Assessing Professional Knowledge : Virginia

Delivering Well Prepared Teachers Policy

Goal

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

Does not meet goal
Suggested Citation:
National Council on Teacher Quality. (2011). Assessing Professional Knowledge : Virginia results. State Teacher Policy Database. [Data set].
Retrieved from: https://www.nctq.org/yearbook/state/VA-Assessing-Professional-Knowledge--6

Analysis of Virginia's policies

Virginia does not currently require new teachers to pass a test of pedagogy in order to attain licensure.

The Virginia Reading Assessment covers an essential component of pedagogy and is required for elementary education, most special education areas and the reading specialist endorsement. However, this assessment neither covers all instructional areas nor is required of all teachers.

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

Citation

Recommendations for Virginia

Require that all new teachers pass a pedagogy test.
Virginia 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 Virginia 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

Virginia recognized the factual accuracy of this analysis.

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)