Assessment System
School of Education Assessment System (PDF 267KB)
School of Education Transition Points (PDF 56 KB)
The Assessment System used by the Adelphi University Ruth S. Ammon School of Education serves three primary functions: (1) assessing teacher candidates' knowledge, skills, and dispositions, (2) reviewing specific teacher education programs within the School of Education, and (3) evaluating the entire Professional Education Unit.
In addition to providing systematic assessment and review of its own internal standards for professional education (reflected in its "Conceptual Framework"), the School of Education must also align its standards with State of New York and NCATE (National Council for the Accreditation of Teacher Education) standards. Each standard must be comprehensively addressed by at least one assessment, or component of an assessment. Furthermore, each program within the School of Education must provide evidence of candidate mastery of specialized professional association (SPA) standards.
In this brief overview of the Assessment System, the assessment of teaching candidates, the evaluation of specific programs, and the review of the entire unit are addressed in turn. A final section summarizes implementation plans, including data feedback loops to ensure continued evolution and refinement.
Assessment of Teacher Candidates:
The faculty and administration of the Ruth S. Ammon School of Education have approved overall guidelines for the assessment of candidates' knowledge, skills, and dispositions. These guidelines include:
- The use of intended learning outcomes that are subsumed as proficiencies under the goals and values of the School's Conceptual Framework. (These proficiencies are aligned with state and national standards, as mentioned above.)
- The recognition of key transition points, allowing for progressive assessment of outcomes as students move from applicant status, through candidate performance, and ultimately to professional practice as graduates of the program.
- The utilization of multiple assessment tools at multiple levels of analysis. These tools, many of which have been in place for years, allow for the tracking of important variables related to both candidate performance (e.g., entering GPAs for program admission, student teaching evaluations, state examinations, and graduating GPAs) and program and unit quality (e.g., course evaluations and alumni and employer surveys).
- The development and incorporation of program-based portfolios as a new formative and summative assessment tool. Portfolio-based assessments, such as assignments in specific courses and at transition points, are unique to individual programs, although certain "benchmarks" are designed to provide evaluative information to the entire unit.
Program Review:
Each of the twenty teacher education programs offered by the Adelphi Ruth S. Ammon School of Education has developed its own student outcomes assessment plan. Each plan must conform to overall unit guidelines for candidate assessment (see above), in addition to reflecting the standards of its specialized professional association (SPA).
For the School of Education to receive NCATE accreditation, programs within the School must be formally reviewed and receive national recognition from their respective specialized professional association (SPA). Although SPA requirements are customized to conform to the standards and assessments unique to each discipline, there is substantial overlap. For the initial review, all programs must submit a report including the following sections:
1. Context: General information on the program
2. List of Assessments: The name, type, and administration point for each of 6-8 assessments. Of the 6-8 assessments, 5 are required and must address the following areas:
- State licensure examinations of content knowledge
- At least one additional assessment of content knowledge
- An assessment of candidate ability to plan instruction, or (for non-teaching fields) to fulfill identified professional responsibilities
- The evaluation of clinical practice; and
- An assessment that demonstrates candidate effect on student learning, or (for non-teaching fields) the ability to create supportive learning environments.
3. Relationship of Assessments to Standards: An indication of which of the assessments listed above provide evidence of meeting specific program standards.
4. Evidence for Meeting Standards: Documentation of assessment results, using scoring guides/rubrics and data tables.
5. Use of Assessment Results:A description of how faculty are using the data from assessments to improve candidate performance and the program, as it relates to content knowledge; pedagogical and professional knowledge, skills, and dispositions; and student learning.
In addition to disciplinary distinctions, SPA requirements also differ by candidate status: The standards for preparation of "initial" teacher candidates – those without prior teaching credentials – differ somewhat from the standards for preparation of "advanced" candidates – those with teaching credentials who are seeking further training. For example, the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC), one of the specialized professional associations working with NCATE, requires advanced programs to build on initial standards by identifying areas of focus or specialization. NAEYC also requires what it terms "essential professional tools" for all advanced candidates, and "additional competencies" for some specializations.
Evaluation of the Professional Education Unit:
NCATE accreditation requires the satisfactory accomplishment of six performance-based standards. The two most centrally focused on teacher candidates' performance and institutions' systems for reporting and tracking that performance are Standards 1 and 2:
Standard 1: Candidate Knowledge, Skills and Dispositions expects that candidates preparing to be teachers or other school professionals know and can demonstrate the content, pedagogical, and professional knowledge, skills, and dispositions necessary to help all students learn. Candidates should know the subject matter they plan to teach and have knowledge of instructional strategies to help all students learn. They are expected to be able to assess student learning and create meaningful learning experiences for all students. Candidates for other school personnel roles are expected to have the professional knowledge expected in their field and to be able to create positive environments that support student learning.
Standard 2: Assessment System and Unit Evaluation expects that the professional education unit has an assessment system that collects and analyzes data on applicant qualifications, and candidate and graduate performance. It is expected that the teacher preparation institution assesses a candidate's competence before admission to a program, during the course of the preparation program, including assessment of field-based and clinical experiences, and before the completion of the program and/or recommendation for licensure. Multiple assessments should be used, and must include performance-based assessments.
At the Adelphi University Ruth S. Ammon School of Education, quantitative and qualitative data resulting from myriad assessment tools are aggregated at the unit level, allowing for triangulated measures of success. Some of these tools are specific to candidate achievement, including test scores and cooperating teacher feedback, while others, such as course evaluations, student satisfaction measures, and faculty surveys, focus on instruction. Still other measures, including results of employer surveys, provide insight to unit quality as seen by members of the professional community.
Implementation:
Adelphi's School of Education has created an assessment database in a newly established centralized NCATE office. This office serves as a unified location for the compilation of both program-specific and unit assessment results, including existing data that are stored at the university level. More specifically, the database
- provides support for NCATE and SPA reporting needs,
- provides programs with a system to track students' progress, and
- provides a platform to support data-based decision making.
By locating this function in a single office, the unit has enabled more timely collection, analysis, and distribution of candidate performance data.
The Assessment System calls for cyclical (semester by semester and annual) evaluation. Oversight is the responsibility of the School of Education's Assessment Committee, which includes representatives from each of the certification programs, the office of School/Community Partnership, the office of the Dean, and the Faculty Center for Professional Excellence.
Implementation is carried out within each program, where faculty are responsible for collecting data on candidate performance and progress. (The Assessment Committee and School of Education NCATE office provide support for this data collection function.) As mentioned previously, staff associated with the NCATE office are responsible for aggregating and analyzing data provided by the various programs.
The NCATE office places candidate performance and progress data, including such internal and external measurements as GPAs, state test scores and portfolio scores, in program data books for directors to use with their program faculty. These data books are updated each semester. At the end of each year, benchmark data are aggregated across each transition point of each program. The program data books are also used to track candidate progress. For individual candidates, each of the portfolio transition points provides summative judgment about qualifications relative to recommending movement to the next stage of the program.
The program feedback loop is completed as directors submit a report each semester detailing the number of candidates at each transition point; the number of candidates who were successful (or unsuccessful) or left the program at each transition point; any changes made to assessment tools, including the development of revised assignments and/or rubrics; program or course changes as a result of assessment data; and a summary of feedback provided to faculty and candidates.
A unit data book presents and aggregates program-based assessment measurements. It also includes data for which the unit as a whole is the sole level of analysis, including results of alumni surveys. Using these comparative and holistic data sources, the School of Education can come to summative judgments regarding the quality of its twenty certification programs. It can also use these data to analyze its overall success at meeting the education needs of today's society.
