Three outcome measures were implemented this year to determine the progress of students majoring in Early Childhood and Early Childhood Education. The three measures were a written capstone examination, an end of student teaching rating scale, and self evaluated teaching portfolio.

The Student Teacher Evaluation rating scale was completed by the supervising teachers in the Melba Lehner Children's School on each of the 15 student teachers (both Early Childhood and Early Childhood Education majors). The items were designed around competency areas outlined by the National Association for the Education of Young Children and rated on a 5 point scale. This is our third year using this assessment and it provides information on how well our courses are preparing our students to teach. This year the range of total ratings was from 67 to 87 out of 90 possible points with a mean of 78/90. Examination of individual items indicates that the strongest areas were ethical behavior (M=4.8), plans for developmental domains (M=4.8), plans a variety of circle time activities (M=4.7), plans for all developmental domains (M=4.6), implements DAP guidance strategies (M=4.6), considers causes of behavior (M=4.6), plans and implements developmentally appropriate curriculum that engages the young learner (M=4.6). The weakest areas were articulates a personal philosophy of ECE (M=3.9), implements an anti-bias curriculum strand (M=3.9), employs integrated teaching models (M=3.8), and parent involvement (M=3.8). The results indicate that our students are strong on basic planning and guidance but could improve on articulating their philosophies, doing more with parent involvement and doing more thematic or project based planning and teaching.

The second measure was a capstone essay exam. The exam was administered to the students in our early childhood development senior seminar class, CHFAM 4990A, which is currently required only for our Early Childhood majors. The exam was composed of 5 essay questions designed to address pertinent areas in the field. Questions focused on the goals and theories of guidance and the components of trust; guidelines for constructing developmentally appropriate curriculum that includes an anti-bias strand; utilizing components of various developmental and learning theories for planning and evaluating curriculum; describing the purpose of the NAEYC Code of Ethical Conduct; and explaining the process for deciding when a child's behavior requires outside consultation and/or referral. The total possible points for the exam was 100. This year the average score for the 14 students was 86.4. Last year the average score was 85.2, which is 1.2 difference. The average score for Spring 2000 was 63.25. This suggests that we continue to move in the right direction. However, examination of the individual questions suggests that we could do better in helping our students understand Developmentally Appropriate Practice and the procedure for deciding when and how to make referrals for children/families who need some assistance. By 2003 we expect approval to be completed to require this seminar for our Early Childhood Education as well as our Early Childhood majors.

The third measure was a portfolio self evaluation based on the newly developed NAEYC Standards for NCATE accreditation.These standards are in five areas: Promoting Child Development and Learning; Building Family and Community Relationships; Observing, Documenting and Assessing; Teaching and Learning; and Becoming a Professional. Students selected their best work and described how the artifacts selected documented their accomplishments in each standards area. The portfolios were first constructed in the Planning class and then modified during student teaching. At the beginning of student teaching a seminar session was devoted to a followup and review of the portfolio assignment. An evaluation discussion was held with the student teachers at the end of student teaching during which they explained modifications--what they added, what they deleted. They filled out a checklist summarizing which of their artifacts documented each standards area. Everyone had ample documentation in 4/5 areas. The weakest area was Building Family and Community Relationships. They had accomplished a number of activities in this area but hadn't documented them. In the future they will need to be reminded to obtain more documentation. Individual student comments indicated that the checklist helped them identify areas where they could include stronger documentation.

Overall our students do an excellent job of guidance and developmentally appropriate planning and instruction. A comparison of the common elements in our three major outcomes measures indicates that our students have internalized our philosophy into practice but need to improve on articulating the rationale for what they are doing.

To get at dispositions we administered the Teachers' Beliefs and Practices Survey (preschool version) (Hart, Burts, Durland, Charlesworth, DeWolf, & Fleege, 1998) to our incoming students in the Autumn semester and will administer it again as they finish student teaching in our Melba S. Lehner Children's School.