The Teacher Performance Assessment: A Benchmark for Translation?

Abstract

Program Standard 1.2 for initial teacher education across Australia requires that all graduates from accredited programs have demonstrated that they meet the Graduate Teacher Standards in a classroom setting (Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership in Guidance for the accreditation of initial teacher education in Australia. AITSL, Melbourne, 2016). AITSL (Guidance for the accreditation of initial teacher education in Australia. AITSL, Melbourne, 2016) require that this assessment be valid, reliable and moderated. There is also an underlying policy intention to make graduates not only classroom ready but assessment capable as well. This intention is labelled the pursuit of assessment-centric graduates in this chapter. Findings are reported of the implementation of a Teacher Performance Assessment based on the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers (AITSL in Australian professional standards for teachers. AITSL, Melbourne, 2011). The aim of the study was to make the assessment valid, reliable, moderated and feasible within the context of the current supervisory arrangements for final year teacher education students (TES). These key concepts are reviewed before the reporting of the results of the application of these concepts to a Teacher Performance Assessment (TPA). There are four main implications that can be drawn from the case study. First, steps towards increasing the standardisation of the TPA will improve its reliability but may reduce its validity. Second, the ongoing collection of all five types of validation evidence for the TPA will improve its rigour as well as generate useful benchmark evidence for ITE accreditation. Third, top-down models of TPA implementation might not be as cost-effective as the incremental improvement of reliability and validity in existing models. Finally, the focus on the assessment moderation of evidence sets will direct attention to the refinement of existing protocols such as lesson planning guides and lesson observation forms. The success of the TPA implementation will hinge on whether universities can build the type of proactive partnerships with schools built upon a shared understanding of the intention of the assessment.