Teacher preparation programs provide teacher candidates with foundational knowledge, application experiences, and training to graduate highly effective teachers. The Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation has a major impact on how faculty in teacher education programs prepare their preservice teacher candidates. For subject matter…

Different conceptualizations exist about the components of the knowledge teachers need to teach mathematics with professional consciousness, and a researcher needs to describe and assess that knowledge. The fact, however, is that different conceptualizations respond to different needs, and thus, the variety is even a chance to develop the field…

The paper solves the problem of the relationship of external diagnosis and self-diagnosis of readiness of teachers to innovative activity. It highlights major disadvantages of measurement tools that are used to this process. The author demonstrates an alternative approach to harmonizing the diagnosis, based on a modular diagnostic model, general…

Developing and writing assessment items that measure teachers' knowledge is an intricate and complex undertaking. In this paper, we begin with an overview of what is known about measuring teacher knowledge. We then highlight the challenges inherent in creating assessment items that focus specifically on measuring teachers' specialised knowledge…

The purpose of this article is to describe and analyze the edTPA, a performance assessment created by the Stanford Center for Assessment, Learning, and Equity (SCALE) and administered by Pearson, Inc., to assess the professional readiness of student teachers. We challenge claims made in support of using this assessment, specifically within the…

Until recently, states focused on ensuring the presence of a "highly qualified teacher" in every classroom. Under the 2001 reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), known as No Child Left Behind (NCLB), this title described a teacher holding at least a bachelor's degree and the appropriate state license and…

Managing the human capital in education requires measuring teacher performance. To measure performance, administrators need to combine measures of practice with measures of outcomes, such as value-added measures, and three measurement systems are needed: classroom observations, performance assessments or work samples, and classroom walkthroughs.…

This research evaluated the inter-rater reliability of the Performance Assessment for California Teachers (PACT). Multiple methods for estimating overall rater consistency include percent agreement and Cohen's Kappa (1960), which yielded discrepancies between rater agreement in terms of whether candidates passed or failed particular PACT rubrics.…

The major goal of this study is to review the current state of the art in teaching assessment by examining a sample of assessment systems, then to develop a "specification" for a state-of the art performance assessment system to be used for human capital management (HCM) functions. This specification could be a stimulus and guidepost for working…

This report presents the findings of the review of the evidence base on comparative practices of teacher selection and recruitment, specifically on the different mechanisms countries use to assess teacher readiness to take up teaching posts, with particular emphasis on testing or examinations. It is intended that the report will be helpful to…

Discusses faculty evaluation programs at 11 community colleges, focusing on procedures used, the frequency of evaluation, and areas evaluated. Indicates that although the 11 colleges used all of the main types of faculty evaluation procedures, substantive differences existed among the schools regarding frequency of use and instrument content. (MAB)

The authors of this volume's stimulus papers have taken on the challenge of developing measures of teachers' mathematical knowledge for teaching (MKT). This task involves multiple decisions and considerations, including: (1) How does one specify the body of knowledge being assessed? What warrants are offered for those choices?; (2) How does one…

The author offers some thoughts on commentator's reactions to the substance of the measures, particularly those about measuring teacher learning and change, based on the major uses of the measures, and because this is a significant challenge facing test development as an enterprise. If teacher learning results in more integrated knowledge or…

This fastback gives teachers and other educators a feel for being a National Board for Professional Teaching Standards candidate, offering an outline of the candidacy process, ways to assess readiness to become a candidate, and tips for proceeding through candidacy. Section 1, "National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS),"…

The author posits that testing teacher quality will not improve education unless people realize how current means of teacher testing could eliminate from teacher preparation the utopian elements that foundations courses present through material from authors such as Maxine Greene, Samuel Bowles, and Herbert Gintis. He presents a history of the…