MAE completers are prepared with the content, pedagogical, and professional knowledge relevant to the certification area(s) for which they are endorsed by Truman State University. Numerous direct and indirect measures demonstrate the various types of knowledge Truman graduates possess. These measures include DESE-required measures, including GPAs, the Missouri Content Assessment (MoCA), the Missouri Educator Evaluation System (MEES), and the First-Year Teacher Survey Questionnaire (FYTSQ), the Principal of First-Year Teachers Survey Questionnaire, and Truman measures, such as the coursework students complete to earn their content-specific undergraduate degrees and the MAE coursework, Professional Disposition Rubric, Portfolio, Graduate Studies Exit Questionnaire (GSEQ), and Professional Development Plans (PDPs).
Measures Required by DESE
GPAs
While GPAs may not be a universally precise measure, they are often helpful indicators of how thoroughly a student has mastered the requisite course content. DESE requires certification candidates to meet particular GPA thresholds according to category of knowledge: overall, pedagogical, and content. Pedagogical courses consist of the core education coursework that, with some small exceptions by content area, all MAE students are required to take. Content courses are specific to the MAE programs and are grounded in the disciplines and, at the graduate level, candidates complete advanced content knowledge courses. Further, all Truman certification areas exceed minimum DESE content area requirements. Taken together, these GPA measures demonstrate that Truman completers have strong content, pedagogical, and professional knowledge. DESE requires that students earn a 3.0 GPA in approved content courses and a 3.0 in approved professional courses as a component of certification.
Other DESE Required Measures
Missouri Educator Evaluation System (MEES). The MEES is a required assessment for all Missouri intern candidates. Successful performance on the MEES demonstrates that completers have the requisite content, pedagogical, and professional knowledge to be effective educators. All Truman MAE completers have successfully not only passed the MEES assessment but the mean scores for every standard have consistently far exceeded both the minimum and higher target scores. Truman completers’ scores on the MEES assessment offers additional evidence that our completers have the content, pedagogical, and professional knowledge relevant to the credential sought. A total score of 42 on the MEES (from both the mentor and university supervisor’s ratings) is required for the intern candidate to earn certification.
Missouri Content Assessments (MoCA). The MoCA assessments must be completed and passed by the candidate to be recommended for certification and measures both content and pedagogical knowledge. One hundred percent (100%) of Truman students passed the MoCA in the 2018-2019 and 2019-2020 academic years and 97.8% (all but two students) passed in the 2020-2021 academic year. A minimum score of 220 is required on this measure to earn certification in Missouri.
First-Year Teacher Survey Questionnaire. The First-Year Teacher Survey Questionnaire is a state-mandated measure designed to assess how well a completer, at the end of their first year of teaching, feels they were prepared by their EPP. Completers consistently report feeling well prepared with respect to content, pedagogical, and professional knowledge. Almost all of the completers (96%) from 2021 who responded to the survey agreed (28%) or strongly agreed (68%) that Truman prepared them well in their content area. (Please consult the summary document of the last six years of data from this questionnaire for additional evidence of support from prior years.)
Principal of First-Year Teachers Survey Questionnaire. The Principal of First-Year Teachers Survey Questionnaire is a state-mandated measure designed to assess how well a principal believes a given teacher, at the end of their first year of teaching, has been prepared by their EPP. Confirming our completers’ evaluations on the parallel measure, principals also consistently rate our completers as being well prepared with respect to content, pedagogical, and professional knowledge. The data from 2021 demonstrated that 89% of principals who responded to the survey agreed (36%) or strongly agreed (53%) that Truman prepared their first-year teacher well in their content area. (Please consult the summary document of the last six years of data from this questionnaire for additional evidence of support from prior years.)
Measures Required by Truman
Undergraduate Degree and Truman MAE Curriculum Matrix/MAE Coursework
The overwhelming majority of Truman MAE candidates attended Truman as undergraduates (all but two over the past three academic years) and, with the exception of elementary and special education completers, all MAE completers have a baccalaureate degree in the content area or related field for which they seek certification. As a result, completers have a depth of content knowledge that far exceeds state minimum requirements. Further, all MAE students complete at least 12 graduate hours in the teaching content specialty.
Professional Disposition Rubric
In 2018, the MAE faculty adopted a professional development rubric to be used to evaluate all candidates enrolled in courses that included clinical experiences (i.e., ED 388, ED 394, XXX 608G, ED 609G, and additional courses as desired by individual professors). Professionalism, collaboration, and teacher/student interactions are measured using this rubric, with self-evaluations conducted by the students, and mentor and University Supervisor evaluations completed for each candidate as well (except for students enrolled in ED 388 as they do not have a mentor). The scores indicate that candidates demonstrate professional knowledge during clinical experiences.
Portfolio
The portfolio further demonstrates that MAE completers possess content, pedagogical, and professional knowledge relevant to the certification area they seek. Intern candidates wrote reflections and provided an artifact as evidence that they meet the nine MEES Standards in the Portfolio. The portfolio examples used in this report include the names of the interns they indicated that this information could be shared. Beyond demonstrating that they understand the central concepts of the discipline, structure, and tools of inquiry (Standard 1), interns indicated professional knowledge with our two foci–technology and social justice. Pedagogical knowledge is addressed in the majority of the standards (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7). Professionalism is addressed in Standard 8 and Professional Collaboration is addressed in Standard 9. Faculty evaluations of the portfolio indicated a majority of the candidates provided reflections and artifacts that met the standards. The Department Chair contacted students who were missing pieces of evidence or shared if something did not align and why upon reviewing all of the portfolios. In addition, the Department Chair asked permission for exemplars, which we combined to make a sample portfolio for the next interns. (Any identifying information on the exemplars is included with student permission.)
Graduate Student Exit Questionnaire (GSEQ)
When asked the extent to which the graduate program aided graduates in the development/enhancement of content knowledge, 97% of completers who responded to the survey indicated that they highly (32%) or very highly (65%) believed the MAE contributed to their content knowledge. Other areas related to professional knowledge were also rated highly or very highly, such as writing skills (50% and 32%, respectively), oral presentation skills (32% and 51%, respectively), and professional ethics (20% and 79%, respectively).
Professional Development Plans (PDPs)
All intern candidates set professional development goals at the beginning of their internship and at the end of their internship they submit a summative evaluation of the progress made towards those goals through the PDP. The MAE Assessment Committee’s analysis of the content of these PDPs has indicated that students set and meet professional development goals related to content, pedagogical, and professional areas. While individual goals vary, all intern candidate goals are related to content, pedagogical, and or professional knowledge and all candidates make progress towards meeting those goals.