Usually, university professors and classroom teachers decide whether to grant a license after observing the candidates for six months in real school settings.

Under the system being piloted, a for-profit education company hired by the state, like Pearson, would decide licensure based on two 10-minute videos that student teachers submit, as well as their score on a 40-page take-home test.

“This is something complex and we don’t like seeing it taken out of human hands,” Ms. Madeloni said to me at the time.

By protesting, she said, “We are putting a stick in the gears.” A total of 67 out of her 68 student teachers refused to submit their videos or take the test during last year’s trial run.