Educating a Profession: Competency Assessment.

Overview & Synopsis

The responsibility for ensuring that beginning teachers are competent to teach in the nation's classrooms should be that of teacher education institutions, according to the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education (AACTE). Teacher education institutions must employ an assessment system that: (1) assesses specific competencies as early as possible in the candidate's program; (2) employs multiple assessment methods; and (3) monitors student progress continually. Decisions based on multiple assessments should reduce the number of high-risk students while retaining students for whom potential for success has been manifested in a variety of ways. The AACTE document "Educating a Profession: Profile of a Beginning Teacher" outlines competencies that should be assured by graduation from an approved teacher education program and provides a framework for a competency assessment program. Recommended times for assessing prospective teachers' competency include: (1) admission into the teacher education program; (2) enrollment for each subsequent semester; (3) admission into student teaching; (4) graduation from the program; and (5) first year of employment. The model described above is outlined in a chart that indicates what should be addressed, by whom, and by what methods at different points in the program. (JMK)