Program Quality and Effectiveness

Candidates will demonstrate skills to plan, implement, assess, and modify effective instruction for all students.

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.  Candidates score a 1 - they have to redo the assignment; a 2 or 3 demonstrates that the candidate proficiently completed the document.

At least 90% of candidates during the 2013-2014 academic year will achieve a score of 2 or 3 on the Teacher Work Sample. Information on Scoring Procedures: 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 and 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. For this reason, the data presented in the following charts represents the number of scorings not the number of Teacher Work Samples scored. Once agreement is reached on the Teacher Work Sample score, the overall scores are sent to the student teachers.

The criterion for this indicator was not met.  For 2013-2014, 87% of candidates scored a two or three.  The goal was 90%.  A summary of the results is below:
57% made 3
30% made 2
9% made a low 2
0.4% made a 1

Candidates that made a low 2 or a 1 had to work with a faculty member to bring their TWS to target.  After assistance, all candidates made at least a 2.

It has been several years since the TWS prompts and rubrics have been revised to fit with the realignment of the courses.  So, to make the directions and expectations clearer for the students and the scorers, the prompts and rubrics will be edited and revised for the 2014-2015 academic year.

Once the rubrics have been edited and revised, the scorers will have to be trained on the changes.  New and revised expectations will need to be clarified for all who score.  Several training sessions will be held to accommodate as many schedules as possible.

Candidates will demonstrate mastery of the state-mandated pedagogy standards.

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). These 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 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.

Separate standard-setting panels were convened to review statistical data about candidate scores from initial pilot studies of the tests during their development. Recommendations were forwarded to the SBEC, which made the final decisions about establishing passing scores. TExES examinations are centrally administered by SBEC and NES at pre-determined sites and on pre-established dates across Texas similar to many of the national achievement tests. This regime provides for a professional, equitable, and secure testing environment for candidates. Alternative testing arrangements are also permitted for those requiring special consideration. Sites are selected after a careful review of security and accessibility potential, and the quality of overall testing conditions. Tests are scored centrally.

First time pass rates on all levels of the Pedagogy and Professional Examinations will exceed 87%. 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 faculty decided to focus on the first time pass rate instead of the overall pass rate for the 2013-2014 academic year. 

As the certifying examination is transitioning to all-level, we are seeking to expand candidate deep knowledge to include developmental all public school levels of development.

The criterion for this goal was met.  The pass rate for first time test takers on the EC-12 PPR for summer 13, fall 13, and spring 13 was 89.8%.  Out of 593 attempts by unique people, 533 passed on their first attempt.

Candidates have one year from the date of their first attempt on the PPR to pass it to reflect positively or negatively on the SHSU Educator Preparation Program.  Since the timeline has shortened from 18 months to 12 months, it is more important for our candidates to pass the exam very early, especially the first time. So, for the 2014-2015 academic year, the Department of Curriculum and Instruction will set a goal of 92% first time pass rate.

During the 2014-2015 academic year, the faculty will realign the undergraduate courses to better reflect the state standards, the ELPS standards, and the ISTE standards. This realignment will ensure that all candidates receive the highest level of teacher preparation possible  allowing more candidates to pass the exam on the first attempt.

Visibility and Impact

The Department will involve all faculty in recruitment efforts to increase  enrollment in all programs.

All recruitment efforts for the 2013-2014 academic year will be documented by Dr. Bob Maninger, our recruitment coordinator, along with the names of the faculty members who attended the event.  We also document which recruitment strategies yield the most enrolled students.

As reported last year, our newly named recruitment director will organize, gather materials, set up booths, and keep the recruitment log for the 2013-2014 academic year.

All C&I faculty participated in recruitment activities during the fall semester.

All C&I Faculty participated in recruiment activities during the spring 2014 semester.

Each program will increase enrollment from fall 2013 to fall 2014.  This information will be gathered for each program as well as for the department overall.

All full time faculty were involved with department recruitment efforts in academic year 13-14.  Despite these efforts, our enrollment did not increase.

As a department, it is important for everyone to be involved in recruitment.  We will continue to log the faculty efforts in recruitment for all programs.

Faculty Excellence

Increase Curriculum and Instruction faculty productivity through contributions to the field in publications and presentations.

Annual professor to publication ratio for Curriculum and Instruction compared to 2012-2013. Each professor will report on their FES document all publications. The total number of publications for all professors will be divided by the total number of professors. This will be converted to a percentage. This percentage will be compared to the percentage from the 2012-2013 FES reports. We are looking for an increase from year to year, not necessarily a statistically significant increase.

Faculty publication results were flat.  They remained the same as the 2012-2013 academic year.

09-10 - 2.11 average publications
10-11 - 2.00 average publications
11-12 - 2.73 average publications
12-13 - 1.98 average publications
13-14 - 1.98 average publications

Annual professor to presentation ratio for Curriculum and Instruction compared to 2012-2013. Each professor will report on their FES document all presentations. The total number of presentations for all professors will be divided by the total number of professors. This will be converted to a percentage. This percentage will be compared to the percentage from the 2012-2013 FES reports. We are looking for an increase from year to year, not necessarily a statistically significant increase.

Faculty Presentation rate increased slightly.

09-10 - 5.1 average presentations
10-11 - 4.3 average presentations
11-12 - 5.6 average presentations
12-13 - 4.9 average presentations
13-14 - 5.1 average presentations

As tenure and tenure track faculty, it is very important that we engage in scholarly activities.  Faculty are supported with travel funds and encouraged to work together to publish.  These activities will continue.