Teacher education has long relied on locally-developed assessments that lack reliability and validity. Rigorous performance-based assessments for preservice teachers have been advanced as one possible way to ensure that all students receive instruction from a high-quality teacher. Recently, performance-based assessments have been developed which focus on the application of knowledge of teaching and learning in a classroom setting. Our book explores factors related to the implementation of teacher performance assessments in varying state and institutional contexts. The contributors, teacher educators from across the country, focus on what was learned from inquiries conducted using diverse methodologies (quantitative, qualitative, self-studies, and mixed methods). Their research encompassed faculty, supervisors, cooperating teachers, and students’ perceptions and concerns of teacher performance assessments, case studies of curricular reform and/or resistance, analyses of experiences and needs as a result of the adoption of such assessments, and examinations of the results of program alignment and reform. The chapters showcase experiences which occurred during high-stakes situations, in implementation periods prior to high-stakes adoption, and in contexts where programs adopted performance assessments as an institutional policy rather than as a result of a state-wide mandate. Endorsements The chapters compiled for Implementing and Analyzing Performance Assessments in Teacher Education edited by Joyce E. Many and Ruchi Bhatnagar, present a thoughtful look at the challenges and solutions embedded in the adoption of teacher performance assessments for preservice teachers. Most chapters feature edTPA, the most commonly used performance assessment now mandated in numerous states and used voluntarily by other programs across the country, and reveal how such assessments shine a bright light on the problems of practice in teacher preparation (stressful timelines, faculty silos, communication with P-12 partners, etc.) when new requirements disrupt the status quo. Each chapter tells a valuable story of performance assessment implementation and approaches that offset compliance in favor of inquiry and educative experiences for candidates and programs alike. Andrea Whittaker, Ph.D edTPA National Director Stanford University Graduate School of Education UL-SCALE Many and Bhatnagar launch the AAPE book series with a curated volume highlighting the contexts in which teacher educators implement and utilize performance assessments in educator preparation. Together, the chapters present research from various viewpoints—from candidates, faculty, university supervisors, and clinical partners—using diverse methodologies and approaches. The volume contributes significantly to the program assessment research landscape by providing examples of how performance assessments inform preparation at the intersection of praxis and research, and campus and field. These chapters provide a critical foundation for teacher educators eager to leverage performance assessments to improve their programs. Diana B. Lys, EdD. Assistant Dean of Educator Preparation and Accreditation School of Education University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Performance-based assessments can provide an adequate and more direct evaluation of teaching ability. As performance-based assessments become more prevalent in institutions across the United States, there is an opportunity to begin more closely analyzing the impact of standardized performance assessments and the relationship to variables such as success entering the workforce, program re-visioning for participating institutions, and the perceptions and efficacy of teacher candidates themselves. Performance-Based Assessment in 21st Century Teacher Education is a collection of innovative research that explores meaningful and engaging performance-based assessments and its applications and addresses larger issues of assessment including the importance of a balanced approach of assessing knowledge and skills. The book also offers tangible structures for making strong connections between theory and practice and offers advice on how these assessments are utilized as data sources related to preservice teacher performance. While highlighting topics including faculty engagement, online programs, and curriculum mapping, this book is ideally designed for educators, administrators, principals, school boards, professionals, researchers, faculty, and students.

This volume reviews the background of mandated teacher performance assessment with an emphasis on policy, privatization, and professionalization. The authors discuss the potential impact of mandated teacher performance assessments on teacher education in the content areas of mathematics, English, and social studies. The perspectives and empirical research examined in this conceptual analysis illustrate the various ways in which the Stanford Center for Assessment, Learning, and Equity (SCALE) Teacher Performance Assessment (edTPA) promises to restructure teacher education in the United States. The authors consider both the affordances and the constraints that teacher performance assessments offer for teacher preparation programs, and conclude by discussing the implications of the intersections among policy, privatization, professionalization, and performance assessments of teachers, as well as the relationship between performance assessments and teacher education. The impact of the edTPA on the development of signature pedagogies in teacher education is also discussed.

As the commitment to performance assessments as a strategy of reform has increased across the nation, so has the controversy surrounding the purposes, development, implementation, and effects of alternative forms of assessment. One of the first of its kind, this edited volume provides an incisive and comprehensive account of the issues pertaining to performance assessments. The 10 papers comprising the volume were originally written to establish a conceptual framework for a three-year U.S. Department of Education, Office of Educational Research and Improvement sponsored national study of performance assessments. Written by leading experts in the field, the papers explicate the central issues regarding the development, implementation, and utility of performance assessments. The topics covered by the papers include: * a discussion of contemporary as well as historical events in the performance assessment movement; * technical characteristics of performance assessments, including reliability, validity, generalizability, and calibration; * conceptualization and calculation of the costs of performance assessments; * the implications of performance assessments on students who have traditionally done less well in American schools, including racial and linguistic minorities; * the fit between performance assessments and organizational change in education; and * the utilization of performance assessment as an instrument of state policy. Readers will find the policy and technical issues covered in this volume to be useful from a variety of academic, research, and policy perspectives including conceptualizing and implementing performance assessments.

Designing Performance Assessment Systems for Urban Teacher Preparation presents an argument for, and invites, critical examination of teacher preparation and assessment practices--in light of both the complexity and demands of urban settings and the theories of learning and learning to teach that guide teacher education practices. This dynamic approach distinguishes the authors' stance on urban teacher assessment as one that can help address social justice issues related to gender, race, socioeconomic class, and other differences, and at the same time promote the professional development of all educators engaged in the process of learning to teach. The contextually bound, sociocultural stance that informs this book promises greater teacher and student achievement. Culminating six years of vital dialogue and focused, local activity among teachers and teacher educators from institutions in the Urban Network to Improve Teacher Education, Designing Performance Assessment Systems for Urban Teacher Preparation presents: *the historical context that was examined for this work, a theoretical framework to undergrad teacher preparation assessment, and design principles to guide the development of assessment systems; *four case studies of participants' struggles and successes in designing and implementing these systems; and *a discussion of the importance of context and current trends in assessment practices in urban teaching. This volume is particularly relevant for university and school-based teacher educators who help prepare teachers to work in urban schools, and for personnel in state departments of education and other agencies who are responsible for certification and beginning teacher support. While the focus is on preparing teachers for urban settings, the theoretical and practical foundations and the case studies have broad implications and provide useful insights for anyone involved in developing and using performance assessment systems--teacher educators, university and school administrators, classroom teachers, and educational researchers.

In the United States, the nomenclature of adult education includes adult literacy, adult secondary education, and English for speakers of other languages (ESOL) services provided to undereducated and limited English proficient adults. Those receiving adult education services have diverse reasons for seeking additional education. With the passage of the WIA, the assessment of adult education students became mandatory-regardless of their reasons for seeking services. The law does allow the states and local programs flexibility in selecting the most appropriate assessment for the student. The purpose of the NRC's workshop was to explore issues related to efforts to measure learning gains in adult basic education programs, with a focus on performance-based assessments.

Winner of the 2017 AESA Critic's Choice Book Award This book provides multiple perspectives on the dual struggle that teacher educators currently face as they make sense of edTPA while preparing their pre-service teachers for this high stakes teacher exam. The adoption of nationalized teacher performance exams has raised concerns about the influence of corporate interests in teacher education, the objectivity of nationalized teaching standards, and ultimately the overarching political and economic interests shaping the process, format, and nature of assessment itself. Through an arc of scholarship from various perspectives, this book explores a range of questions about the goals and interests at work in the roll out of the edTPA assessment and gives voice to those most affected by these policy changes, teacher educators, and teacher education students.