Standard 1

Element 1: Content Knowledge for Teacher Candidates

Initial Program Candidates. As can be expected in a unit where Content and Pedagogical Knowledge is a key construct of the Conceptual Framework, the unit works hard to assure that candidates know what they teach and how to teach it well. To begin, the unit selectively admits academically talented high achieving candidates on the “front end.” Admitted candidates for the 2005-2006 academic year had a cumulative mean ACT of 24.4 and a mean core GPA of 3.5 (Tables 1.1 and 1.2). The selection process—and its results—is described in http://soe.ku.edu/ncate/exhibits/admissions.

Some Kansas universities, including KU, require the PRAXIS I Pre Professional Skills Test (PPST) for admission to an initial licensure program. KU candidates pass the PPST, prepare a series of essays, complete rigorous coursework, and submit recommendation letters to be considered for admission to the unit as juniors. In 2004-05 and 2005-06, over 90 percent of the applicants to an initial program area passed the PPST, with passing rates on the mathematics subtest averaging 95 percent. All students admitted to be candidates passed the PPST.

Students who want to be admitted to the unit take T&L 100 as freshmen and T&L 200 as sophomores. The T&L 100 course requires a minimum of eight hours of observation in a K-12 setting where candidates work directly with students and teachers in educational activities. Students are asked about their experiences in these areas when they apply for admission to the unit. Thus, the field experiences in these courses impact directly on the candidate’s preparation for admission into the School of Education.

After admission to the unit, candidates complete substantive majors, professional coursework, and field experiences during their junior and senior years; and they graduate, practice teaching content in their student teaching and internships, and pass PRAXIS II pedagogy Principles of Learning and Teaching (PLT) and content tests as part of the recommendation for licensure at program completion. From Summer 2004 to Spring 2006, there were 329 initial program completers (Table 1.4). PRAXIS II results and other measures of content knowledge for teacher candidates follow.

All programs, as can be seen in Title II reports http://soe.ku.edu/ncate/exhibits/title2 and in summaries in this report, have PRAXIS II content and PLT pass rates well above the 80 percent criterion; and they approach 100 percent. All but one of the 2004-2005 completers passed the PLT in 2004-05 (99 percent). The statewide average was 97 percent. The content assessments were not required for licensure until the 2005-06 school year. Of the candidates who took an exam in 2005-2006, nearly 96 percent passed. Tables 1.5 and 1.6 show pass rates of all initial program test takers from fall 2004 through summer 2006, regardless of their year of program completion.

In addition to the state licensing exams, content knowledge is assessed through such methods as course grades, practice Kansas Performance Assessments (KPAs), lesson and/or unit plans, portfolios, and the Summative Assessment. The lesson/unit plans, practice KPAs, and portfolios are mastery assessments. That is, a candidate cannot complete his/her program without receiving a satisfactory rating on these assessments. Summative Assessment and course grade data follow.

The Summative Assessment. The Summative Assessment, as well as the KSDE Professional Education standards upon which it was based, are shown in http://soe.ku.edu/ncate/exhibits/summative-assessment/ and http://soe.ku.edu/ncate/exhibits/CertHandbook.doc. In short, during their fifth year—the “professional” year—most candidates complete a student teaching experience in the fall and an internship in the spring. Both the university and the clinical supervisor complete exhaustive evaluations, keyed to the 13 KSDE professional education standards, on each candidate at least once for each of the two experiences (for a total of four evaluations per candidate). At the conclusion of the rating, the supervisors give an overall rating to each candidate, judging them as satisfactory or unsatisfactory. During the 2004-05 and 2005-06 school years, only 11 of 911 ratings (1%) were unsatisfactory.

The first Kansas professional education standard measured by the summative instrument is--

The educator demonstrates the ability to use the central concepts, tools of inquiry, and the structures of each discipline he or she teaches and can create opportunities that make these aspects of subject matter meaningful for all students.

On the assessment, the standard is measured by two items. Aggregated trend data (2004-2005 to 2005-2006) for those items and for the standard are shown below. No student received the lowest score from a supervisor in either year. About two-thirds received the exemplary rating.

Scale: 1=has not demonstrated the competency to 4=has demonstrated competency in exemplary way

The data from the fall semesters are gathered at the end of the candidates’ student teaching experience. The data from the spring semesters are gathered at the end of the same candidates’ internship. As can be seen from Table 1.7, candidates know their content.

The Kansas State Department of Education Content Standards. Specific KSDE program standards can be found at the KSDE web site (www.ksde.org), “Regulations and Standards for Kansas Educators.” For example, if a candidate is accepted into the Early Childhood-Late Childhood licensure program, he or she must (among other requirements) take courses that are part of the KU approved program in elementary education. In this program there are seven KSDE standards, six of which relate to content. For example, the second standard is:

The kindergarten through sixth grade teacher knows, understands, and uses the major concepts, procedures, and reasoning processes of mathematics that define numbers and operations, geometry, measurement, data analysis and probability, and algebra so that all students understand relationships that can represent phenomena, solve problems, and manage data.

KU elementary education majors pass a minimum of 12 hours of college-level (college algebra or above) mathematics. Among those 12 are six hours—Math 109 and Math 110—specifically targeted to helping candidates meet Standard 2. The grades for these two courses for all candidates admitted by academic year follow.

The reader can find the same analysis for all candidates on each KSDE content standard in all initial programs on a CD in the Exhibits Room on campus (Exhibit 1a).

In addition to the program reports, content mastery is assured through administration of unit assessments and review of the findings. For initial program candidates, the additional assessments include (1) surveys of candidate employers, and (2) candidate self assessments at the time of program completion via the Educational Benchmarking Inventory (EBI).

The KU Employer Survey http://soe.ku.edu/ncate/exhibits/employer-survey.doc. Employers are surveyed to assess teaching ability and the effectiveness of the unit’s program completers. At least five items on the 24-item survey relate directly or indirectly to content knowledge mastery. The last employer questionnaire was distributed in the spring of 2006. Employers were asked to rate all of their KU-prepared teachers. A total of 289 surveys were mailed; 88 (30 percent) usable responses were received. Seventy-four (85 percent) of the responses were from principals; the remainder were from superintendents, personnel administrators, and department chairs.

The 74 principals, when responding, were rating at least 620 teachers, as each respondent indicated the number of teachers he or she employed who were KU program completers. (Thirty-three principals assessed one to five teachers; 23 reported on six to 10; eight employed 11 to 20; and 10 provided evaluations on over 20.) Responses are reported in Table 1.9 that follows. The responding principals gave most of the 620 teachers the highest rating. Virtually none of the 620 teachers received “below expectations” ratings.

Scale: 1=Below Expectations; 2=Meets Expectations; 3=Exceeds Expectations

Educational Benchmarking Inventory (EBI). When they apply for licensure, candidates complete the EBI to evaluate the program they recently completed. The survey response rate across the years has been between 80 and 95 percent. A hard copy of the EBI survey and responses is available in the Exhibits Room on campus (Exhibit 1.b. The EBI was not administered in 2005 as a result of miscommunication in the dean’s office during a period of leadership change.)

While many EBI items relate to pedagogical and professional knowledge and skills, one question on the inventory relates to candidates’ content mastery. It requires candidates to rate the degree to which Education courses enhanced their ability to teach areas in their content fields. Mean scores on this item for the past four years follow. All scores fall between moderately and extremely, indicating that candidates believe their coursework has enabled them to teach their content fields.

Table 1.10: EBI Data: To What Extent Did Education Courses Enhance Candidates’ Ability to Teach in Content Fields?

Scale: 1=Not at All to 4=Moderately to 7=Extremely

Data from the KSDE program reports and unit-wide assessments—including candidate content course grades tied to standards at gate three, ratings from university and clinical supervisors, PRAXIS II/PLT data, employer survey data, and candidate self assessments—convince faculty in the unit that initial program candidates know their content fields.

Advanced Endorsement Programs for Teachers. The unit offers endorsement programs for teachers in the areas of Gifted and Talented (G&T), English as a Second Language (ESL), and Special Education (SPED). Candidates must hold teaching licenses for admission to the endorsement programs. The G&T endorsement is a 30 semester-hours long program in the department of Curriculum and Teaching’s C&I Master’s degree options. Although there is no accrediting agency specifically for gifted education programs, the National Association for Gifted Children and the Association for the Gifted have collaborated on a set of standards that KU’s program follows. ESL also has its home in the Curriculum and Teaching department. There are two populations of candidates/ students who are admitted to the ESL program. One of these is comprised of international students who are preparing to return to their countries to teach English. They do not seek licensure. However, they enhance substantively the diversity of the overall student body. The second population is primarily U.S. citizens who are licensed teachers and who want to add an ESL endorsement.

Upon admission to the SPED program, candidates can complete endorsements in high-incidence disabilities (such as learning disabilities), low-incidence disabilities (such as severe or multiple disabilities), or deaf/hard of hearing. Completion of an approved program and passing the PRAXIS II content test entitles candidates to apply for a special education license. Internationally recognized expert faculty deliver the program that prepares special education teachers in this Master’s degree program. The program is consistently ranked the nation’s best among public universities. The Council for Exceptional Children’s (CEC’s) model standards were used when KSDE developed its standards, and the state standards reflect CEC’s work. Thirty-three candidates have completed a special education or gifted program and 57 candidates have completed the ESL program since the summer of 2004.

Assuring that candidates, upon admission, have already completed state approved programs and are licensed teachers is the first assessment for the advanced licensure programs. As licensed teachers, candidates have already been judged professionally competent by KSDE. They have also been judged to be academically competent by the University’s graduate school, based upon their prior performances.

Each of the five programs (ESL, G&T and three in SPED) is required to have at least eight assessments in their program assessment plans. The eight include the PRAXIS II content assessment, GPAs in content courses, and a summative evaluation of each field experience, all of which help measure content knowledge. Most assessments are mastery assessments. That is, a candidate cannot complete the program without receiving a satisfactory rating on these assessments. Table 1.12 provides the required standardized assessment of content.

In addition to the added endorsement programs, there are Masters-level programs for the professional development of teachers in the departments of Music and Dance, Curriculum and Teaching, Art and Design, and Health, Sport and Exercise Sciences. All of these programs have research expectations tied to coursework. About half of those who complete these Masters degrees also have their initial licenses from the unit. Those teachers completed the professional year, which is a rich mix of two major field experiences, pedagogy and content pedagogy, and action research.

Graduate and Professional Student Survey (GPSS). In the spring of 2005, the university surveyed all degree-seeking graduate students in the School of Education. The web-based survey was sent to 1,131 potential respondents. A total of 308 valid responses, or 27.2 percent, were received. The survey was developed by the American Association of Universities (AAU) Data Exchange to be administered by member institutions with the intent that the data would be available for comparative analyses. One item is particularly appropriate for this content-based element.

• Eighty-four percent of respondents either agreed or strongly agreed that “program content supported their research/professional goals.”

The survey and its results are available at http://www2.ku.edu/~oirp/GPSS/index.shtml. (OIRP GPSS Final Reports)

Graduate Student Survey (GSS). On a separate survey in 2006, the School of Education surveyed all of its graduate students. A total of 237 (or 17 percent) responded. Two items on the survey relate, albeit indirectly, to this element. Students were asked,

• When you compare the expense to the quality of your graduate education at KU, how do you rate the value of the investment you have made in your graduate program? Seventy-three percent responded that their investment was
  • Good (24% or 57), or
  • Very good (30% or 71), or
  • Excellent (19% or 45).
• To what extent has your graduate program met your educational expectations? Seventy-seven percent responded that their programs either
  • Met their expectations (28% or 67), or
  • Were slightly above their expectations (16% or 38), or
  • Were moderately above (23% or 54), or
  • Were far above their expectations (10% or 23

The unit is confident that program completers have thorough understandings of their fields via completion of standards-based programs, strong academic performance on coursework and field experiences, passing standard measures, and graduation from the program.