Assessing Professional Knowledge : Wyoming

Analysis of Wyoming's policies

Wyoming only requires all new elementary teachers to pass a popular content test from the Praxis series that combines both subject-matter knowledge and pedagogy in order to attain licensure. All alternate route teachers are also required to pass pedagogy tests.

Wyoming is part of the Teacher Performance Assessment (TPA) Consortium and began a pilot program in Spring 2011.

Citation

http://www.ets.org/praxis/wy http://aacte.org/index.php?/Programs/

Recommendations for Wyoming

Require that all new teachers pass a pedagogy test.
Wyoming should verify that all new teachers meet professional standards through a test of professional standards.

Ensure that performance assessments provide a meaningful measure of new teachers' knowledge and skills.
While Wyoming 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

Wyoming recognized the factual accuracy of this analysis.