Unit Assessment System Teacher Education at Purdue March 4, 2012

What is our assessment philosophy ?

CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT 3 All components of teacher education at Purdue engage in continuous improvement by gathering and analyzing relevant data and making decisions based on data.

BALANCE 4 The unit balances central coordination of the overall assessment system with encouraging individual offices and programs to develop flexible, creative, assessment system components that fit their mission and foster continuous improvement.

What have we done since the last visit to improve our UAS?

THE FIRST THREE YEARS CI Focus: Initial licensure program candidate assessment system (AFI = clear criteria for performance) –Reviewed the national literature and the Indiana evaluation system for beginning teachers to identify critical instructional skills –Created the Gate C & D rubrics to measure those skills Gate C – Instructional planning skills (usually assessed in methods courses) Gate D – Instructional skills and impact on student learning (usually assessed in student teaching) –Worked with program faculty to align program key assessments 6

THE GATED RUBRIC FOUR SECTIONS PLUS A HOLISTIC SUMMATIVE ASSESSMENT I.PLANNING INSTRUCTION (also used for Gate C) II.TEACHING AND LEARNING EXPERIENCES III.ASSESSING LEARNERS IV.REFLECTING ON LEARNING AND TEACHING EACH SECTION HAS… –3-5 Unit items –Encouragement to programs to add discipline-specific programs ALL ITEMS USE A FOUR POINT SCALE FOR PERFORMANCE RATINGS –Clear descriptions of target behaviors in the cells PROGRAMS ALIGN TO THE UNIT RUBRIC IN VARIOUS WAYS –English Education –Engineering/Technology Education 7

THE PAST FOUR YEARS CI Focus: The operational assessment/decision system (AFI = specification of decision system) –Created a UAS annual report template based on NCATE standards and AFI’s (Annual Assessment Summaries) –Began implementing TEC change decisions based on the summary reports of data CI Focus: Advanced programs for teachers (AFI = Clear criteria for performance) –Reviewed all graduate programs at Purdue to determine which ones aspired to be advanced TE programs –TEC created an advanced program task force to design curricular and assessment structure for advanced programs for teachers –Currently, advanced programs for teacher are redesigned their programs to the new unit framework. 8

CURRENT CI Focus: Program Assessment Systems –Submitted our first SPA program reports in 20 years in March 2011 Results of the national reviews were comparable to national averages Most concerns related to the assessment systems, not the curriculum or outcomes of the program –Submitted our first State program reports in 20 years in December 2011 (one of the first universities in the state to be reviewed under the new REPA standards with the new program template) Results were mixed, as with the national reviews Again, most concerns related to the assessment systems –In Fall 2011, the TEC established Standard 2 at the program level as our continuous improvement focus for Assessment Coordinator met individually with all TE Program Conveners to discuss individualized ways to improve each program assessment system All program faculty are currently working to improve their assessment systems 9

What are the features of our current unit assessment system?

OPERATIONAL DECISION SYSTEM Collaborate Management and Governance –PCC: Informal, networking and support –TEC: Formal governance and unit-level decisions Multiple Sources and Types of Data –OnePurdue student systems –Cooperating teacher, candidate, and employer exit surveys –Performance-based assessments of instructional skills Componential –Office management –Program management 11

OPERATIONAL DECISION SYSTEM 12

CANDIDATE ASSESSMENT SYSTEM 13 Unit and Program Levels Unit Level includes the conceptual framework and related standards, systems for assessing and managing critical transitions, and aggregated performance data from unit wide rubrics Program Level (a) applicable program standards; (b) program assessment systems based on unit guidelines for transitions and key assessments; (c) national or state program review

CANDIDATE ASSESSMENT SYSTEM OnePurdue Transition to Banner –Facilitated aggregated and disaggregated grade reports for content assessment in secondary programs –Facilitated some aspects of Gate audits –DegreeWorks should further improve the integration of the candidate assessment system into the university data system Adoption of TaskStream –Old Purdue performance-based assessment system was locally developed using a P3T3 grant –After last visit, we adopted TaskStream, an outsourced solution –We are currently researching alternative technologies to find a better system for our needs 17

Questions?