Assessing Classroom Performances of Student Teachers: Articulating Teaching Quality to Strengthen an Educator Preparation Program

• In Event: Sheraton Roundtable Session 11
  In Roundtable Session: Assessing for Change: Critical Insights for Teacher Educators

Abstract

This work is concerned with whether, or to what extent, a teacher education program can trust student teaching observation instruments as guides to individual candidate progress and/or program quality. Numeric scores from over 5200 observations over five semesters are analyzed. We explain compromising aspects of data collection and cleaning. Supported by focus group data, we conclude that disentangling the observation from grades leads to more opportunity for discussion and learning, shown in greater score variance. Additionally, we see that, despite training, supervisors seem to use the rubric differently and standards are raised in the second semester of teacher training. Within and across semesters we see if/where domain scores can inform methods course content and supervisor focus.

Authors

• Margaret T Kuczynski, University of Houston

• Laura B. Turchi, University of Houston