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The Professional Functions of Middle School Teachers

Author(s):
Bukatko, Patricia A.; Rosenfeld, Michael; Wilder, Gita Z.
Publication Year:
1992
Report Number:
RR-92-46
Source:
ETS Research Report
Document Type:
Report
Page Count:
150
Subject/Key Words:
Intermediate Grades, Job Analysis, Middle Schools, Praxis Series, Teacher Role, Test Validity

Abstract

Three job analysis studies were conducted to provide data that would define the domain of teaching and provide evidence supporting the content validity of the performance assessment measures to be developed for Stage III of The Praxis Series: Professional Assessments for Beginning Teachers. The goal of the studies was to identify a core set of tasks that are performed by and judged to be important for newly licensed teachers. Three separate but parallel studies were conducted to reflect three school levels: elementary, middle, and secondary. This report focuses primarily on the middle school job analysis, however, summaries of results for the elementary and secondary school studies as well as a comparison of similarities and differences between school levels are provided in the summary. Each study was conducted in two phases. Phase I involved a series of meetings with experts to establish an initial inventory of tasks; phase II was a large- scale survey to solicit the judgments of large numbers of educational professionals with knowledge of teaching. In both phases of the study, judges in each category were chosen from different types of constituencies and different areas of the country. Care was taken to include members of minority groups as well. The job analysis at the middle school level identified 44 of 77 tasks that met the 3.50 standard for administrators, teacher educators, teachers and relevant subgroups of teachers. Much of the report is presented in 12 appendices that describe the participants, the materials, and the results of the various stages of the job analysis. (JGL) (150pp.)

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