Abstract

Higher standards and greater accountability for all – students as well as teachers has become a popular catchphrase in the United States, from the nation's capital in Washington DC to boardrooms of local school districts. With President George W. Bush signing the No Child Left Behind Act in 2002, attention has been refocused on teacher quality. As a result, colleges and universities around the nation are reevaluating their teacher preparation programs to better meet the needs of their teacher candidates, and in turn, address the mandates of the Act. The National Council for the Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE) in 2000 adopted the Teacher Work Sample as one of the tools that teacher candidates can use to demonstrate impact on student learning. To investigate teacher candidates’ impact on student learning in a mathematics methods course, an analysis of 243 mathematics teacher work samples produced between fall 2002 and fall 2006 by early childhood teacher candidates at Mount Union College was conducted. Results indicate that majority of the teacher candidates demonstrated proficiency or acceptable impact (learning gains by students) on student learning.