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Prospectus: Using Practice Test in Assessment of Teacher Preparation Program Jerzy Mogilski, Jorge E. Navarro, Zhong L. Xu University of Texas at Brownsville and Texas
Southmost College What was assessed? In the state of Texas, The
State Board for Educator Certification (SBEC) adopts the accreditation
standards for programs that prepare educators and administers the Examination
for the Certification of Educators in Texas (ExCET). Program Accreditation
rates are based on the ExCET pass rates which are first year pass rate (which
reflects performance during the year the tests are initially taken) and
cumulative pass rate (it is based on performance over the two-year period). To
be rated “Accredited” a program must achieve 70% first-year pass rate or an 80%
cumulative pass rate. Otherwise, SBEC rates programs as “Accredited Under
Review” or “Not Accredited”. Our study, which started in
the Fall of 1997, was motivated by a major concern of the Administration of the
University and the Department of Mathematics about the poor performance of our
students in the ExCET for secondary mathematics teachers. This 5-hour exam
consists in average of 90 to 100 multiple-choice questions covering 41
competencies which are grouped into 5 domains: (1) Mathematical Foundations,
(2) Algebra, (3) Geometry, (4) Trigonometry, Analytic Geometry, Elementary
Analysis, and Calculus, (5) Probability, Statistics, and Discrete Mathematics. In order to understand the
reasons for the poor ExCET performance of our students, we analyzed the
correlation between the curriculum for the mathematics major and the ExCET
competencies. Using this correlation, we conducted a systematic assessment of
student learning in mathematics for the teacher preparation program. Based on
our studies, we found ways to significantly improve the performance of the
students taking the ExCET. We offered the students workshops, tutoring, special
courses and practice tests. We prepared special study material for them. The
assessment that we conducted lead to changes in the mathematical curriculum. In recent years our students
have been very successful in passing the ExCET. The table below shows the
passing rates in the ExCET for the last five years.
Mechanism of the
Assessment Although the ExCET is very
good in evaluating students’ knowledge in the field of mathematics, we could
not use it in our assessment because the only information SBEC provides is the
student’s grade. Fortunately, we found another test which served as our
measuring tool; the ExCET Practice Test produced for SBEC by committees of
Texas educators and National Evaluation System, Inc. This test is strongly
correlated with the ExCET and is designed to assist staff at educator
preparation programs in providing feedback on candidate performance in relation
to the ExCET test framework. Since the Fall of 1997 the
ExCET Practice Test has been adopted as the Mathematics Benchmark Test and it
has been administrated to more than 255 students. A part of this report
summarizes the results of our five year study. The Mathematics Benchmark Test
consists of 150 questions equally representing the 41 competencies in the ExCET
and spread among the 5 mathematical domains listed above. In addition, the
authors of the report have divided the 41 competencies into 20 competency
groups to obtain a clear correlation between the competencies in the test and
mathematical topics taught in the Math Major program. The questions in the test
are in multiple choice format and typically it takes six hours to complete the
test. The construction of the test provides a clear connection between the
questions and the competencies and serves as an excellent diagnostic tool. The advantage of using the
Benchmark Test is that it is free to the student and we grade it and perform
the item analysis according to our needs, which lets us pinpoint the areas
where the particular student is weak. This information reflects in short term
in the tutorial we provide to the student, and in the long term, in revising
curriculum and improving teaching. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||