Exit Criteria - Competencies The ITSC program at Penn State is a competency-based program through which candidates' develop and then demonstrate the skills needed by successful IT Specialists in today's schools. The Colleges and Universities authorized to prepare and recommend candidates to PDE for certification interpret PDE's program specific guidelines and then develop courses and other learning experiences to help students meet the standards. At Penn State we have developed a set of competencies that support PDE's standards and courses that support the competencies. The ITSC competencies are also aligned with the Association for Educational Communications and Technology's (AECT) standards. Candidates are required to create a product that demonstrates mastery of every competency within the ITSC program. There are a total of 62 competencies within the program and the products that candidates create must be organized and displayed in a web-based portfolio. Within the ITSC program, there are three required courses. During the three required courses, candidates will address specific competency criteria and/or create products for 33 of the program's 62 competencies. After completing the required courses, candidates have 29 competencies to address and complete. For each of the remaining 29 competencies, candidates must decide if they have the skills needed in order to address each competency. If not, candidates then decide which optional courses will be needed to fill personal gaps. To view the ten different areas that the 62 competencies are partitioned into, please click here, OR, to simply view the information related to the 29 competencies that are not completed in the required courses, please click here.