Assessing Professional Knowledge : Minnesota

Delivering Well Prepared Teachers Policy

Goal

The state should use a licensing test to verify that all new teachers meet its professional standards.

Meets goal
Suggested Citation:
National Council on Teacher Quality. (2011). Assessing Professional Knowledge : Minnesota results. State Teacher Policy Database. [Data set].
Retrieved from: https://www.nctq.org/yearbook/state/MN-Assessing-Professional-Knowledge--6

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

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.

Research rationale

For evidence of the importance of pedagogy tests in improving student achievement, see C. Clotfelter, H.Ladd and J.Vigdor, "How and Why Do Teacher Credentials Matter for Student Achievement?"  Working Paper 2, Calder Institute (2007).

For further information regarding the use of performance assessments and the Teacher Performance Assessment Consortium (TPAC) in California and other states see L. Darling-Hammond, "Evaluating Teacher Effectiveness: How Teacher Performance Assessments Can Measure and Improve Teaching" Center for American Progress (2010). 

For a perspectives on the issues with teaching dispositions, see W. Damon, "Personality Test: The dispositional dispute in teacher preparation today and what to do about it" in Arresting Insights in Education Vol.2 No. 3 (2005);  J. Gershman, "'Disposition' Emerges as Issue at Brooklyn College," New York Sun, May 2005.

For evidence on the low passing scores required by states on pedagogy tests, see the U.S. Department of Education's Secretary's Seventh Annual Report on Teacher Quality (2010). Also see K. Walsh "A Candidate-Centered Model for Teacher Preparation and Licensure" in A Qualified Teacher in Every Classroom (Hess, Rotherham and Walsh, eds.) (2004)