Creating, Implementing, and Researching Supports for the Secondary Science edTPA:

The First Year

Conference on Emerging Evidence and Promising PracticesAlbany, NYJune 18, 2014

American Museum of Natural History Masters of Arts in Teaching Program

• AMNH• New York City• Scientific research and education institution• 200+ scientists

• MAT Program• Graduate level teacher preparation program• Urban teacher residency model• Earth and planetary science• 5 year pilot through NYSED and RTTT• Additional funding through NSF & Noyce

Foundation

1st Summer Academic Year

2nd Summer

Induction(post-

graduation)

Mentoring(online and onsite)

Courses in Science and Pedagogy(online and onsite)

AMNH Professional

Support

Museum Residency

School Residency

Museum Residency

Residency Model

Overview of Presentation

• Strong scaffolding • Needed to develop quickly• Program is rigorous already

• Ongoing formative assessment• Examples of scaffolding and formative

assessment• How did the program’s candidates do on the

edTPA exam?

Formative Tasks as Formative Assessments

• We embedded formative tasks (SCALE, 2013) in coursework.• We used these formative tasks as formative

assessments. • Students also evaluated their “strengths and needs.”• We used the formative assessments and students’

self-evaluations to design workshops to support edTPA submissions.

Formative Tasks in Coursework

• Context for Learning• Introduced in summer courses• Required for all AMNH MAT e-Portfolio entries

• Task 1: Planning for Instruction and Assessment• Candidates used edTPA-based lesson template

throughout program to plan and teach lessons for multiple course assignments in the fall• Instructors used edTPA-like rubrics to assess• SCI 670, SCI 665, EDU 620

Lesson Plan Template

Scan and put in here

Formative Tasks in Coursework

• Task 2: Instructing and Engaging Students in Learning• EDU 620 – Curriculum & Instruction• Developed and taught lesson: Analyzing and

Interpreting Data • Video and Commentary

• Task 3: Assessing Student Learning• EDU 620

Analyzing Instructor Feedback

• Extensive feedback on formative tasks with edTPA-like rubrics• Analyzed the feedback from the instructor to determine where

candidates needed more support• Candidates were confused by academic language (see also Canty,

2014; Hundley, 2013).• Candidates were not adept at analyzing student work to inform

instruction nor at structuring opportunities for students to use teacher feedback (SCALE, 2013a).

• Candidates had difficulty relating personal, cultural, and community assets to science content.

• Candidates had difficulty including research and theory in commentaries.

Introduction to edTPA Workshop

• Rationale/Overview of edTPA

• Overview of Secondary Science Tasks (pp. 6-8 of handbook)

• Linking of tasks to formative assignments: Candidates’ self-assessments

• Homework for Feb. 19th:• Context for Learning• Learning Segment Plan• Videotaping in schools – finalizing permission for your class

• Review of AMNH edTPA timeline (April 17th deadline)

• Overview of the Digication upload tool • Evaluation of the session

Summary of Candidates’ Self-Assessments

• Academic language• Development of science understandings through language• Syntax and discourse

• Assessment • Identifying patterns of learning• Giving feedback to students• Next instructional steps

• Linking students’ prior learning and personal, cultural, and community assets to content• Using theory

Workshops 1-5

• Based in our assessments of formative tasks, along with candidates’ self-assessments using these tasks• Five full day Workshops • General Pattern:• Working with Rubrics• Mini-lessons to address needs• Time for independent work and peer review• Troubleshooting and Questions• Homework: edTPA Task to bring in for next workshop’s peer

review• Workshop evaluations

Connecting Students and Content

Prior Learning Skills Nature of Science

What do they know? What can they do? What do they know?

What are they learning? What are they learning to do?

What are they learning about NOS?

1. Think about the content for your learning segment.

Connecting Students and Content

2. What do you know about your students?

Personal Interests

Cultural Community

What are your students’ assets?

How do your students’ assets connect to the content in the learning segment?

Connecting Students and Content

Instruction Commentary Question Implications for Planning3b. Describe how your instruction linked students’ prior learning and personal, cultural, and community assets with new learning.

3a. Explain how your instruction engaged students during a scientific inquiry in using data and science concepts to construct an evidence-based explanation of a real world phenomenon during a scientific inquiry explaining how data and relevant science concepts support their claims.

4b. Explain how you facilitated your students’ organization and analysis of data (i.e., looking for patterns, identifying outliers, and/or exploring similarities and differences in findings) during a scientific inquiry.

Workshop Evaluation: Workshop IConnecting students and science• I am still confused on how to relate culture and community assets to an ES unit.• What community assets might I use to help NYC kinds connect to earthquakes?

Time• Sometimes the structure of the day is too constricting and makes me flustered

when I only have x amount of time to do y amount of work. • We need way more time to just work on our lesson plans.• I would have appreciated more time to work independently with my peers in a

less structured way.

Connecting theory and practice• I need more practice with connecting research/theory with informing my

instruction. • Talk/review different theory of education. Maybe provide a table with

description of theories and examples.

Subject-specific• What distinction does edTPA make between scientific explanations and scientific

arguments?

edTPA Scores• National pass rate 67%• New York State pass rate 84%• AMNH MAT pass rate 93% (14 out of 15 candidates) • AMNH MAT scores ranged from 32 to 61, with an average of 50

• Strongest:• Rubric 2: Planning to Support Varied Student Learning Needs (3.8:3.1 +7)• Rubric 5: Planning Assessments to Monitor and Support Student Learning

(3.7:3.2 +5)• Rubric 9: Subject Specific Pedagogy: Analyzing Data (3.3:2.7 +6)

• Weakest:• Rubric 6: Learning Environment (2.8:3.2 -4)• Rubric 8: Deepening Student Learning (3.0:3.0)• Rubric 13: Student Use of Feedback (2.6:2.6)

Next Steps

• Continue and deepen our analysis (self-study research)• Clarify and solidify where edTPA formative tasks exist across

courses (CMP)• Develop and implement lessons earlier in the year for weak

categories (e.g., in residency meetings)• Time line:• Push milestones for drafts to earlier • Increase number of sessions, and space them out more• Allow one full week out-of-residency for writing and peer review

• Continue peer review• Recognize and allow for each candidates’ work preferences