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Connecting Instructional and Assessment Teacher Candidate Moves: Using Video Evidence to Drive Deeper Student Learning

Mon, April 16, 4:05 to 6:05pm, New York Hilton Midtown, Floor: Concourse Level, Concourse B Room

Abstract

One of the compelling reasons for the adoption of new approaches to teacher licensure is the potential for driving change in pre-service teacher preparation. Advocates for previous teacher performance assessments (“TPAs”) have implicitly relied on the argument that they are designed to promote new teaching standards, research-based teaching practices, and a commitment to deeper learning in teacher candidate preparation programs. Some have claimed these TPAs can promote more valid, reliable and instructionally sensitive approaches to quality teacher preparation.

A key assumption behind these claims is that a particular TPA is, in fact, built upon a foundation of research-based “high leverage” practice. This paper explores the extent to which the new state sponsored Teaching Performance Assessment (TPA) serves to promote such innovative, evidence-based practices. Examining assessment for learning literatures, we can benchmark to what extent the redesigned TPA draws from research-based instructional and assessment practice (Black & Wiliam, 1998; Shepard, 2000; Stiggins, 2002; Heritage, 2007). On the face of it, the TPA designers have sought a “deeper dive” into equity and inclusion, requiring evidence of visible teacher moves that elicit student engagement during instruction.

This study focuses on the redesigned TPA (Cycle 2, Step 2 “Teach and Assess”) evidence that utilizes multiple instructional video segments, specific annotation/coding procedures, and targeted prompts to move the field (teacher candidates, cooperating teachers and university faculty preparing for the event) toward a focus on eliciting and monitoring students’ critical thinking and academic language development in the given content area. Inviting what Grossman and others (2008) have called a common “grammar of practice,” the redesigned TPA relies on standardized annotation titles such as providing feedback to students to help stakeholders’ attend to informal and formal classroom instructional practices with video-based evidence.

Using a qualitative content validity analysis, we first examine the alignment of state standards, tasks, and rubrics to unpack how well, for example, high leverage classroom-based assessment practices (Hattie, 2012) and skills are embodied in the new TPA design. We then review the intersection of research-based formative assessment practices within the redesigned TPA, specifically looking at the emerging role of annotated video-based evidence in potentially promoting reflective instructional and more effective classroom assessment practices (see, e.g., Tripp & Rich, 2012).

The results from our study draw from the redesigned TPA pilot test data and include highlights from a “moves-based” curricular approach to classroom assessment (Duckor & Holmberg, 2017) to better inform preparation strategies emphasizing what the research tells us in assessing for equity and inclusion in diverse classroom settings.

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