Eric.ed.gov – Relating Teacher Candidate Performance to Their Students’ Subject Specific Academic Achievement Using TWS Methodology

Teacher education preparation programs are under pressure from the public to provide evidence that their programs and teacher candidates are improving student achievement. However, the connections between teacher education preparation programs, teacher candidates’ evaluation, and student achievement are often hard to disentangle from other educationally relevant effects. Teacher candidates were formally assessed by their university supervisor during their student teaching semester. Using Western Oregon University’s teacher work sample methodology, we were able to assess the achievement of the teacher candidate’s students. Results showed that students of teacher candidates’ showed 52% gains in knowledge of learning goals. Additionally, improvement in teacher candidate’s teaching ability as measured on an observation instrument was associated with higher gains by their students on the learning goals. Lastly, teacher candidates assessing their students’ learning in the disciplines of science and math showed lower gains on the learning goals when compared to English/language arts, health or social studies. Teacher Candidate Observation Instrument is appended. (Contains 5 tables and 2 figures.)