Professional GPA
In the professional courses of the MAE, students have theory regarding learning environments in ED 388 Exploratory Field Experiences, ED 393 Clinical Experiences in Teaching (3 credits), ED 593 Psychology Foundations of Education (3 credits), ED 605G Psychology of the Exceptional Child (3 credits), ED 607G Applied Educational Psychology (3-4 credits), and ED 632G Research/Applied Educational Psychology (4 credits). Students apply that knowledge in ED 609G Teaching Internship (8-17) hours and their earlier clinical experiences. Earning a 3.0 GPA in these courses as required by DESE is an indication of meeting these skills.
MEES
Successful performance on the MEES demonstrates that candidates understand and can create learning environments based on how students learn, develop, and differ in their approaches to learning (Standard 2), create a positive classroom environment (Standard 5), and engage in professional collaboration to enhance student learning (Standard 9). All Truman MAE completers have 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 intern candidates’ scores on Standard 5 of the MEES assessment, which assesses intern candidates’ understanding of how to create productive learning environments.
First-Year Teacher Survey Questionnaire (FYTSQ)
Truman completers create and develop productive learning environments because they understand how students learn, develop, and differ in their approaches to learning, create positive classroom environments, and engage in professional collaboration to enhance student learning. Ninety-three percent of completers from 2020-2021 indicated that they agreed (38%) or strongly agreed (55%) that they were prepared to design lessons that included differentiated instruction and 94% agreed (30%) or strongly agreed (64%) that they were prepared to create a classroom environment that encourages student engagement. Further, 98% agreed (39%) or strongly agreed (59%) that they were prepared to collaborate with colleagues to support student learning, The responses to these three items offer support to that claim that Truman completers are able to create productive learning environments. (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
Principals of 2020-2021 first-year teachers offer further support that Truman completers create and develop productive learning environments, with 82% agreeing (46%) or strongly agreeing (36%) that completers were prepared to design lessons that included differentiated instruction and 82% agreeing (42%) or strongly agreeing (40%) that they were prepared to create a classroom environment that encourages student engagement. Eighty-eight percent of principals of 2020-2021 completers agreed (46%) or strongly agreed (42%) that they were prepared to collaborate with colleagues to support student learning. (Please consult the summary document of the last six years of data from this questionnaire for additional evidence of support from prior years.)
Portfolio
In the portfolio to address MEES Standard 5, we have three exemplars from this year’s interns. One of them is from a secondary history course with the use of bell ringers. Another is from an elementary classroom and then finally from a Spanish high school setting. Based upon the depth of reflection and/or examples provided in the portfolio, a majority of our students are prepared to create productive learning environments.
MAE Completer Survey
The 2018-2019 completers were asked several questions about teaching that we could tease out to indicate that they were well prepared to create productive learning environments and use strategies to develop productive learning environments. Ninety-one percent of participants agreed or strongly agreed that they were prepared in classroom management to serve their current student population, to align appropriate instruction with content knowledge to teach, to create effective lesson plans to deliver quality instruction, to teach with cultural responsiveness, to use a variety of research-based instructional strategies to encourage critical thinking and problem solving, to communicate with students to foster active inquiry in the classroom, and to use summative data to drive instructional decision making. The 2017-2018 completers reported 87.5% agreed or strongly agreed in all areas as well, with the exception of culturally responsive teaching where they felt less prepared.
School Partnership and Outreach
In our work with our school partners, creating a productive learning environment is key as we are often placing students at multiple levels of clinicals in multiple districts in a variety of settings. University Supervisors work directly with mentors and often have long-standing relationships in schools throughout the years. Paramount to our purpose is to increase K-12 student learning. Therefore, we institute the professional disposition rubric, the MEES, and other measures to ensure that our students are performing in a way that is conducive to a positive and productive learning environment. If they are not, we address it immediately and take steps to ensure that change is made and our students can be successful as completers in this aspect.
Professional Disposition Rubric
Data from our Professional Disposition Rubric in the teacher/student interaction section addresses behaviors that support the claim that Truman completers create a productive learning environment. The majority of our students are rated highly on this measure by University Supervisors, mentors and themselves.