Examining Clinical Teaching Observation Scores as a Measure of Preservice Teacher Quality

Abstract

We draw on rich longitudinal data from one of the largest teacher education programs in Texas to examine the properties of rubric-based observational evaluations of preservice teachers (PSTs) during clinical teaching. Using a variance decomposition approach, we find that little of the variation in observation scores is attributable to actual differences between PSTs. Instead, differences in scores largely reflect differences in the rating standards of field supervisors. Men and PSTs of color receive systematically lower scores, as do PSTs in lower-income and rural placement schools. Finally, higher-scoring PSTs are slightly more likely to become employed as K–12 public school teachers and substantially more likely to be hired at the same school as their clinical teaching placement.

Front End to Back End: Teacher Preparation, Workforce Entry, and Attrition

“…They also find empirical evidence that teachers who report better fit with their jobs (colleagues, teaching assignments, and student populations) are more likely to remain in their schools. Similarly, Bartanen and Kwok (2020) find that preservice teachers with higher clinical observation scores were significantly more likely to find employment in the same school in which they completed their student teaching. These findings echo prior work on teacher labor markets (e.g., Boyd et al, 2013) and a broader labor economics literature on the importance of job matches (e.g., Jovanovic, 1979a, 1979b; Ju & Li, 2019; Merz, 1999; Munasinghe, 2005).…”

Lost to the System? A Descriptive Exploration of Teacher Candidates’ Career Paths

“…Data from one school district in Washington, Spokane Public Schools, documents an explanation for these staffing challenges: the district receives roughly ten times as many applicants for each open elementary position than for each open secondary math or science position (Goldhaber, Grout, & Huntington-Klein, 2014). Recent evidence also suggests that more qualified teacher candidates, as measured by licensure test scores (e.g., Cowan et al, 2020) and clinical teaching observation scores (Bartanen & Kwok, 2021;Vagi et al, 2019), are more likely to enter the teaching workforce. Goldhaber et al (2021) find, related to the slackness of the labor market generally, that there are also dramatic differences in the hiring rates of teacher candidates over time.…”

Teacher Shortages: What Are We Short Of?

“…A past editorial encouraged us to draw such inspiration from such worldwide examples as on-demand professional development for novice teachers in Australia, housing perks for teachers in the United States, and real-world clinical experiences mediated by robust school-university partnerships in South Africa (Williams et al, 2022). Hiring permanent in-school substitute teachers, hiring clinical teachers (Bartanen & Kwok, 2020;Goldhaber et al, 2021), and strategically recruiting undergraduates into teacher education programs (Bartanen & Kwok, 2022) have also been identified as potential avenues to alleviate teacher pipeline issues in local settings. Leaning into the challenges of national and global teacher shortages can help manage their complexities (Hallman et al, 2022).…”