Observations with feedback are essential tools for helping aspiring teachers hone their skills. The quality of the observation instrument can greatly improve the feedback that candidates provide.
University of North Carolina at Charlotte
Faculty from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte are developing their own observation instrument focused on literacy instruction. Dr. Adriana Medina, professor and researcher testing the validity of the Observation Protocol to Assess Literacy (OPAL), shares why this tool was developed:
“There was no instrument for assessing literacy [instruction]. In the field, we knew we had to make a change in reading; students aren’t doing well in reading and post-Covid, it is even more of a focus. . . . But there wasn’t any tool looking at student teachers’ literacy instruction the way we were trying to look at it or that aligns with what we know from research in the field of reading education.” Dr. Adriana Medina, professor and researcher
Researchers are now working to validate the instrument and ensure that raters can use it to score candidates reliably. They hope to release it to the field in the near future.
Mount St. Joseph University
In Ohio, Mount St. Joseph University developed an observation instrument known as the Dispositional, Instructional, Content-Specific Evaluation (DICE). This instrument addresses the same topics as the state’s observation instrument for in-service teachers but lowers expectations slightly to be more achievable for student teachers. Candidates are rated on a five-point scale (zero to four); a four reflects that someone is a top student teacher, equivalent to a good novice teacher in the field (rather than being equivalent to a highly effective veteran teacher).
The program is also careful to protect against score inflation on the DICE; they warn candidates that they’re not going to get scores of three or four on their first observation. The goal is to encourage growth. To ensure proper scoring, the program offers in-person training for cooperating teachers and program supervisors on how to use the observation instrument and makes recorded trainings available online as well. All observers complete a sample observation; if the scores aren’t accurate, the program keeps working with them. They’ve found that cooperating teachers and supervisors want to give higher scores than are warranted and so have to push them to score more accurately, since doing so supports candidates’ improvement.
- Read more in the Mount St. Joseph University case study
- Dispositional, Instructional, Content-Specific Evaluation (DICE) observation instrument
Massachusetts
The state developed the Candidate Assessment of Performance instrument, which allows for feedback, growth, and assessment through a version of the in-service teacher observation rubric customized for preservice teachers. The Candidate Assessment of Performance prepares aspiring teachers for the expectations they’ll need to meet as teachers of record and ensures that every new teacher is already proficient in key areas by the time they’ve completed teacher prep.
Iowa
Iowa requires that all student teachers receive a mock evaluation from a school administrator that mirrors the evaluation a first-year teacher would receive. This evaluation should not be used as a high-stakes assessment for student teachers.