Data-Based Decisions: English Teaching

2023-24

Context: In previous years, the Utah State Board of Education required that students score a 36 or higher on the PPAT to earn professional licensure. For this reason, we used students’ success on the PPAT to measure the effectiveness of our curriculum and teaching. As of June 10, 2024, however, teacher candidates in Utah are no longer required to take the PPAT. Members of the English Teaching Committee are making appropriate adjustments to their curriculum and removing PPAT preparation from courses. This year, our assessment data originates with feedback from research study conducted by Dr. Jessica Rivera-Mueller which involved 9 teachers who graduated from our program within the last 5 years. Drawing on this research, Dr. Rivera-Mueller shared recommendations that the committee discussed as part of its annual assessment meeting. The committee directed particular attention to the suggestion that faculty help English Teaching students instruct struggling readers and multilingual students. To this end, committee members shared ideas and resources about differentiated instruction. As a result of this discussion, some committee members plan to use the book Everybody’s Classroom: Differentiating for the Shared and Unique Needs of Diverse Students as a central or supporting text in future courses. 

Outreach

In response to college and departmental alumni outreach initiatives, English Teaching faculty member Jessica Rivera-Mueller organized the following alumni and community engaged classroom visits.

Fall ’23: Raychel Jensen, Mount Logan Middle School, visited a Teaching Literature course.

Fall ’23: Stephanie Ferguson, Mountain Crest High School, visited a Teaching Literature course.

Community Engaged Visits/Projects

Fall ’23: Ashley Addis, Cache County Schools Curriculum Director, visited a Teaching Literature course.

Fall ’23: Liz Dickenson, Logan City Schools Director of Secondary Curriculum, visited a Teaching Literature.

Spring ’24: Clair Canfield, Communications faculty who specializes in conflict, visited Teaching Literacy in Diverse Classrooms.

Spring ’24: Students hosted Quest online writing competition for the Utah Council of Teachers of English

Direct Measures

This year, the number of essays that fell into the “marginal” category for the second objective was higher than last year.  Looking back over the data, it is clear that is a function of the fact that a larger proportion of sample essays came from 3000 level classes.  In those, students are more frequently asked to demonstrate achievement of this objective in oral or group projects, as we build their skills towards demonstrating mastery of those skills in form writing at the 4000 and 5000 level courses.   We will discuss our assessment plan to see if examining essays written at 4000 or 5000 level only would give us better data for assessing whether graduating seniors have these skills.  

2022-23

PPAT Scores

  • Results for Spring 2023: 10/10 students passed the PPAT (mean score = 44.1). 

Context: In Fall 2023, the Utah State Board of Education required that students score a 36 or higher on the PPAT to earn professional licensure. Members of the English Teaching Committee have made appropriate adjustments to their curriculum and instruction to best prepare students for this high-stakes assessment. For example, this year Dr. Manuel-Dupont used case studies in ENGL 4520 to prepare students for the PPAT and to help them recognize the breadth of skill levels of their future students.  The 100% pass rate for 2023 suggests that the committee’s efforts to prepare students for the PPAT have been successful. 

2021-22

In response to committee members’ concern that our students don’t always understand current program objectives, a subcommittee (Rivera-Mueller, Manuel-Dupont, Piotrowski) reviewed and revised these objectives. Additionally, a common “Reflections” assignment was developed to be used in all English Teaching courses.

  • We revised the Senior Exit Survey to be used as a shorter “Reflections” survey across all the professional suite of English Teaching courses. The pilot survey was completed in-class and followed by a group discussion related to our objectives. Committee members agreed that this in-class approach to assessment was beneficial. We plan to use it again this year as a formative assessment of our emphases, with the summative assessment being the evaluation of senior portfolios.

PPAT Scores

  • Spring 2022 (mean = 40.19); Fall 2022 (mean 36.70). In Fall 2023, the Utah State Board of Education will require that students score a 36 or higher on the PPAT in order to earn professional licensure. Members of the English Teaching Committee are making appropriate adjustments to their curriculum and instruction to best prepare students for this high-stakes assessment. Manuel-Dupont suggested using case studies in ENGL 4520 to prepare students for the PPAT and to help them recognize the breadth of skill levels of their future students. 
  • Students need additional expertise in data collection and analysis. A foundation for these skills is laid in ENGL 3470, but the committee feels they should be buttressed in other courses in preparation for the PPAT. Committee members discussed the possibly generating data for students to practice data analysis and curricular/instructional decision making.
    • Action: Committee members will find or create examples of sample data and share with the committee for further review and possible use in English Teaching courses, with particular emphasis on ENGL 4520.

2020-2021

  • Our students don’t always understand current program objectives, and as a result, we have formed a subcommittee (Rivera-Mueller, Manuel-Dupont, Piotrowski) to review and revise.
    • Action: Once the objectives are revised, then develop a common “Reflections” assignment that will be used in all English Teaching courses to develop familiarity with them.
    • Update 9.28.21: Our Curriculum Committee approved a set of revised objectives that are more concise. Additionally, we have revised the Senior Exit Survey to be used as a shorter “Reflections” survey across all the professional suite of English Teaching courses. The survey will be completed in class and followed by a group discussion. We see this as modeling important teaching and learning behavior in addition to collecting anonymous feedback on the program.
  • A student suggested that being able to revise a lesson plan “on the fly” is an important skill.
    • Action: Gunsberg and Manuel-Dupont are developing an assignment for “when the unexpected happens” in the classroom. Ben is collecting instances from ENGL 3500, the first clinical experience, during Fall 2021.

We have mapped these objectives as well as our PPAT (replacing Praxis exams) onto our curriculum in the following matrices.

2018-19

Direct Measures

  1. From our readings of student materials, we will encourage students to use more consistently the language and vocabulary of the profession.
  2. We will work with students to ensure that their conclusions and decision-making should be based on good evidence.
  3. We will help students locate, understand, and incorporate professionally based “best practices” in English education.
  4. We will consider collecting assessment updates from individual faculty on how their courses are revised according to feedback and assessment.

2016-17

Direct Measures

As a whole, these projects demonstrate persuasively the ability of English Education students to function at or above the level expected from educational professionals. The faculty has strategically incorporated more lesson planning activities in a scaffolded approach in the professional suite of courses. The students are also showing increased proficiency in using professional language.

The responses from the student interviews over the past two years revealed several improvements we can make to the English Teaching Program. In response to this student feedback, we have already begun the following:

Indirect Measures

  • New programs and courses:
    • English Teaching Composite Major, approved by the Utah Board of Regents Fall 2016 and fully enacted Fall 2017 on the USU Logan campus with 15 students.
      • The English Teaching Composite initially was not offered via Distance Education, but the faculty worked on staffing, and the courses are all covered, enabling the composite to be delivered to distance students.
    • ENGL 3500, “Literacy, Community, and Service Learning” offered Fall 2017 (and hereafter on biennial basis) provides the first clinical experience for students and gets them in schools earlier. (13 enrolled F17.)
    • ENGL 3470, “Approaches to Research in English Studies,” provides a Quantitative Intensive (QI) class to English majors with particular attention to preservice teachers who need to be able to undertake action research and to understand research that may affect them. Included in the syllabus is an assignment on beginning the Teacher Work Sample, which replaces the student portfolio.
    • ENGL 4530, “English Clinical Experience” (1 credit, P/F), coupled with English 4520 (formerly 4220), Teaching Literacy in Diverse Classrooms. With this course, English takes control over the preparation of its English Teaching majors and removes redundancies with SCED3600/3300.
  • Students asked for more teaching experience early and often. The Department has taken over the two clinical experiences entirely as of Fall 2017. (Some difficulties with the Office of Field Experiences still exist as of November 2017 in terms of placement, communication, and scheduling, but the faculty met with faculty and staff who oversee the clinical experiences, and solutions have been suggested. We will assess at the conclusion of spring 2018 to see how well that worked.)
  • At the conclusion of the new clinical experience course, English 3500 (offered Fall 2017), the curriculum committee will re-assess its course title and course credits.
  • A Clinical Experiences Handbook (print and web-based) has been drafted by Sonia Manuel-Dupont and UTF/English Teaching student Carolyn Lyle.
  • UTF funding has increased over the last year, and the majority of the UTFs are English Teaching emphasis students. This provides another opportunity for early teaching experiences.
  • English Education faculty members nominate students appropriately to the Writing Center and the Writing Fellows Program for teaching experiences.
  • A Praxis Quizlet has been developed by UTF/English Teaching student Carolyn Lyle (with the supervision of Dr. Manuel-Dupont) to help preservice teachers prepare for the Praxis exam.
  • Students requested more instruction in teaching grammar; as a result, a textbook on grammar has been added to English 4500, Teaching Writing.
  • Students requested more instruction on classroom management. Faculty members have made an effort to be more transparent about classroom management; additionally, the faculty is considering a textbook and speaker on classroom management: Mike Roberts, Hacking Classroom Management. Roberts is the 2014 Utah Teacher of the Year and a popular speaker at UCTE.
  • A Teacher Advisory Group, established June 2016, laid the groundwork for more interchange between secondary teachers and USU, including guest speakers from the English faculty to visit the schools, and more information on graduate programs for them. The graduate program has seen an increase in secondary teachers applying for the English master’s program.
  • We have requested and received funding for Undergraduate Teaching Fellows (UTFs) in two classes taught by English Education faculty (ENGL 4530, Clinical Experience; ENGL 3470, Research Methods) and intend to use this for English Teaching majors to get additional experience in a teaching/learning setting.
  • Regularizing curricular offerings to ensure that courses offered at the USU-Logan and USU-Uintah Basin campuses are not in conflict.
  • In 2016, students requested a student chapter of NCTE; however, in a meeting conducted by Jessica Rivera-Mueller and Ben Gunsberg to assess the feasibility, no students stepped up to take on leadership roles. The faculty will continue to offer professional development opportunities, but most likely they needed to be tied to courses. For example, award-winning teacher and USU Distinguished Alumna Mary Heers did a presentation on “Learning for All” on October 9, 2017 in English 4520/4530.

2015-16

Direct Measures

In sum, this group of English Teaching graduates meets or exceeds expectations in the three learning objectives. In addition to these objectives, reviewers of student professional work noted that assessment in the lesson plans was a weakness. Students need more practice with data-driven decision making.  As they design unit lesson plans, they should be creating opportunities for the teacher to collect data on the percentage of students meeting the learning objectives, exceeding the objectives, and not reaching the objectives.  Based on that analysis, subgroups of students should be given differentiated learning activities.  Both teaching and outcomes should be differentiated so that all groups receive stimulating and suitable instruction that moves their learning to the next level.  We will work in our classes to strengthen this skill. We believe that the integration of clinical experiences within our curriculum will be helpful.

We are pleased that students showed progress in “reaching compelling conclusions” in their professional work over previous years. In previous assessment reports, we noted this goal: “From our readings, we will encourage students to reflect critically on their lesson planning”; “we will emphasize the importance of using professional language”; and we want students to see themselves as “reflective decision makers.” Based on these data, we will continue to reinforce these objectives as we believe we have made changes to good effect.

Indirect Measures

The responses from the student interviews revealed several improvements we can make to the English Teaching Program. In response to this student feedback, we will do [or have already begun doing] the following:

  • New programs and courses
    • English Teaching Composite Major, approved by the Utah Board of Regents Fall 2016.
    • ENGL 4540, “Teaching Creative Writing,” developed by Ben Gunsberg, that crosses both English Education and Creative Writing (spring 2017). This builds on two important groups of students: those enrolled in English Teaching and those in Creative Writing.
    • ENGL 3500, “Literacy, Community, and Service Learning” provides the first clinical experience for students and gets them in schools earlier.
    • ENGL 3470, “Approaches to Research in English Studies,” provides a Quantitative Intensive (QI) class to English majors with particular attention to preservice teachers who need to be able to undertake action research and to understand research that may affect them. Included in the syllabus is an assignment on beginning the Teacher Work Sample, which replaces the student portfolio as of 2016-2017.
    • ENGL 4530, “English Clinical Experience” (1 credit, P/F), to be coupled with English 4520 (formerly 4220), Teaching Literacy in Diverse Classrooms. With this course, English takes control over the preparation of its English Teaching majors and removes redundancies with SCED3600/3300.
  • The Qualtrics Survey of seniors revealed that we do well on all objectives except for teaching about classroom management. Students also requested more instruction in teaching grammar.
  • A Teacher Advisory Group was established June 2016, which has already recommended specific clinical experiences for English Teaching majors, a list of guest speakers from the English faculty to visit the schools, and more information on graduate programs for them. We have followed up with each of these recommendations.
  • We have requested and received funding for Undergraduate Teaching Fellows (UTFs) in two classes taught by English Education faculty (ENGL 4530, Clinical Experience; ENGL 3470, Research Methods) and intend to use this for English Teaching majors to get additional experience in a teaching/learning setting.
  • New Faculty Hires
    • Jessica Rivera-Mueller at the USU-Logan campus replacing Patricia Gantt, who retires. Dr. Rivera-Mueller is undertaking increased professionalization of English Teaching majors. She secured funding for English Teaching majors (n=14) to attend UCTE, and will work on a student chapter of NCTE.
    • Amy Piotrowski at the USU-Uintah Basin campus, replacing Vini Exton, who retired. The position had gone unfilled for a year, and it was important to get a faculty member on the ground at the Uintah Basin campus.

2014-15

Direct Measures

Our annual assessment report (September 2015) noted that our students score well on several department learning objectives. While in an acceptable range, we want them to do better in these areas: to reflect critically on their lesson planning; to emphasize the importance of using language and vocabulary of the profession; to encourage students to view “teachers as reflective decision makers.”

Indirect Measures

In addition to the standard department assessment instrument in which we evaluate senior student portfolios, we used two other input measures: 1) a Student Advisory group; 2) a Qualtrics survey to seniors on how well graduates feel they met the objectives of the English Teaching Program.

Outcomes from our data sources, particularly the Student Advisory Group, include the following:

  • New programs and courses
    • English Teaching Composite Major, approved by the Utah Board of Regents Fall 2016.
    • ENGL 4540, “Teaching Creative Writing,” developed by Ben Gunsberg, that crosses both English Education and Teaching Writing (spring 2017). This builds on two important groups of students: those enrolled in English Teaching and those in Creative Writing.
    • ENGL 3500, “Literacy, Community, and Service Learning” provides the first clinical experience for students and gets them in schools earlier.
    • ENGL 3470, “Approaches to Research in English Studies,” provides a QI class to English majors with particular attention to preservice teachers who need to be able to undertake action research and to understand research that may affect them.
    • ENGL 4530, “English Clinical Experience” (1 credit, P/F), to be coupled with English 4520 (formerly 4220), Teaching Literacy in Diverse Classrooms. With this course, English takes control over the preparation of its English Teaching majors and removes redundancies with SCED3600/3300.
  • The Qualtrics Survey revealed that we do well on all objectives except for teaching about classroom management. Students also requested more instruction in teaching grammar.

2013-14

Direct Measures

Overwhelmingly, student papers were in the acceptable or exceptional category. On the basis of this data, we are not making any changes this year.

2012-13

Direct Measures

Student papers were in the acceptable or exceptional category. In response to Learning Objective 1, our students do a good job of developing and articulating conclusions. At times the depth of their analysis is not as strong as we might wish and their work can contain more errors in mechanics and editing than we prefer for future English teachers. Therefore, in all our classes and assignments we will emphasize crafting strong analysis and proofing for errors in mechanics.

2011-12

Direct Measures

All the students' papers were in the acceptable range. These samples indicate that our students are able to communicate their ideas at an acceptable level; nevertheless, we seek a more sophisticated mastery of writing skills. Specific concerns include reflective writing, mechanics, editing, and in-depth analysis. We will focus more on the kinds of writing used in the teaching profession (job applications, newsletter articles, letters to parents, textbook rationales, teaching philosophies, etc.).

2010-11

Direct Measures

In Learning Objectives 1 and 3, students scored in the acceptable category. One student scored in the marginal category in Learning Objective 2. In response to the marginal score in Learning Objective 2, we found that the completed products are strong, but find little evidence of the process students followed to produce them. Therefore, next semester student products will be accompanied by student commentary about the process: how did they make decisions about what to teach and how to teach it? what options did they consider? what core beliefs about students and teaching support their decisions? how does this project connect to their career goals?