Revealing the Myth of the “Fully Qualified” Bright Young Teacher: Using the Haberman Star Teacher Pre-Screener

• In Event: Effective or Wise? Teaching and Assessing Professional Dispositions in Education

Abstract

The Haberman Star Teacher Pre-Screener has been used by suburban and urban school districts across the United States to identify prospective teachers who will be successful in the classroom (Rockoff, Jacob, Kane, & Staiger, 2008). The survey instrument uses 50 multiple-choice items to assess ten different attributes: (1) persistence, (2) organization, and planning, (3) beliefs about the value of students learning, (4) approach to students, (5) approach to at-risk students, (6) ability to connect theory to practice, (7) ability to survive in a bureaucracy, (8) fallibility, (9) explanation of students’ success, and (10) explanation of teacher success.
This paper shares the results of a field study in which the Haberman Star Teacher Pre-Screener was administered to thirty-one (n = 31) licensed practicing elementary school teachers at Meadowbrook Elementary (a pseudonym), a selective enrollment K-8 public school in the state of Illinois. The purpose of the study was to examine potential relationships between dimensions of teachers’ dispositions, knowledge, and skills on the Star Pre-Screener and teachers’ background characteristics.
Results yield two interesting implications for the “professionalization” movement within (teacher) education. The first is the importance and need for revealing the myth of the “fully qualified” bright young teacher. Teaching experience matters much; seasoned teachers appear equipped to be more effective in the classroom as measured on the diagnostic Star pre-screener. The second implication is that formal education might matter, but further studies ought to examine the impact that graduate education training has on teachers’ impact in the elementary school classroom. Specifically, this study found that National Board Certified, and National Board Certification Candidates, were most likely to be found to persist in the classroom. This leaves educational researchers with further questions, such as the following: What sorts of dispositions are cultivated in the National Board Certification process? What sorts of training to Nationally Board Certified Teachers have, and how does it positively impact students’ learning?

Authors

• Nicholas Daniel Hartlep, Metropolitan State University

• Sara McCubbins

• Grant B. Morgan, Baylor University