Developing the Physics Teacher Education Program Analysis rubric: Measuring features of thriving programs

Given the insufficient number of well-qualified future physics teachers in the U.S., physics programs often seek guidance for how to address this national need. Measurement tools can provide such guidance, by both defining excellence in physics teacher education (PTE) and providing a means to measure progress towards excellence. This paper describes the development of such a measurement tool—the Physics Teacher Education Program Analysis rubric. The rubric was developed by identifying common features and practices at 8 “thriving” PTE programs, defined as large U.S. programs consistently graduating 5 or more future physics teachers in a year. The rubric consists of 89 items, each with 3 levels of achievement (developing, benchmark, exemplary), plus a not present level, which are organized into 6 standards. The rubric has demonstrated a variety of forms of validity, including a strong theoretical basis, empirical validation through program visits, and expert review. The rubric and its associated supporting materials are intended to help program leaders in using a process of continuous improvement and assessment to strengthen existing PTE programs or to establish new pathways for student licensure. The rubric also provides substantive opportunities for research, through further validation and development of the rubric, and by using rubric results to learn more about effective practices in physics teacher education.

Figure 1

Sample program data for the PTEPA rubric across the 6 standards, showing the percent of items rated not present (gray), developing (light shade), benchmark (medium shade), or exemplary (dark shade). Note that different standards have different numbers of items. Percents may not add to exactly 100% due to rounding.

Figure 2

Sample institutional data for the PTEPA rubric for standard 3 for a fictitious program, compared to the actual data for the 8 thriving programs. Percentages represent the percent of items rated at benchmark or exemplary level. Thriving program data represent the percentage at least benchmark, averaged across the items in that component and across the 8 thriving programs. Error bars represent the standard error of the mean.

Figure 3

Item-level report from the PTEPA interactive rubric (Excel format). Shaded items are prevalent (see Sec. 4d). Percentages shown are the percent of items within that component or standard that are at least at benchmark level.

Figure 4

Example importance and synthesis ratings table, from PTEPA User’s Guide.

Figure 5

Comparing PTEPA rubric results for the previous year to the current year for standard 3. The percent of items at the benchmark and exemplary level are shown.