The Rise and Fall of Missouri's Performance Assessment of Student Teaching: A Policy Analysis of the Missouri Pre-Service Teaching Assessment (MoPTA)

• In Event: Engagement of Policy Actors in Teacher Education

Abstract

In 2012, the Missouri State Board of Education embarked on a multi-phase overhaul of the accreditation of teacher education programs. Part of the overhaul was the development of the Missouri Pre-Service Teacher Assessment (MoPTA), a performance assessment of student teaching. By 2018, MoPTA was no longer required for licensure or accreditation. In this presentation, we rely on policy network analysis to chart the rise and fall of MoPTA. Our analysis reveals that the structural organization between K-12 and higher education in Missouri created conditions where there was (1) weak interdependence between the educational stakeholders in teacher preparation; (2) incompatible rationales for teacher quality among education stakeholders; and (3) lack of clear governance pathways that created insufficient policy steering mechanisms.

Authors

• Alexander Cuenca, Indiana University - Bloomington

• Joseph Randolph Nichols, Saint Louis University