The development of an Australian teacher performance assessment: lessons from the international literature

ABSTRACT

The requirement for all Initial Teacher Education programs in Australia to include a capstone teacher performance assessment (TPA) is relatively new. However, TPAs are common in other countries, particularly the United States. In this article, we report on a review of the literature instigated by the authors’ involvement in the development of an Australian TPA. Through a systematic review of the international research literature, supplemented by a separate set of preliminary sources, we identify and explore a range of key considerations for the development of TPAs within the Australian context. We focus on common aspects of TPAs worldwide: planning and preparation, observations on and evidence of teaching practice, and student work samples. We then interrogate further issues related to TPAs including the role of schools, principals and teachers; relation to Initial Teacher Education coursework; fairness; validity and reliability; and rubric development. To conclude we present a series of guiding principles to support the development and implementation of such complex, high stakes, and increasingly mandated kinds of assessments.

KEYWORDS:

• Teacher performance assessment
• initial teacher education
• teacher education accountability
• teacher education policy

Acknowledgments

The authors acknowledge the seed funding from the Australian Institute for Teaching & School Leadership (AITSL) in the first year of the project (2017) and the significant and ongoing financial support provided by member institutions of the Assessment for Graduate Teachers (AfGT) Consortium. The authors also thank members of the AfGT Consortium for the enthusiastic and collaborative work in developing the AfGT.

The authors would also like to acknowledge the contribution of the wider Literature Review Working Group at the University of Sydney in preparing the original literature review upon which this article is based: Janette Bobis, Patrick Brownlee, Wayne Cotton, and Alyson Simpson.

The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the interpretation of the data by all members of the AfGT Consortium.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership (AITSL).

Notes on contributors

Meghan Stacey

Meghan Stacey is a lecturer in the Sociology of Education and Education Policy at the University of New South Wales.

Debra Talbot

Debra Talbot is a Senior Lecturer in Education and Director of Professional Experience at the University of Sydney.

John Buchanan

John Buchanan is an Associate Professor in Education at the University of Technology Sydney, where he also coordinates International programmes.

Diane Mayer

Professor Diane Mayer is Professor of Education (Teacher Education) at the University of Oxford.