From knowing to doing: assessing the skills used to teach reading and writing

This study presents results from a project to develop and pilot a new type of performance assessment of the skills used when teaching reading and writing. To provide context for this new approach, we begin by identifying the different types of knowledge that have historically been the focus of teacher assessment. Next we describe the newly developed performance assessment and present results from a pilot with 59 teacher candidates. The results suggest that the performance tasks can provide reliable evidence of the skills used to teach a range of reading and writing content across the K-6 grade span. We conclude by discussing the importance of future studies to further evaluate the validity argument for this type of performance assessment. We suggest potential uses such as studying teacher knowledge and learning, evaluating teacher education and professional development, and providing formative feedback as part of teacher preparation.