Testimony on Resident Educator Summative Assessment (RESA) for
Career-Technical Educators
Senate Education Committee, Senator Peggy Lehner - Chair
March 17, 2015
Jeff Price, Ed.D., Superintendent of Ohio Hi-Point Career Center, Bellefontaine, Ohio
Good afternoon, Chair Lehner, Vice Chair Hite, Ranking Member Sawyer, and members of the
Senate Education Committee, I appreciate your valuable time this afternoon to listen to the
concerns from the field in regards to the Ohio Resident Educator Program implemented by the
Ohio Department of Education.
The Resident Educator program is a four year residency requirement for all teachers to get their
professional licenses. Once a teacher is hired, either through the traditional route of an
education program from a four year college or university or the teacher comes out of the
workforce, they have to enter the residency program in year 1 or year 2 of employment. This
program provides the new teacher with a mentor (usually from the teaching staff on our
campus) who meets with them for one or more hours per week throughout the first two years
of the residency. This mentor provides needed support for lesson planning and other tasks as
outlined in the Resident Educator program. Many of the tasks that are completed in this
portion of the program provide important dialogue that leads to learning opportunities for both
the resident and the mentor. However, many of our teachers have found the work to be
excessive and they often have reported feeling overwhelmed by all of the requirements, even
in the first year. If the teacher has completed a traditional education program the tasks mirror
what they already have learned and if they are coming to education through the Alternative
Resident Educator Program (formerly known as route B licensure), that program is doing much
of the same work.
The second year is more of the same tasks. There are nearly 200 pages of requirements and
assignments for the teacher to accomplish. Some of the papers in this phase of the residency
program can be very lengthy, up to 20 pages. Reflecting on teaching and lesson planning is an
important piece of year 2 and some reflection is necessary and helps professional growth. The
problem is that the tasks in the resident educator program run parallel to what is being done in
both OTES and Alternative Licensing programs. The time the inexperienced teacher is spending
on writing reflections for the resident educator program could be better spent on additional
lesson planning, discussions with mentors on pedagogy, studying the content, or learning the
many other systems of the building and classroom they are assigned to teach.
In year 3 of the program the resident is provided another educator (usually from our staff) that
acts as a facilitator rather than a mentor. A facilitator credential can be received with as little
as 1 ½ hour training session. Their only task is to make sure that the resident educator is doing
the items prescribed as outlined by the Department of Education. They do not provide
instruction or support to the resident in completing several tasks that are due throughout the
third year. These tasks include creating lessons and assessments, writing reflection pieces on
lessons taught, and videotaping lessons. All tasks completed are uploaded on to a computer
platform and sent to evaluators in another state. The uploading of video portions of the
program in year 3 has proven to be extremely difficult and time consuming. Once submitted,
the results are evaluated over a period of 7 months, from May – the following December.
When the results are received the resident is only provided with his or her score on the tasks
with no verbal feedback on what they did well or why they scored poorly and failed.
I do not have a lot of feedback from the fourth year of the Resident Educator program because
we have not yet had members complete all tasks. There are tasks to complete but the stakes
are not as high for this round of the overall program.
Ohio Hi-Point has had 3 staff members take the summative assessment (year 3) portion of the
Resident Educator program, our data is similar to the statewide average of 67% passage of all 5
parts. We had 3 teachers complete the 3rd year assessment in May, 2014. In December we
learned that 2 of the 3 passed, qualifying for a professional license. Regionally, the data was
not nearly as promising. At Ohio Hi-Point, we recommended to our first year teachers that they
opt to defer enrollment in the program provided by the Department of Education. We did this
because we have found the program can be extremely time-consuming and stressful for the
inexperienced teacher. This is truer for those instructors coming to us through Alternative
Resident Educator licensing. These men and women are experienced and experts in their field
but do not have the same college education programs afforded traditional teachers.
In conclusion, as superintendent of the career center and a practicing educator it is my opinion
that the resident educator program needs serious overhauling for all educators, but especially
for those coming through Alternative Resident Educator licensing. I am not convinced that the
expenditure of so much time and resources is going to lead to improved student performance.
Therefore, I am in favor of the following revisions; (1) districts implement a locally developed
mentoring program for the first two or three years of educator residency, and (2) the district
conducts its own evaluation of instructors in these initial formative years (during residency) to
decide if they are a good fit for the students of the district. The following year the former
resident educator would be considered a professional and would be subject to the Ohio
Teacher Evaluation System (OTES). Under this program the purpose of the mentoring program
will be to prepare residents for OTES.
If the legislature wants additional oversight of the mentoring process please do not make our
new teachers upload paperwork and a 15 minute video for evaluation in another setting with
little feedback. Please consider hiring trained third party evaluators who come on site to do a
more comprehensive evaluation of teachers and programs.
Thank you for your attention.