Assessing student teachers' preparedness: Use of domains in the undergraduate program

Policy emphasis on use of standards for assessments in K-12 education has also affected teacher education. Teacher educators are being asked to use standards for assessment and produce concrete evidence on the skills and knowledge their candidates possess prior to certification. This study examined the assessment data produced in one teacher education program with an aim to identify the purposes these assessments fulfilled for the program and whether these assessments produced the evidence desired by policy makers. This program used the Domains of learning as standards to assess the preparation of its teacher candidates. Three role groups used the domains rubric in the student teaching semester to provide assessments: the field instructors, cooperating teachers, and student teachers (the triad).; Using mixed methods the assessments were analyzed to explore how triad members provided ratings, used the language of domains in their narratives, and addressed assessment purposes of the program through their narratives and ratings. The assessment data from the elementary and secondary cohorts of winter 2004 (n=79 triads), 2006 (n=40 triads), and winter 2007 (n=6 triads) were used for this purpose.; The results showed that the triad members' perceptions of the domains were different from the program's intentions. Different training levels of the triad, different levels of buy in about the utility of these domains, ambiguities in the language of domains, and nature of the four-point scale were important factors that impeded fulfillment of the program's purposes. These differences made the use of assessment data limited for informing the practice of teacher education and as evidence of preparation of the teacher candidates.; These findings concur with others who claim that the lack of research on use of standards in teacher education and inexperience of the field leads to inefficient systems of assessments. This study also highlights the potential that use of standards holds for teacher education programs such as: creating linkages between theory and practice, creating coherence within the programs, serving as tools for self-reflection for the student teachers, and facilitating the process of learning to teach.