Colleges’ Assessments of Candidates’ Impact on Students Detailed

The belief that teacher-candidates need to demonstrate they can help their future students learn before they enter classrooms as full-fledged educators has gained strength over the past decade, especially among states. Now, a new book highlights assessments crafted by teacher education programs in recent years with the goal of doing just that.

While approaches vary, the assessments usually require teacher hopefuls to gather and analyze data to show that their students are learning; to pretest and post-test students to gauge what they have learned and tailor teaching based on that information; and to tailor individual plans for students who are not learning, said officials from the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education, which published the book, It's All About Student Learning, Assessing Teacher Candidates' Ability to Impact P-12 Students .

The publication highlights assessments from 13 teacher education programs, including Teachers College, Columbia University; Vanderbilt University, in Nashville, Tenn.; and Alverno College, in Milwaukee; as well as from three...