Elementary education candidates are entering teaching at a time when the national restructuring of the Praxis II Exam 7811 elementary licensure exam has taken place at the same time the state is involved in the Kansans Can School Redesign Project. These changes directly impact local school districts and the effectiveness of novice teachers in…

The purpose of this report is to examine the performance of assessment items designed to measure elementary teachers' content knowledge for teaching (CKT) science as part of the ETS® Educator Series. The Elementary Education: CKT Science assessment is 1 component of licensure examination through the PRAXIS® assessments. The Elementary Education:…

In this study, differential item functioning (DIF) methods utilizing 14 different matching variables were applied to assess DIF in the constructed-response (CR) items from 6 forms of 3 mixed-format tests. Results suggested that the methods might produce distinct patterns of DIF results for different tests and testing programs, in that the DIF…

This article is a description of the process of constructing an assessment of written and oral language for pre-service teachers. This assessment was used prior to their formal admission into the teacher education programme. The rationale for this evaluation is presented along with the actual processes involved. Finally, comparisons are made…

Surveys were conducted of two multi-state samples of educators, who provided ratings of the importance of two preliminary versions of the classroom performance assessment criteria being developed for The Praxis Series: Professional Assessments for Beginning Teachers(TM). One sample, with 114 respondents, was chosen primarily on the basis of its…

The objective of this study was to assess the degree to which the mode of administration of the computer-based Academic Skills Assessments of the "Praxis Series: Professional Assessments for Beginning Teachers" contributes to performance differences among test takers. Inexperienced or anxious computer users (Praxis pilot sample of 446…

Describes the Praxis III assessment, an observation-based system for assessing the skills of beginning teachers that emphasizes teacher decision-making and the importance of student, school, and curricular context. The principles and processes of the assessment's design and construction are described, and issues in teacher performance-assessment…

The purpose of this study was to determine if the 55 test specifications for the Praxis I: Academic Skills Assessments computer-based tests (CBT) and the Praxis I: Pre-Professional Skills Tests (PPST) were judged to be appropriate for entry-level vocational education teachers regardless of specialty area. The test specification statements were…

The job analysis study described in this report was conducted to serve as one of the bases for documenting the content validity of the Praxis II: Subject Assessment in Elementary Education, one of a series of assessments for beginning teachers being developed by the Educational Testing Service. Two inventories of knowledge elementary school…

A job analysis was conducted to determine the knowledge important for newly certified or licensed teachers of art. The results of this job analysis will be used to develop test specifications for the art assessment of The Praxis Series of Professional Assessments for Beginning Teachers and to support the content validity of the assessment. Three…

A job analysis was conducted, focusing on the knowledge and abilities important for beginning French teachers. The results of the job analysis are to be used to define the content domain of the subject assessment in French for the Praxis series of professional assessments for beginning teachers. A domain of 212 knowledge statements and ability…

The operating characteristics of 114 mathematics pretest items from the Praxis I: Computer Based Test were analyzed in terms of item attributes and test developers' judgments of item difficulty. Item operating characteristics were defined as the difficulty, discrimination, and asymptote parameters of a three parameter logistic item response theory…

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…

The Educational Testing Service has initiated the development of a new series of tests to be used as part of the process states use to license or certify their teachers. Stage I of this new generation of tests will determine whether teachers possess an acceptable level of competence in the enabling skills the beginning teacher requires. This…

A study was conducted to provide information for setting two separate standards, the accuracy score and the documentation score, for the Praxis III: Classroom Performance Assessment (Praxis III). Praxis III is intended for making instructional and licensing decisions about beginning teachers. This standard-setting study was a person-judgment…