Education Preparation Program Licensure Data Analysis

Agriculture Content Exam

Interpretation of how that data provides evidence for meeting standards: The data presented above suggests that SDSU students are adequately prepared for the Agriculture 07000 content area PRAXIS. Upon close review of the subscores for each of the seven areas on the test, no real areas of concern emerge. In fact, student scores in the areas of Plant and Soil Science, Animal Science and Program Planning and Management suggest our students are very well prepared in each of these areas.

Art Content Exam

Interpretation of scores reveals no major areas of concerns. Growth across areas is represented.

Biology Content Exam

Interpretation of how data provides evidence for meeting standards: All students completing the program have passed the Praxis exam. The mean score is well above the cut score for the exam. Although there are various areas that are weaker than others, it is clear from the data that student teachers in the Biology program are meeting the appropriate standards.

Chemistry Content Exam

Interpretation of how data provides evidence for meeting standards: All students completing the program have passed the Praxis exam. The mean score is well above the cut score for the exam. Candidates completing with a chemistry degree and teacher certification have shown evidence that they have met standards 1, 2, and 9 which correspond to the discipline content knowledge, the nature of science, and safety and welfare. Subscores I through V measure core content knowledge. Subscore VI measures the nature of science and subscore VII measures safety and welfare.

Early Childhood Content Exam

Interpretation of how that data provide evidence for meeting standards: Over the past several years, it is apparent that students are struggling with the passing of the Praxis content exam in Early Childhood Education. Two things converged, a new exam edition and a new curriculum. As faculty watch the scores closely, there have been concerted efforts to rectify the situation by holding student study sessions and the department offering to pay for practice praxis exams. A thorough review of the new curriculum occurred to ensure each course and instructor understood how their course content aligned with the exam. There was a noted impact of poor student writing ability which seems to alter their scores on the constructed response for the exam. All faculty agreed to include more written elements to their course and used practice exam questions in their courses as well. Scores have greatly improved over time as a result.

English Content Exam

English’s composite mean score of 180 is above the unit’s mean of 173.2, and the sub-scores are regularly higher than the Unit’s, which verifies that English is meeting—and often exceeding—the standards in place; however, this also indicates that re-visiting and perhaps strengthening the standards is appropriate.

Family and Consumer Sciences Content Exam

Interpretation of how that data provides evidence for meeting standards. The data presented above suggests that the majority of SDSU students are adequately prepared for the Family & Consumer Sciences 5122 content exam. Those who did not pass upon first attempt were very close (within 2-6 points) of meeting the state cut-off score of 153. As a whole, students perform best on questions related to Human Development and Interpersonal Relationships. This is to be expected since students take more HDFS courses than other content related courses. In fact, most FCSE majors add a HDFS minor to their program of study. They are also well versed in the areas of Food & Nutrition, Resource Management, and Foundations of FCS. Historically, students have not performed well on the Textiles, Fashion, and Apparel section. In fact, over the course of the past three cycles, only one student passed that section by answering more than 70% of the questions correctly. This was an outlier since that particular student already had a degree in costume design prior to enrolling in the FCSE program. Students struggle with this section, because this portion of the test is not aligned to SDState Standards for the three primary clusters. South Dakota has recognized three Career Clusters as part of the FCS curriculum at the high school level. Each Career Cluster represents a distinct grouping of occupations and industries based on the knowledge and skills they require. The Career Clusters and related Career Pathways provide an organizing tool for schools to develop more effective Programs of Study (POS) and curriculum. The three Career Clusters identified for FCS are: Education & Training, Hospitality & Tourism, and Human Sciences. Textiles and Interior Design concepts are a part of the Arts, Audio/Video Technology & Communications cluster. While SD Teacher Certification still lists courses in Housing & Interiors and Textiles and approves FCSE graduates of the SDSU program to teach those courses, those particular courses are not offered very frequently in the middle/high schools across the state. The only state approved course related to textiles is Fashion Design and the standards are related to ready-to-wear analysis and career exploration. Therefore, sewing skills are not necessary for students to meet the identified standards for that course. Teacher candidates only take one Ready to Wear Analysis course and do not learn the basics nor practice the skills of clothing construction. There has not been a course in sewing offered at the University for over 20 years. While there is not room in the curriculum to offer a sewing class nor the need to prepare SD students to teach courses outside of the three primary career clusters, current and retired faculty have offered opportunities for students to learn basic sewing skills. Student members of AAFCS/FCCLA Alumni have completed community service projects that also help them learn the basics of sewing.The second area where students faced more challenges was in relation to Housing & Interior Design. Students used to take a course from the Interior Design program. However, shifts in that program’s priorities and curriculum rendered that class no longer of use to FCSE students. A Housing and Interiors Education course was developed and is being offered through the FCSE program to fill that void. Unfortunately, the timing of the course for several students was either after they took the Praxis or early in the semester when they had yet to be exposed to the content. Working to ensure students complete this course in advance of testing should hopefully allow students to perform better on this section of the exam in the future.

Mathematics Content Exam

Interpretation of how that data provides evidence for meeting standards: The data in the table suggests that our program prepares our candidates very well in content knowledge. When our majors graduate with secondary certification, they earn a degree in Mathematics and must take the same required Mathematics courses as our other specializations. These rigorous requirements certainly benefit our pre-service teachers on the Praxis II Mathematics Content Knowledge exam.

History Content Exam

There are areas to continue to focus on, particularly in world history. However, students still perform well above the average.

Physics Content Exam

Interpretation of how data provides evidence for meeting standards: All students completing the program have passed the Praxis exam. The mean score is well above the cut score for the exam. Although there are various areas that are weaker than others, it is clear from the data that student teachers in the physics program are meeting the appropriate standards.

Spanish Content Exam

The South Dakota Board of Regents require a passing score on the Praxis II for candidates at state institutions before they can student-teach. Therefore, there is a 100% pass rate.

Principles of Learning and Teaching 7-12

Interpretation of these scores reveals a strong performance from teacher candidates. An area for growth is in helping teacher candidates identify better assessment tools and methods of data analysis.

Principles of Learning and Teaching Early Childhood