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 2011-2012. Scores will reflect that at least 85% of Post-Bacc students passed the PPR exam on the first attempt.

Weaker areas last year were domains three (instruction and assessment) and four (professional roles and responsibilities).  We are eager to determine if our interventions improved these areas.

Candidates have several more opportunities to take and pass the PPR exam before the year is complete. This data is based on first attempts. The EC/8-12 PPR pass percentage for Post-Bacc candidates was  85.3% for the 2011-2012 year.  We barely met the criterion, which we will leave in place for the coming year.  Weaker areas were once again instruction and assessment as well as professional roles and responsibilities.

The state of Texas has changed the requirement for all candidates seeking certification. From this year on, all candidates will take the EC-12 PPR exam. For this reason, we will work very hard to make sure all candidates are familiar with all ages and stages of development.  We will focus more diligently on the areas of instruction and assessment as well as professional roles and responsibilities, areas still in need of iimprovement.

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.

90% of candidates during the 2011-2012 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.

Our goals this year were to focus intensity “Designing Supportive Learning Environments” and “Instructional Strategies,” weaknesses that emerged last year.  We anticipate improvement in these aeras.

100% of the Post-Baccalaureat candidates demonstrated mastery of the ability to plan an effective lesson by meeting the standard of a score of 2 or 3.  The overall improvement was also demonstrated in the Evaluation Strategies portion of the lesson plan.

We may need to break our criterion into two parts:  a percentage for the acceptable (2's) and target (3's).

Since 100% of candidates demonstrated mastery on this assessment, the faculty would like to focus on improving modifications in instruction.  Our candidates must be able to demonstrate planning, implementing instruction, assessing instruction and modifying instruction for all learners.  The area of modification of instruction for all learners is where the faculty want to focus in the future.  The goal of “Candidates will be able to plan an effective lesson” will be replaced because this goal has been met.

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.

95% of candidates in the 2011-2012 academic year will achieve a score of "3" or "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.

Weaker areas last year included “Contextual Factors” and “Assessment Plan.” We anticipate these areas will have improved this year.

96.5% of candidates achieved a score of "3" or "2" on the TWS.  Assessment still manifests itself as a weaker area for us, although still acceptable.  With such a high percentage scoring acceptable or target, we may want to separate the criteria and focus on the target scores.

The scoring procedures for the TWS were changed which led to the "leveling off" of scores.  We expect to see the score average rise each semester.  The dip this academic year was expected with the new scoring procedure.

Each semester, the faculty in the alternative certification program plan and implement new strategies based on assessment data to assist our candidates in successfully completing the Teacher Work Sample.  This is evident in that at 96.5% of all candidates met the minimum standard.

Since 96.5% of candidates demonstrated mastery on this assessment, the faculty would like to focus on improving modifications for instruction for all students.  Our candidates must be able to demonstrate planning, implementing instruction, assessing instruction and modifying instruction for all learners.  The area of modification of instruction for all learners is where the faculty will focus in the future.  Therefore, this goal will be modified in the future to investigate how candidates specifically modify instruction for all learners.