In response to national and state trends promoting inquiry-based social studies over the last decade, social studies teacher educators at the University of Kentucky revamped their pre-service program to create alignment around the key inquiry concepts of questions, tasks, and sources. Part of the program revision involved the creation of a new…

How is lesson planning useful? This research study used Cultural Historical Activity Theory and intersubjectivity to answer this questions. This research explored to what extent teacher candidates' lesson plans (i.e., alignment among objectives, assessment, and instruction), and analyses of assessment data mediate their thinking about students'…

Ratings published by the National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ) require selectivity in admission to educator preparation programs. NCTQ provides a list of citations to support the selectivity standard termed "strong support." A review of each citation in the list found little or no support for the standard. Original data was…

This study addresses the issues and challenges faced by university supervisors when providing content-specific and general pedagogical feedback to preservice teachers. Study data highlight the perspectives of six preservice teachers as they reflect on their supervisory experiences over the course of a licensure year. Survey, interview, and written…

This qualitative case study focused on 13 elementary teachers' perceptions of their evaluations. Using multiple schools (5) and teachers (13) we explored the impact of evaluations on instruction. Informed by Pekrun's control-value theory, our analysis focused on teachers' motivations and emotions. Teachers did not value or feel in control of their…

Current accountability trends suggest an increasing role in state mandates regarding teacher evaluation. With various evaluation models and components serving as the basis for quality teaching, teacher education programs need to recognize the role teacher evaluation plays and incorporate aspects where appropriate. This article makes that case and…

This study examined the use of measures of student learning computed using end-of-year assessments (distal measures) versus measures of student learning associated with a single lesson (proximal measures) as criterion scores for the validity of observations of teachers' pedagogical skills. The validity coefficients computed using distal…

In the United States, but not only here, the movement to evaluate teachers based on student test scores has received powerful political and parental support. The logic is simple. From one testing occasion to another students should show growth in their knowledge and skill. Similar types of students should show similar patterns of growth. Those…

The Department of Education is moving to change accountability for teacher preparation institutions to include surveys of the graduates and their supervising principal following paid employment. This study describes one of a number of quantitative studies that examine the validity and usefulness of such follow-up surveys. Using multiple years of…

This article address the falsehoods regarding No Child Left Behind and Race to the Top legislation, the educational reformers' stance that schools are failing, the privatization movement in education, and the issues of technology in the schools. The importance of poverty is emphasized, although policymakers ignore it and advocate school choice as…

The purpose of this study was to investigate summative student teacher evaluation instruments to determine the most common dispositions evaluated by teacher preparatory programs. Thirty-two (32) final student teaching instruments were purposely selected from across the United States and examined. Thirteen disposition categories emerged from the…

Teacher educators have found portfolios to be a valuable way to judge readiness for student-teaching and initial certification as well as an effective means of examining and validating teacher preparation programs. Tension exists between using the portfolio as a product for evaluation and maintaining its focus as a personal examination, synthesis,…

This article describes a full-time teaching internship program, where, in lieu of student teaching, interns serve as classroom teachers in urban area schools. Through a partnership between a university and participating school districts, all interns received intensive mentoring and induction during their first year. Among the program results, were…

In this article the authors analyze the mentoring of an alternate route beginning teacher to better understand mentoring practices in alternative licensure programs and to identify how such programs might more effectively mentor this growing population of teachers. They draw on models of mentoring from traditional and alternate route programs to…