Student Achievement Assessment Committee

Learning Outcomes:

Upon completion of the baccalaureate degree, students in the Integrated Language Arts area of the Adolescent/Young Adult teacher education program are expected to:
1. Demonstrate competence of subject matter in the content area of specialization
2. Demonstrate competence in the theories and practices of sound pedagogy
3. Apply theories of human development and learning to plan, implement and assess daily lessons and units of instruction
4. Exhibit professional and ethical behavior when working with students, their parents, other educators and community members.

Annual Report

1. Learning Outcomes assessed this year:

This year, we have focused on assessing outcomes #2 and #3:

2. Demonstrating competence in the theories and practices of sound pedagogy
3. Applying theories of human development and learning to plan, implement and assess daily lessons and units of instruction.

Our rationale for focusing on outcomes #2 and #3 is based on the fact that we now have stronger assessment tools in place to adequately assess these outcomes. As for outcomes #1 and #4, we are still working out lines of communication across our program that will enable us to gather stronger data. We hope to have these assessment tools in place next year.

2. Assessment Methods and Procedures:

.Outcome #2: Demonstrating competence in the theories and practices of sound pedagogy

The principle tool for assessing competence in the theories and practices of sound pedagogy is the Praxis II: Principles of Learning & Teaching (PLT) Exam, grades 7-12, administered by Educational Testing Service (ETS). During the past academic year, we have been working systematically to get accurate scores from ETS that demonstrate the true pass rates of our program completers on the PRAXIS II Principles of Learning & Teaching Exam, Grade 7-12, and we feel that we now have some fairly accurate data to begin a regular yearly assessment of this outcome.

As of the completion of this summary statement, the most recent data we have on Praxis II PLT is from the 2003-2004 academic year. Of all of the BGSU students who took the PLT 7-12 Exam during that time period, a total of 234 out of 248 passed the exam, giving BGSU a pass rate of 92%. This data tells us that, overall, we are successfully preparing our students to understand the principles of sound pedagogy.

However, while these are strong numbers, they are slightly below the state average of 94%. In addition, they represent a slight decline in scores over the four-year period beginning with academic year 2000-2001. The table below shows the passing rates of BGSU students across those four years in comparison to the state averages.

Figure 1: Praxis II PLT Grades 7-12 Exam Scores Four-Year Trend

The table above shows a slight but steady decline of test scores of BGSU test takers over the four-year period. While this is of some concern, the downward trend appears consistent across the state, suggesting that the issue may be related to factors beyond our sphere of influence in ILA.

Furthermore, while these numbers show the trends for BGSU takers of PLT 7-12 as a whole, we currently do not have accurate numbers for Integrated Language Arts (ILA) majors in isolation. Our assessment team is working on a system for parsing these data from the aggregated data, and as those numbers become clearer, we will begin to chart data across academic years.

.Outcome #3: Applying theories of human development and learning to plan, implement and assess daily lessons and units of instruction

In previous academic year assessments, we have used scores generated from the student teacher evaluations submitted at the end of each semester. These represent the competence level of the teacher education candidate as assessed by the cooperating teacher. While these are valid, and we will continue to use them, we are exploring other ways to more directly assess student competencies ourselves. To this end, we have begun to develop an electronic portfolio assessment tool, implemented during the methods semester, which enables the methods teacher to directly assess students’ ability to plan and implement lessons during that semester. Within the portfolio structure, students are expected to provide evidence that they have successfully addressed the four domains and each of the 19 criteria of the Pathwise (Praxis III) assessment program.

For academic year 2004-2005, we were able to collect electronic portfolio data on 40 out of the 65 ILA majors (62%) who came through our methods program. While we recognize that these data do not include every student in the program, they do serve as a representative sampling of students. Our goal is to have this assessment tool in place across the program by the 2005-2006 year. Of the 40 students on which we gathered electronic portfolio data, 24 received an A, and 16 received a B. The average score was 93.3%, on a scale of 93-100. This means that while many students received a B grade, the aggregated data still averages out to an A across the whole sample. Students demonstrated that they understand how to plan and implement effective instruction, but the data leave room for improvement.

3. Inferences from Assessments:

.Outcome #2: Demonstrating competence in the theories and practices of sound pedagogy
While we can make a general conclusion that BGSU students taking the PLT 7-12 are competent at a 92% passing rate, we cannot infer much more from the Praxis II results, since they are not separated out by licensure area. Across the Adolescent/Young Adult Program (AYA), we are not able to determine how the Math, Sciences, Social Studies or Language Arts students do separately. Data are now just beginning to be provided to program coordinators that would illustrate particular trends for each program area. As a result, we are as yet unable to make long-term instructional decisions regarding appropriate coursework, instructional practices, practicum experiences, etc. Data need to be separated by program area and collected for a string of years before strong trends emerge, and before any substantial program changes should be made.

.Outcome #3: Applying theories of human development and learning to plan, implement and assess daily lessons and units of instruction

In previous academic years, the assessment of planning and implementation of instruction was based solely on cooperating teacher (CT) evaluations. The 95% pass rates from last year’s students represent data gathered from CT evaluations, although it is unclear what the method was for generating those scores. For this year’s assessment, however, we piloted an assessment based on the grade methods students received on their electronic portfolio, which was designed to provide students the opportunity to demonstrate their competence in the planning and implementation of instruction. Starting in 2005-2006, this portfolio assessment will be implemented across the ILA program.

The advantage of this new assessment tool is that it enables us in the program to more directly observe the evidence upon which the score is given. We review the portfolio and are able to assess students ourselves, as opposed to leaving the assessment in the hands of the cooperating teacher. From a program assessment perspective, this makes more sense. However, the potential negative of this shift is that our assessment becomes based on the work students do in methods, and not on the work they perform during student teaching. It may be that we choose to implement both assessment tools in the process—a very likely scenario.

4. Actions Taken/Program Improvements:

.Outcome #2: Demonstrating competence in the theories and practices of sound pedagogy

Plans are being made to solidify a way to separate data consistently so that program areas can determine how well students are performing on Praxis II PLT. This is still in progress, and while some glitches from last year have been worked out, there are still inconsistencies in how scores are reported to us at BGSU which make it difficult to translate into the kind of data we need to assess each program accurately. At the moment, only aggregated data are available.

.Outcome #3: Applying theories of human development and learning to plan, implement and assess daily lessons and units of instruction

EDTL 370 has now been developed, and is being taught in the semester before methods. This is a general methods course designed to prepare all AYA majors in lesson planning, classroom management, etc. The goal is that our AYA students (ILA included) will be better prepared earlier to address issues of pedagogy & planning on the Praxis II PLT 7-12 exam, and in their careers as secondary teachers.

In addition, the Electronic Portfolio Assessment is now in place in the methods course. Through the portfolio, we will be able to assess students’ ability to design and implement units and lessons