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Fairness and Consequential Validity of Teacher Work Samples

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Abstract

Acknowledging the necessity to establish the fairness and consequential validity of teacher candidate performance assessments when they are used to make high-stakes decisions impacting entry into the profession, we investigated whether there were any adverse results from the use of the Renaissance Teacher Work Sample (TWS) assessment at two universities as a consequence of the age, gender, or race/ethnicity of teacher candidates. We also investigated education program and program entrance requirements, such as Praxis I scores, and measures of grade point average, as general predictors of TWS success. The findings indicated no disparate impact or adverse consequences based on the gender, age, or race/ethnicity of the teacher candidates. Selected variables did predict a moderate amount of the variance of the TWS total scores of both preinterns and student-teaching interns. The process used to determine the value implications of the results was also discussed.

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Correspondence to Peter Denner.

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Denner, P., Norman, A. & Lin, SY. Fairness and Consequential Validity of Teacher Work Samples. Educ Asse Eval Acc 21, 235–254 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11092-008-9059-6

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