Degree Program Assessment Reports

The SLOs for the MEdT program consist of the Hawaii Teacher Performance Standards (HTPS) that can be accessed through the College of Education Wiki for students or they may obtained directly from the Hawaii Teacher Standards Board (HTSB). These standards were issued by the HTSB that licenses teachers within the state of Hawaii. The HTPS are based on the 1992 Interstate Teacher Assessment and Support Consortium (InTASC). Specific learner performance benchmarks for each of the 10 standards are contained within the HTPS. These benchmarks are listed as criteria on the Student Teaching Evaluation that serves as the primary assessment for the MEdT program.

Hawaii Teacher Performance Standards (HTPS)

Standard 1: Focuses on the Learner

Standard 2: Creates and maintains a safe and positive learning environment

Standard 3: Adapts to learner diversity

Standard 4: Fosters effective communication in the learning environment

Standard 5: Demonstrates knowledge of content

Standard 6: Designs and provides meaningful learning experiences

Standard 7: Uses active learning strategies

Standard 8: Uses assessment strategies

Standard 9: Demonstrates professionalism

Standard 10: Fosters parent and school community relationships

(Note: The HTPS are based on the InTASC standards that are undergoing revision at this time. Changes in the InTASC Standards will likely result in parallel changes in the HTPS and these changes will drive modifications for the MEdT Program assessments including the Student Teaching Evaluation in future annual reports submitted to the UH Manoa Assessment Office.)

The SLOs are based on the 10 Hawaii Teacher Performance Standards (HTPS) that were evaluated during student teaching (ITE 610/611) during the 2009 Fall Semester. The Student Teaching Evaluation served as the assessment instrument to measure the knowledge and skills of teacher candidates involved in planning, instruction, and assessment of K-12 students. To pass student teaching, teacher candidates must earn acceptable or target on each of the 10 HTPSs.

The SLOs consist of the following standards and benchmarks as contained on the Student Teaching Evaluation. Three quality indicators for each benchmark are described on the instrument. The three point scale consists of Unacceptable-Acceptable-Target. Each teacher candidate must receive acceptable or target for each standard. Since multiple benchmarks are identified for each standard, the summative score for any given standard is based on the average score of the benchmarks for that given standard.

Standard 1: Focuses on the Learner

1.                 Knowledge of students’ interests and experiences

2.                 Building students’ interests and experiences into instruction

3.                 Enabling and supporting self-directed learners

4.                 Knowledge of student developmental needs

Standard 2: Creates and Maintains a Safe and Positive Learning Environment

1.                   Promotes empathy, compassion, and mutual respect among students.

2.                  Uses effective classroom management techniques that foster self-control, self-discipline, and responsibility to others.

3.                  Models a caring attitude and promotes positive interpersonal relationships. Promotes students’ intrinsic motivation by providing meaningful and progressively challenging learning experiences that enable  student success.

4.                  Promotes students’ intrinsic motivation by providing meaningful and progressively challenging learning experiences that enable student success.

5.                  Provides learning experiences that actively engage students as individuals and as members of collaborative groups.

6.                 Manages a classroom where students are encouraged to reflect, express interests, make choices, set goals, plan and organize, self-evaluate and produce quality work.

Standard 3: Adapts to Leaner Diversity

1.                  Develops rapport with all students.

2.                  Fosters an appreciation of human and cultural differences (and fosters trust, respect and empathy among diverse learners.)

3.                  Adapts instruction to students’ differences in development, learning styles strengths and needs. (And helps every student achieve success).

4.                  Seeks additional resources to support student achievement

Standard 4: Fosters Effective Communication in the Learning Environment

1.                  Communicates openly with all students and others working in the learning environment

2.                  Develops communication skills for active inquiry, collaboration and supportive interaction.

3.                  Encourages self-expression, reflection, and evaluation.

4.                  Models and promotes clear and logical oral and written expression, using Standard English or a target language as appropriate.

5.                  Applies principles of language acquisition & development to the teaching of communication skills.

6.                  Fosters sensitivity to variations in meaning in verbal and non-verbal communication.

7.                  Engages students in different modes of communication.

8.                  Uses the school’s current technologies to enrich student literacy.

Standard 5: Demonstrates Knowledge of Content

1.                  Keeps abreast of current developments in content areas.

2.                  Teaches mastery of language, complex processes, concepts, and principles unique to content.

3.                  Utilizes the school’s current technologies to facilitate learning in the content.

4.                  Connects knowledge of content to students’ prior experiences, personal interests, and real life situations.

5.                  Possess an understanding of technology appropriate to the content (i.e., calculators, microscopes, etc)

Standard 6: Designs and Provides Meaningful Learning Experiences

1.                  Plans and implements logical sequenced instruction and continually adjusts plans based on learner needs.

2.                  Provides learning experiences and instructional methods that are developmentally appropriate and based on desired student outcomes, principles of effective instruction and curricular goals.

3.                  Incorporates a variety of appropriate assessment strategies as an integral part of instructional planning.

4.                  Links concepts and key ideas to students’ prior experiences and understandings, using multiple representations, examples and explanations.

5.                  Applies concepts that help students relate learning to everyday life.

6.                  Provides integrated or interdisciplinary learning experiences that engage students in generating knowledge, using varied methods of inquiry, discussing diverse issues, dealing with ambiguity and incorporating differing viewpoints.

7.                  Teachers for mastery of complex processes, concepts and principles contained in the Hawaii Content and Performance Standards (HCPS)

8.                  Provides knowledge and experiences that help students make life and career decisions.

9.                 Organizes material and equipment to create a media rich environment.

Standard 7: Uses Active Student Learning Strategies

1.                  Involves students in setting goals and standards, selecting tasks, planning, implementing and evaluating to produce quality performance and quality products.

2.                  Helps students to question, problem-solve, access resources, use information to reach meaningful conclusions and develop responsibility for their own learning.

3.                  Provides challenging learning experiences to develop higher order thinking (HOT) skills.

4.                  Varies instructional roles (e.g., instructor, facilitator, coach, co-learner, audience) in relation to the content and purpose of instruction & stu. needs.

5.                  Engages students in active, hands-on, creative, open-ended, problem-based learning.

6.                  Provides opportunities for students to apply and practice what is learned.

7.                  Uses the school’s current technologies as tools for teaching and learning.

Standard 8: Uses Assessment Strategies

1.                  Evaluates students’ performances and products objectively and fairly.

2.                  Uses a variety of appropriate assessment strategies to enhance knowledge of learners and appropriately modifies teaching and learning strategies.

3.                  Involves students in developing assessment standards and criteria. (And engages students in self-assessment activities and encourages them to   set personal achievement goals.)

4.                  Obtains and uses information about students’ experiences, strengths, needs and progress from parents, colleagues and students themselves.

5.                  Uses assessment data to monitor and evaluate students’ progress toward achieving the Hawaii Content and Performance Standards (HCPS).

6.                  Maintains appropriate and accurate records of student achievement and communicates students’ progress to students, parents, colleagues as      needed.

Standard 9: Demonstrates Professionalism

1.                  Reflects on practices and monitors own teaching activities and strategies, making adjustments to meet learner needs.

2.                  Provides and accepts evaluative feedback in a professional manner.

3.                  Conducts self ethically in professional matters.

4.                  Models honesty, fairness and respect for individuals and for the laws of society.

5.                  Demonstrates good work habits including reliability, punctuality and follow-through on commitments.

6.                  Maintains current knowledge in issues and trends in education.

7.                  Works collaboratively with other professionals.

8.                  Participates actively and responsibly in school activities.

Standard 10: Fosters Parent and School Community Relationships

1.                  members to support student learning.

2.                  Consistently seeks opportunities to build strong partnerships with parents and community members.

3.                  Supports activities and programs that encourage parents to participate actively in school-related organizations and activities.

4.                  Establishes open and active lines of communication with parents.

5.                  Utilizes community resources to enhance student learning.

Each MEdT University Supervisor submitted the completed student teaching evaluation to the program secretary who then digitiall recorded the evalutions and forwarded the evaluations to the COE OSAS. The 8 MEdT faculty who served as cohort coordinators submitted completed student teaching evaluations. These faculty were assigned to four cohorts including two professional development school (PDS) complexes, one on-the-job emergency hire cohort, and one Ho'okulaiwi (Hawaiian Immersion) cohort. Additionally, the mentor teachers of MEdT teacher candidates in a traditional student teaching placement including most candidates enrolled in a PDS or Ho'okulaiwi cohort assisted with completing the Student Teaching Evaluation. In this case, the university supervisor (MEdT faculty) reviewed and confirmed the outcomes provided by the mentor teacher. The mentor teachers consist of full-time, tenured K-12 classroom teachers. MEdT teacher candidates enrolled in the MEdT OJT cohort do not have mentor teachers since they are full-time emergency hire teachers. These teacher candidates were evaluated by university supervisors.

Since the MEdT program has a fairly small teacher candidate population, sampling techniques are not required. Rather, the data consists of all of the teacher candidates who completed student teaching and were evaluated with the Student Teaching Evaluation during the 2009-2010 academic year.

At the time of this writing, the MEdT program faculty have not had an opportunity to analyze the results for program review. However, the faculty have begun a complete assessment review process which will result in new assessments based on the NCATE Initial Licensure/Post Baccalaurreat (ILPB) Standards. The data included in this assessment report will help the faculty in designing new assessments including a new Student Teaching Evaluation as well as new assessments addressing "planning to teach" and "impact on K-12 student learning."

Upon initial review of the Student Teaching Evaluation data, the percentage of teacher candidates achieving target on the HTSP standards may affect future revisions to the MEdT program. Results show that the following four standards had 80% or lower percentage at the "target" level with the balance as "acceptable". Although these percentages are quite high, this identifies the weakest areas of the student teaching experience in addressing the HTPS.

HTPS #10 Fosters parent and school community relationships (73% Target, 27% Acceptable)
HTPS # 8 Uses assessment strategies (78% Target, 22 % Acceptable)
HTPS #2 Creates and maintains a safe and positive learning environment (80% Target, 20% Acceptable)
HTPS #5 Demonstrates knowledge of content (80% Target, 20% Acceptable).

The upcoming revisions to the MEdT program assessments as per the NCATE IL/PB program review will focus on maximizing teacher candidate outcomes in these areas. This will have an impact on the student teaching seminar (ITE 611) as well as preceeding MEdT seminars that occur during the first year of the MEdT program (ITE 601/602 & ITE 603/604).

Parent involvement, assessment, classroom climate, and content knowledge may be addressed through advising on the selection of elective courses during year 1. (MEdT teacher candidates are required to complete at least two 3-hour elective courses.)

The development of additional program-wide HTPS assessments addressing lesson planning and impact on K-12 student learning may enhance the assessment process and measure teacher candidate proficiency in the identified need areas. This will have an immediate impact on the teacher candidate outcomes based not only on the additional assessments but also the revised Student Teaching Evaluation.

The Curriculum Map found on #3 of this report is based on the 2008-2009 Assessment Report which linked Hawaii Teacher Performance Standards with specific MEdT courses. The map design is a useful tool for examining program flow, however, it does not accurately address what has become the essential program assessment tool, that is the Student Teaching Evaluation. The Student Teaching Evaluation is completed in ITE 610/611 during the third semester of the four semester program. Assessments addressing other outcomes as noted on the map have not been standardized across the various cohorts so no data was available the other assessments. This issue is being addressed at this time as the MEdT program faculty work to create program-wide assessments based on the HTPS.

Not all faculty in the MEdT program were supervising student teachers during the Fall 2009/Spring 2010 semester, since they taught year 1 teacher candidates who were conducting observation/practicum in K-12 classrooms. Some of the faculty of year 1 teacher candidates did not include the Hawaii Teacher Performance Standards in their course syllabi. This is why 51-80% was selected on page 4 of this report.