CAATS -- Comprehensive Assessments Aligned with Teacher Standards - A five step design model for assessing teachers validity and reliably.

NCATE (2002) requires the measurement of knowledge, skills, and dispositions as part of its accreditation requirements for teacher education programs (Standard 1) and the use of unit assessment systems to aggregate and analyse data with a view toward program improvement (Standard 2). Data must indicate that candidates meet professional, state, and institutional standards. Institutions nationally are struggling with meeting these two standards. In this presentation, we will provide ten recommendations then describe a five-step design model for developing a standards-driven, task based assessment system that can yield valid, reliable and fair decisions about teacher candidates’ knowledge, skills, and dispositions on all three sets of standards. This model is integrally linked to sound measurement theory and practice, most notably the Standards of Educational and Psychological Testing (APA, AERA, and NCME, 1999). The recommendations are drawn directly from those standards. This model has evolved over a four year period.