COVID-19 has impacted all people globally. It has impacted evey industry. One of the first industry's impacted was education. Schools in Illinois were one of the first public buildings to implement social distancing.  

Even though implementing closing schools was and is the most responsible action to take in this situation-- perspective teachers who were expected to graduate in the next few months are unable to meet the requirements of the Pearson EDTPA.  

Before actions were implemented against COVID-19 student teachers were required to quit their jobs for 12 weeks in order to fulfill the student teaching requirements. This includes teaching time in the classroom and the EDTPA capstone assessment that Illinois requires prospective teachers to pass before they can become certified teachers. Keep in mind most of the graduates at the Master's level were already teaching (on a substitute teaching license ) or were paraprofessionals (formally known as teacher assistants). By quitting our jobs or leaving a career we were hoping to obtain a teaching career in the upcoming school year. Now we are jobless, unable to apply for unemployment since we quit our jobs before Covid-19 restrictions and some of us lost our insurance-- we cannot afford to lose 12 weeks of student teaching with the expectation of completing the EDTPA. 

The future class of Special Education teacher's are even more at a disadvantage during this time. Special Education educates  students with a plethora of disabilities that has different ranges of severity and risks. 

The EDTPA curriculum does not have alternative guidelines for an event that a candidate is unable to meet the criteria if an "Act of God" should happen.  This means that given the circumstances of COVID-19, the graduating class of 2020 will be unable to meet these requirements of then EDTPA therefore, the class would be ineligible to obtain a teaching certificate. 

Even if the EDTPA would adapt the curriculum to an online learning format it would not work for this population. Implementing online learning would not beneficial because not all students are capable of using this resource. Some students are with blindness, intellectual disability, behavioral disorders,  cerebral palsy, traumatic brain injury, autism just to name a few disabilities. These types of disabilities would be problems for an online format. Again, teacher candidates would be unable to meet the requirements of EDTPA would not be able to graduate with a teaching certificate. 

Many Student Teachers have been displaced or have had their field experience entirely canceled due to keeping ourselves and community members safe.  Field experience is a pivotal time for aspiring educators as they are able to perfect their craft and learn how to engage students. By not being in a classroom, student teachers are not able to complete edTPA, a performance-based assessment that takes intensive planning, immense justification, videotaping 3-5 lessons, and collecting student work samples.

We are asking for State Education Departments to waive the EDTPA requirement for Student Teachers for the 2019-2020 school year in order to gain certification upon graduation for states that use EDTPA as part of the certification process.

While State Education Departments could not control the outbreak of COVID-19, they can help alleviate some stress for these Student Teachers by taking the weight of EDTPA off their shoulders. The chances of completing EDTPA become limited once the field experience is over. This often prolongs job searches and prevents future teachers from receiving a paycheck. We hope with this petition that enthusiastic and willing teachers will be able to enter the classroom sooner rather than later. Thank you for reading and/or signing.