Outcome Scaling to Evaluate Teacher Candidates and Teacher Preparation Programs

• In Event: Roundtable Session 55
  In Roundtable Session: Studies in Teacher Effectiveness, Preparation, and Certification

Abstract

This paper examines Outcome Scaling (OS), a method of evaluating teacher candidates. The approach uses cooperating teachers’ predictions of how their pupils will perform on classroom assessments of content for which the teacher candidate is responsible to judge teacher candidate effectiveness. It is particularly useful in that ratings can reflect the extent to which teacher candidates elicited a wide array of competencies in their students, including academic, behavioral, and creative performance using a scale that is comparable across grade levels and content areas while also taking pupil characteristics into account. The paper describes the method in detail and reports on implementation efforts in a sample of 37 teacher candidate-cooperating teacher pairs.

Authors

• Megan E. Welsh, University of California - Davis

• Craig Andrew Waterman, University of Connecticut

• Glen Davenport, University of Connecticut

• D. Betsy Mccoach, University of Connecticut