Assessment with an “End in View”

Abstract

Abstract This article uses CitationDewey's (1938) concept of "end in view" to frame one California State University's purposeful action in implementing the Performance Assessment for California Teachers (PACT). The authors provide a chronology of events that reveal the ways in which teacher education faculty were engaged in examining PACT outcomes and candidate performance through informal, "mock scoring" events, and the design of formative, embedded signature assessments, and the resulting changes in the program assessment system, curriculum, and instructional practices. The article closes with concerns and suggestions for sustaining the "end in view" during high-stakes and low-budget circumstances. Notes 1Faculty had long lamented that some students in the credential and MA programs had limited writing skills. To this point, the department had established an "academic writing workshop" led by a veteran faculty member around the same time that we were engaged with substantial PACT piloting. While not directly related to PACT implementation, faculty became more likely to refer students to this resource throughout this time. Further, faculty became more consistent in noting campus resources in course syllabi and referring students to them as necessary and in providing more feedback on candidate writing by using rubrics that attended to elements of good writing in addition to evaluating course content and outcomes. 2Our colleagues David Whitenack, Patricia Swanson, Grinell Smith, and Judith Schierling have our utmost appreciation for their substantive contributions to the planning and facilitation of these professional development events. 3At the time, Dr. Swanson was teaching in a unique, one-room schoolhouse in a rural community that served children from both middle class and migrant farm working families and many were English learners. She was also leading a significant professional development program in two local school districts focused on teachers' subject matter and pedagogical content knowledge in mathematics, with particular attention to instruction for English Learners. 4To some extent this continuing process is a function of the evolution of the PACT rubrics within the consortium overtime. The PACT rubrics on academic language demands and development were revised again for use in Fall 2010. 5Credit to Professor Mark Felton for the use of puzzle pieces as metaphor/representation of the inquiry in which teachers engage to consider best practices suited to particular needs of children. The puzzle pieces of such inquiry are not intended to be sequential or linear but interconnected and multidirectional.