Increase Program Quality And Effectiveness

To teach in Texas, degree candidates will demonstrate knowledge and skills to seek certification by the State Board of Education Certification (SBEC) through administered exams developed by the SBEC. 

All candidates seeking initial certification, advanced teacher certification, or certifications for other school personnel must take one or more of the Texas Examinations of Educator Standards (TExES). The Pedagogy and Professional Responsibilities Certification Examination is required of all certification candidates. The remaining examinations directly correspond to the state content competencies that have been identified for the certification desired. These content competencies are aligned with and based on the appropriate state standards and the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) statements, which describe the state mandated curriculum for students. Each TExES examination is criterion-referenced and is designed to measure a candidate's level of content knowledge and skills appropriate for educators in the State of Texas. Each test was collaboratively developed by the State Board of Educator Certification (SBEC), National Evaluation Systems, Inc. (NES), an independent corporation specializing in educational measurements, with additional participation by committees of Texas educators. Individual test items developed to measure the state competencies were reviewed and rated by the various committees of Texas educators to ensure appropriateness of content and difficulty, clarity, and accuracy. These committees also ensured that the test items matched the appropriate competencies and were free from potential ethnicity, gender, and regional biases. The committees also helped prepare scoring rubrics for written response items and training materials for those who would score the tests.

Overall, Post Bacc candidates passing the PPR exam will meet or exceed 85%, both overall and within each Program level. While the accountability system for the state examines scores for each completer cohort and provides for students to repeat the examination if they are not successful on the first attempt, the analysis of pass rates which will be presented here represent the pass rates on the first attempt for all PPR exams taken in 2010-2011. Scores will reflect that at least 85% of Post-Bacc students passed the PPR exam on the first attempt.

Post-Bacc PPR
EC-6 PPR - We do not offer this certification
4-8 PPR - We had no attempters
8-12 PPR - 80% of candidates passed
EC-12 PPR - 91% of candidates passed

The 8-12 attempters did not meet the desired criteria. Overall, inclusive of all attempters in the program, the criteria were met (86%). The two main areas of weakness were domains three and four. Domain Three is titled, “Implementing Effective, Responsive Instruction and Assessment,” and Domain Four is titled, “Fulfilling Professional Roles and Responsibilities.”

More focus will be placed on the Texas State PPR Standards.  Additionally, after the PPR Practice Test, instructors will offer remediation for domains three and four, the identified areas of weakness.  Additional coursework could be required, or test preparation and study directed at these areas may be required.

Certification candidates will demonstrate knowledge and skills in developing effective lesson plans for successful learning outcomes.

During the Instructional Methods Class, candidates write multiple lesson plans. Each candidate selects the best lesson plan to submit as their best representation of a Lesson Plan. The lesson plans are scored/evaluated on information documented in stating the lesson goals, objectives, rationale, standards, materials, classroom setting, student needs, focus, procedures, design of implementation, and closure of the lesson. The Lesson Plan assessment allows our candidates to demonstrate their understanding of:*Establishing a lesson framework;*Designing a supportive learning environment;*Incorporating Instructional strategies; and,*Implementing Evaluation strategies.

85% of candidates during the 2010-2011 academic year will achieve a score of "2 or higher" on the Instructional Methods Class Lesson Plan. The lesson plan format and rubric are in place and ready to use. The Instructional Methods Class Lesson Plans will be appropriate format to measure a variety of learning outcomes. The content of the items in this assessment relate directly to the planning, implementation, and assessment of instruction that teachers encounter when teaching.

Lesson plan scoring is still being collected via the "old method," so scoring is not in line with the criteria.

However, data collected does reveal that 100% of candidates scored "acceptable" and/or "target" in all four categories of the scoring rubric for lesson plans.

 As previously stated, the rubric for the Methods Block Lesson Plan Assessment will be redesigned for the 11-12 academic year to reflect an overall score for each candidate. Areas of weakness identified in our analysis indicate a need for additional support for candidates in two primary sections. Faculty will work with candidates in “Designing Supportive Learning Environments” and “Instructional Strategies.”

Degree candidates will demonstrate effective planning for teaching essential knowledge skills.

The Teacher Work Sample (TWS), adapted from The Renaissance Partnership for Improving Teacher Quality Project (http://fp.uni.edu/itq), is a performance assessment designed to demonstrate evidence of Sam Houston State University candidates' ability to facilitate learning for all students. This sample illustrates the candidate's ability to plan, implement, modify and assess instruction during their student teaching semester. Prior to the student teaching semester, candidates choose one (12 to 14 week) placement or two (6 to 7 week) placements. During the first 6 to 7 weeks of their placement, candidates are required to create and teach a unit as a Teacher Work Sample. After consulting with their mentor teacher about the unit focus, candidates teach a minimum of five lessons from the unit in their mentor's classroom. Additionally, the candidates are evaluated on their unit planning and teaching of unit lessons. They are also required to reflect on their decision-making and teaching practice including their impact on student learning. The Teacher Work Sample (TWS) focuses on seven teaching processes that are crucial for effective/reflective teaching and must be considered when planning for the learning of all students. Each process is defined by a performance standard, specific task, a student prompt and a rubric that identify the desired performance of the candidate related to that process.

85% of candidates in the 2010-2011 academic year will achieve a score of "3" or "High 2" on the Teacher Work Sample. As recommended by the Renaissance Group, each candidate's Teacher Work Sample is blindly scored by a minimum of two trained scorers. Each scorer evaluates and assigns a score of three (target), two (acceptable), or one (unacceptable) to each indicator, Additionally an overall score of three, two or one is given to each of the seven processes as well as an overall three, two or one to the entire Teacher Work Sample. If the first two scorers agree on the overall Teacher Work Sample score, the scoring process is complete. However, if the two scorers do not agree the Teacher Work Sample is scored for a third, possibly fourth time, until agreement is reached. Once agreement is reached on the Teacher Work Sample score, the overall scores are sent to the student teachers. Based on the results on the TWS in 2008-2009, the faculty has decided to review the portion of the TWS that is taught in each of the classes that are part of the Post Baccalaureate Alternative Route to Certification Program. The connection between each of the seven sections of the TWS that are taught in each course will be more clearly identified in module assessments. Further, during the internship semester; one seminar will be devoted to peer review of drafts of the TWS.

We were not able to delineate between a score of "2" and "High/Low 2." However the data did reveal that 95% of our candidates in the Post-Bacc program scored either "3" or "2" on their TWS. Problematic areas for those not scoring a “2” or “3” were “Contextual Factors” and “Assessment Plan.”

We will offer extensive support for student teacher candidates and interns to assist them in meeting the Target Criteria for the Teacher Work Sample.  Additionally, we will offer more constructive feedback on the seven components of the TWS embedded in the coursework, especially the areas of “Contextual Factors” and “Assessment Plan,” which were identified as weaker than other areas.