New England Educational Research Organization: Centering Learners: Teacher candidate performance assessment and first-year teacher practice

• In Event: The Consortium of State and Regional Educational Research Associations Distinguished Papers Session 2

Abstract

Teacher performance assessments are under constant critique, and this is as it should be. Currently, equity and social justice lenses are needed to evaluate the structure of – and current practices with – these tools in teacher preparation and evaluation. This paper reviewed the ten-year history of one such teacher performance assessment, the NH TCAP. Though evidence of teacher candidates’ and first year teachers’ learning was abundant, similarly clear were the limitations of teachers' understanding of students beyond students’ role as members of academic classrooms. In parallel with our analysis, these findings provide a rationale for performance assessments, as educational tools, to develop teachers' skills and knowledge of teaching. Perhaps more urgently, these findings demand ongoing revisions to performance assessment tools to support the development of preservice and early teachers’ knowledge of learners’ contexts beyond the classroom in ways that prioritize centering strong equity.

Authors

• Diana L Sherman, Saint Anselm College

• Kathryn McCurdy, University of New Hampshire

• Audrey Rogers, Southern New Hampshire University

• Dianna L. Gahlsdorf-Terrell, Saint Anselm College

• Emilie Mitescu Reagan, Claremont Graduate University