Assessing Professional Knowledge : Minnesota

Analysis of Minnesota's policies

Minnesota requires all teachers to pass a pedagogy exam under the Minnesota Teacher Licensure Examinations (MTLE) in order to attain licensure.

Minnesota is also accelerating its participation in the Teacher Performance Assessment (TPA) consortium by including all of the state's institutions of higher learning in the pilot program next year, with the expectation that it will allow or require the use of TPA in licensure as early as 2012. 

Citation

http://www.mtle.nesinc.com/Home.aspx http://aacte.org/index.php?/Programs/

Recommendations for Minnesota

Ensure that performance assessments provide a meaningful measure of new teachers' knowledge and skills.
While Minnesota is commended for considering the use of a performance-based assessment, the state should proceed with caution until additional data are available on the Teacher Performance Assessment. Additional research is needed to determine how the TPA compares to other teacher tests as well as whether the test's scores are predictive of student achievement. The track record on similar assessments is mixed at best. The two states that currently require the Praxis III performance-based assessment report pass rates of about 99 percent. Given that it takes significant resources to administer a performance-based assessment, a test that nearly every teacher passes is of questionable value.

State response to our analysis

Minnesota recognized the factual accuracy of this analysis. The state added that it has been identified as an accelerated state for the launch and implementation of the TPA. Minnesota participated in the pilot in the 2010-2011 year and is participating in the field trial in the 2011-2012 year. The TPA is not proposed as a licensure requirement but rather as a program requirement.