1. Reflections on candidate performance and program changes.
Content Knowledge:
The state licensure tests and LiveText portfolio evaluation demonstrate that our student candidates have a high level of mastery of content knowledge in child development and early childhood education. The candidates in all programs had an above 85% of success rate in passing the state tests. The pasting rate of the BA program was significantly improved in comparison to the rate of last year.
The LiveText portfolio review data, along with other assessment data, clearly suggest that our candidates have relatively less sufficient content knowledge in lesson design, instruction differentiation, and use of technology and assessments in teaching. Therefore, the department developed a new course – Child Assessment to support students’ learning. We started to offer this new assessment course about three years ago, and it may take some time to see significant
improvements. Also, program faculty are considering updating the assessment course by
integrating curriculum, assessment, and differentiation into one coherent class and grant the class more credit hours. Due to the state licensure changes, we are currently in the process of making significant curriculum revisions with both undergraduate and graduate programs. The assessment results will well inform our effort in refining the programs.
Professional and Pedagogical Knowledge and Skills and Field Experiences:
Student candidates’ professional knowledge and skills are demonstrated through APT test, LiveText portfolios, lesson plan evaluations, and competency appraisal. Overall, the data suggest that our candidates have a high level of mastery in this aspect of skills.
The LiveText portfolio review and the competency appraisal assessment implemented during student teaching indicate that our candidatesmight find it challenging in designing a meaningful assessment tool to measure what children know, what they do not know, and how much the children have learned from the candidates’ teaching (i.e., the analysis of impact on learning). Therefore, in the new assessment course and the redesign of existing courses, we need emphasize candidates’ skills in development of appropriate assessments, data analysis, data interpretation, and use of technologies to facilitate teaching and assessment.
One significant change in our program assessment that is taking place in winter 2015 is the implementation of edTPA (Teacher Performance Assessment) with students in licensure programs, during student teaching. The edTPA is transformative for prospective teachers because this performance-based evaluation requires candidates to actually demonstrate the knowledge and skills required to help all students learn in real classrooms. We are working on integrating this assessment into program courses to support students on a continuous basis, so that they will be ready to take this high-stake performance evaluation by the end of the program.
The program faculty have worked together and designed several assignments that are closely aligned with the components of EdTPA. Those assignments have been implemented in several program benchmark courses to better facilitate students, and the emphasis has been on using assessments to document teacher candidates’ impact on children’s learning (preschool through 3rd grade). We also expect that the EdTPA will replace some of our existing tools.
Impact on Student Learning
Impact on student learning is mainly assessed through lesson plan evaluation which specifically addresses the topics of how candidatesdevelop pre- and post-assessments to evaluate child learning outcomes, how they interpret data, and reflect on lesson implementation. It has been found that although the candidates demonstrate some evidence in impacting student learning, they also experience difficulties in collecting reliable and valid data. Solutions such as strengthening field supervision have been discussed. Again, we believe that the adaptation of edTPA will shift students’ work and our field supervision. Data collected from edTPA will be efficient in demonstrating impact on student learning (and this is the core value of the edTPA).
Professional Dispositions, Diversity, and Technology Proficiencies
In general, our candidatesdemonstrate a high level of professional dispositions, as rated by themselves, cooperating teachers, and faculty supervisors. However, the competency appraisal and disposition evaluation suggest that the candidatesshow weaknesses in self-reflection and self-critique ability. They received a relatively lower rating on the aspect of reflecting on their practice and striving to makefurther improvement. Videotaping students’ practice and prompting self-reflection are significant components of edTPA. Again, we hope that the assessment can help to promote students’ performance in this aspect.
Data from the portfolio review and Competency Appraisal showed that our candidates are making good progress in mastering diversity proficiencies. Both undergraduate and graduate candidates perform well in working with children and families from diverse cultural, linguistic, and developmental backgrounds and adapting their curriculum and teaching strategies with individual children. The same sources of data also suggest that our candidates receive relatively lower ratings in their technology proficiencies, especially in the area of applying technology to child assessment. As mentioned, we expect that the new assessment tool, edTPA, will push for program changes and help to enhance candidates’ performance in this area.
2. Relation to NCE conceptual framework and outcomes.
As specified in section II, the Early Childhood Education program outcomes are well aligned with the NCE conceptual framework and outcomes. Our program assessment system has
sufficiently demonstrated the ECE program efficiency in preparing high-quality early childhood professionals who meet the NCE conceptual framework/outcomes. Different assessments provide comprehensive, coherent, and convincing evidences that our candidates possess
sufficient content knowledge in child development and learning, know how to design stimulating learning environments to support children’s growth, know how to integrate appropriate
technologies and assessments to address children’s diverse needs, advocate for diversity, and assume professional, leadership roles and responsibilities in the field.
The program assessment is an integrated and significant part of program curriculum. Together, the program curriculum and assessment provide avenues and evidences in meeting the NCE conceptual framework. Our program will continue to promote the quality of program services to maximize our capacity in fully meeting the educational expectations articulated in NCE
conceptual framework.
3. Reflection on the previous year’s assessments and recommendations.
Reflected on the previous year’s program assessment data, we have found some promising improvements in candidates’ performances this year. For example, the state test passing rates increased this year, especially for the undergraduate program. We are nervous and excited about the implementation of edTPA and look forward to using this opportunity to shape and refine our program design and assessment. This year, we also moved all our assessment surveys online to simplify the data entry and management procedures.
The Assessment Council provided very helpful feedback with our last year’s report. In this current report, we have tried to clarify the raised questions through better writing, organization, and articulations on some of the data details.
In summary, as guided by the NCE conceptual framework and outcomes, we will continue to promote program accountability and the quality of service.