Example Reporting of Assessment #1

Updated May 31, 2008

Example Reporting of Assessment #1

Description of the assessment

Biology licensure students take Praxis II test 0235. Our candidates take the test usually late their junior year or during their senior year here at GenericUniversity. We do not have a Master’s program nor do we have post degree students, therefore our data are not disaggregated by program.

Alignment with NSTA standards

The Praxis II science tests (biology 0235, chemistry 0245, and physics 0265) are all aligned with NSTA standard 1a. According to NSTA guidelines, no further alignment is needed to be given in this report.

Data

NOTE TO READER: The following data is only for ONE year – but programs are required to give data for the last THREE years. Also – only Biology is reported, but all Praxis Tests would need to be reported. In addition, data for different levels (bachelor’s, post degree, master’s) would need to be disaggregated.

Table I: Completers in 2008-2009 Biology License only

Completers in 2008-2009 / # candidates / Average / Score range / Pass score
Biology Content Knowledge / 4 / 179 / 178-180 / 148
Basic Principles of Sc. / 4 / 100% / 100%
Molecular & Cellular Bio. / 4 / 84% / 82-86%
Genetics & Evolution / 4 / 72% / 61-83%
Div. life, plants, & animals / 4 / 73% / 61-82%
Ecology / 4 / 42% / 28-63%
STS / 4 / 86% / 73-100%

Reflections

We require student teachers to pass the Praxis II tests before they can begin student teaching. The data above reflect the final scores of the four preservice teachers that have completed our program in the past 3 years. In the past 3 years, we have had 2 preservice science teachers take the test a second time. We examined all of the data and also the two failures carefully. One trend was the low scores in Ecology. In response to the data, we made two programmatic changes. The first was to require that one course, Biology 243 (Ecology), be passed with a grade of a B or better. This course is foundational to the content on the Praxis Biology test. The second was to establish a tutoring program for students that do not pass Praxis the first time. We have been fortunate that our science professors are willing to donate their time to work with individual students as needed. For the two preservice teachers mentioned above, biology professors met with them for 5 sessions. The second sitting of the test were successful in each case.

An additional benefit was that the Biology professors better understand the particular concepts and principles that future biology teachers need to know and understand. We feel that the entire program has benefited from this collaboration.

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