ERIC Number: EJ1212358
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2019
Pages: 18
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0887-8730
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Available Date: N/A
Assessing Rigor in Teacher Education: Do NCTQ's Guidelines Measure Up?
Medaille, Ann; Goldrup, Sharon; Abernathy, Tammy
Teacher Educator, v54 n1 p72-89 2019
The National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ) has stated that many teacher education programs demonstrate a lack of rigor because a large percentage of their course grades come from assignments that are criterion-deficient, lacking specific criteria through which instructors can determine students' mastery of the material. This article applied NCTQ's criterion-referenced assignment guidelines to the courses in one university's integrated elementary teaching program. Ninety-four assignment descriptions from 16 course syllabi were analyzed to determine the type and function of assignment, the level of criterion-reference in the grading scheme, the level on Bloom's Taxonomy, and the weighting of the assignment in the overall course grade. This study found that NCTQ's use of criterion-referenced assignments is by itself an insufficient measure of program rigor; instead, assessments should also include other metrics such as Bloom's Taxonomy and those that account for real-world applications of learning and differences in disciplinary concepts, pedagogies, and expectations.
Descriptors: Teacher Education Programs, Educational Quality, Difficulty Level, Academic Standards, Elementary Education, Assignments, Grading, Grades (Scholastic), Teacher Competencies, Criterion Referenced Tests
Routledge. Available from: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. 530 Walnut Street Suite 850, Philadelphia, PA 19106. Tel: 800-354-1420; Tel: 215-625-8900; Fax: 215-207-0050; Web site: http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Elementary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
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