Assessing Professional Knowledge: Colorado

Delivering Well Prepared Teachers Policy

Look at National Findings

Goal

The state should use a licensing test to verify that all new teachers meet its professional standards.

Does not meet goal

Suggested Citation:
National Council on Teacher Quality. (2015). Assessing Professional Knowledge: Colorado results. State Teacher Policy Database. [Data set].
Retrieved from: https://www.nctq.org/yearbook/state/CO-Assessing-Professional-Knowledge-69

Analysis of Colorado's policies

Colorado does not currently require new teachers to pass a pedagogy test in order to attain licensure.

Recommendations for Colorado

Require that all new teachers pass a pedagogy test.
Colorado should verify that all new teachers meet professional standards through a test of professional knowledge.

State response to our analysis

Colorado recognized the factual accuracy of this analysis. The state added that it has had institutions pilot the edTPA and is exploring assessments for initial teacher licensure. Educator preparation entities are already mapping to the current evaluation standards expected of practicing teachers to ensure adequate pedagogy knowledge. This is part of the current work to update and align licensure rules and assessments.

In addition, Colorado noted that all alternatively licensed teachers are held to the same performance-based expectations as initially licensed teachers using the state’s evaluation system.

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Delivering Well Prepared Teachers

Expanding the Pool of Teachers

Identifying Effective Teachers

Retaining Effective Teachers

Exiting Ineffective Teachers

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Research rationale

A good pedagogy test puts teeth in states' professional standards.
In order to ensure that the state is licensing only teachers who meet its expectations, all standards must be testable. State standards that cannot be assessed in a practical and cost-effective manner have no value. Examples of knowledge that can be tested include the basic elements of good instruction, how to communicate effectively with children, how to use class time efficiently, effective questioning techniques, establishing smooth classroom routines, the importance of feedback, engaging parents, the best methods for teaching reading as well as other subjects, appropriate use of technology, knowledge of testing and the fundamentals of addressing individual learning challenges.

States use too many tests to measure new teachers' professional knowledge that utterly fail to do so, either because the passing score is set so low that anyone—even those who have not had professional preparation—can pass or because one can discern the "right" answer on an item simply by the way it is written.

Performance assessments are an important step in the right direction.
Increasing numbers of states are adopting performance assessments to evaluate teacher candidates' pedagogy before an initial license is granted. A performance assessment can be of much more value than a traditional multiple choice test. However, states need to make sure that such tests are technically sound, especially given the significant resources that it takes to administer and score performance assessments. The past track record on similar assessments is mixed at best. The two states that required the Praxis III performance-based assessment reported pass rates of about 99 percent. a test that nearly every teacher passes is of questionable value. Additional research is needed to determine how the next generation of performance assessments, including the edTPA, compares to other teacher tests as well as whether the test's scores are predictive of student achievement.

Assessing Professional Knowledge: Supporting Research
For evidence of the importance of pedagogy tests in improving student achievement, see C. Clotfelter, H.Ladd and J.Vigdor, "How and Why Do Teacher Credentials Matter for Student Achievement?" Working Paper 2, Calder Institute (2007).

For further information regarding the use of performance assessments and the Teacher Performance Assessment Consortium (TPAC) in California and other states see L. Darling-Hammond, "Evaluating Teacher Effectiveness: How Teacher Performance Assessments Can Measure and Improve Teaching" Center for American Progress, (October 2010).

For a perspectives on the issues with teaching dispositions, see W. Damon, "Personality Test: The dispositional dispute in teacher preparation today, and what to do about it" in Arresting Insights in Education, Volume 2, No. 3, September 8, 2005; J. Gershman, "'Disposition' Emerges as Issue at Brooklyn College," New York Sun, May 31,2005.

For evidence on the low passing scores required by states on pedagogy tests, see the U.S. Department of Education's The Secretary's Seventh Annual Report on Teacher Quality: A Highly Qualified Teacher in Every Classroom. (2010). Also see K. Walsh, "A Candidate-Centered Model for Teacher Preparation and Licensure," A Qualified Teacher in Every Classroom?: Appraising Old Answers and New Ideas, eds. F. Hess, A. Rotherham, and K. Walsh (Cambridge, MA: Harvard Education Press, 2004), pp. 223-253.

State Teacher Policy