways for students to access and engage in subject matter, and to demonstrate their understanding. They monitor students’ progress and use a variety of assessments as tools for learning and planning.

Standard 3:

Understanding and use of theoretical perspectives and conceptual frameworks to situate and analyze Issues and problems of practice and policy

Is there clear, consistent, compelling evidence of this?

Thoughtful, accomplished teachers understand and flexibly use and apply different theoretical lenses, conceptual frameworks, and perspectives to analyze, critique, and respond to persistent issues and current policies/practices in curriculum, teaching, learning, and P-12 schools. As professionals, teachers understand and appreciate how these issues are situated within larger social, political, and historical contexts as well as in their local school and classroom contexts.

Standard 4:

Reflective, systematic inquiry and study/refinement of one’s practice

Is there clear, consistent, compelling evidence of this?

Thoughtful, accomplished teachers are critically reflective and systematically inquire into their own beliefs, assumptions, and practices in order to plan for instruction and to understand and anticipate the consequences or effects of their decisions and actions for students. Thoughtful teachers are serious students and independent researchers of their own practice and their students’ learning so that they can develop and refine their repertoires, and ensure that all of their students have opportunities to learn in meaningful ways.

Standard 5:

Communication skills and information literacy

Is there clear, consistent, compelling evidence of this?

Thoughtful, accomplished teachers are literate, a model for students and others of what it means to be a well-educated persons, and communicating clearly and skillfully in writing to different audiences for different purposes. As professionals, teachers are information-literate. They are avid readers of the professional literature and critical consumers of information in its many forms. They know how to access, use, and evaluate information to enhance their professional understanding, improve their practice, and share their knowledge with others.

Standard 6:

Proactive participation in collaborative initiatives, professional learning communities, professional organizations, and teacher leadership beyond the classroom

Is there clear, consistent, compelling evidence of this?

Thoughtful, accomplished teachers are proactive members of the broader professional community. They create and pursue opportunities for professional development, and provide leadership in a variety of ways among colleagues in their schools and communities. They form professional networks, learning communities in their schools, are active members of professional organizations. They contribute to our collective understanding and efforts to improve policy and practice in curriculum, teaching in P-12 public education.

MATC Program Goals

Goal 1:

Critical Inquiry

Overall, there is clear, consistent, compelling evidence that. . .

The candidate has engaged in critical inquiry in its many legitimate forms (e.g., review of and scholarly responses to the professional literature/research; the ability to see and analyze complex matters from different perspectives or frames of reference other than one’s own point of view or experience; action research or another form of systematic inquiry/independent research; deep, sustained reflection and reexamination of one’s beliefs, values, and practices; evidence of documenting and assessing students’ needs, understanding of subject matter, and progress).

Goal 2:

Accomplished Teaching

Overall, there is clear, consistent, compelling evidence that…

The candidate has pursued personal goals to strengthen targeted areas of his/her professional practice; sought to expand his/her pedagogical knowledge, skills, and repertoire in teaching subject matter to diverse students; documented the effects and implications of one’s practice or a school’s policies/practices for K-12 students’ learning and opportunities to learn; demonstrated a strong commitment toward students’ learning and strengths, and ways to capitalize on these in teaching versus focusing on perceived deficits or contextual constraints.

Goal 3:

Collaborative Professional Development, Teacher Leadership, Contributions to the Field

Overall, there is clear, consistent, compelling evidence that…

The candidate has proactively pursued opportunities to learn and work collaboratively with colleagues beyond the classroom; to learn with/from others in professional learning communities; initiated and supported changes in local policy and practice that will enhance both teachers’ and students’ learning; participated proactively in professional networks, memberships, and development beyond mandated, short-term workshops; pursued informal and formal ways to provide teacher leadership among colleagues.