ERIC Number: EJ1317704
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2021
Pages: 16
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: EISSN-2227-7102
EISSN: N/A
Available Date: N/A
Low Inter-Rater Reliability of a High Stakes Performance Assessment of Teacher Candidates
Lyness, Scott A.; Peterson, Kent; Yates, Kenneth
Education Sciences, v11 Article 648 2021
The Performance Assessment for California Teachers (PACT) is a high stakes summative assessment that was designed to measure pre-service teacher readiness. We examined the inter-rater reliability (IRR) of trained PACT evaluators who rated 19 candidates. As measured by Cohen's weighted kappa, the overall IRR estimate was 0.17 (poor strength of agreement). IRR estimates ranged from -0.29 (worse than expected by chance) to 0.54 (moderate strength of agreement); all were below the standard of 0.70 for consensus agreement. Follow-up interviews of 10 evaluators revealed possible reasons we observed low IRR, such as departures from established PACT scoring protocol, and lack of, or inconsistent, use of a scoring aid document. Evaluators reported difficulties scoring the materials that candidates submitted, particularly the use of Academic Language. Cognitive Task Analysis (CTA) is suggested as a method to improve IRR in the PACT and other teacher performance assessments such as the edTPA.
Descriptors: High Stakes Tests, Performance Based Assessment, Teacher Effectiveness, Academic Language, Task Analysis, Preservice Teachers, Summative Evaluation, Interrater Reliability, Standards, Scoring, Evaluators, Difficulty Level, Cognitive Ability, Teacher Education Programs, Kindergarten, Elementary Secondary Education
MDPI AG. Klybeckstrasse 64, 4057 Basel, Switzerland. e-mail: education@mdpi.com; e-mail: indexing@mdpi.com; Web site: https://www.mdpi.com/journal/education
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research; Tests/Questionnaires
Education Level: Higher Education; Postsecondary Education; Early Childhood Education; Elementary Education; Kindergarten; Primary Education; Elementary Secondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: N/A
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: California
Identifiers - Assessments and Surveys: edTPA (Teacher Performance Assessment)
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Author Affiliations: N/A