Candidate Assessment System

There are two tools to support teacher candidate evaluation in the field: the Dispositions Assessment and the Skills of Teaching Observation Tool (STOT)

• The Dispositions Assessment is an important tool for helping programs assess whether a candidate is ready for the classroom, not so much pedagogically, but professionally. There are questions about everything from punctuality to appreciation for diversity and clarity of communication.
  

• The Skills of Teaching Observation Tool (STOT) is an important assessment for helping us determine whether a candidate is pedagogically prepared for the classroom. There are questions about learner development, assessment, instructional strategies, and more. The STOT is to be used as both a formative and summative tool during student teaching.
  
  

The UMN-TC’s assessment system provides evaluation tools that are used both formatively and summatively by multiple people supporting each candidates’ development.

The STOT will be utilized by the triad - clinical supervisor, cooperating teacher, and teacher candidate - to support robust formative feedback and document the progress a teacher candidate is making during student teaching. The supervisor is responsible for submitting the final version of the assessment by the end of the student teaching semester.

The Dispositions Assessment will continue to be completed once prior to final student teaching placement and once near the end of the placement. In most programs, the LPL is responsible for submitting the pre-student teaching dispositions assessment and the final dispositions is (usually) submitted by the clinical supervisor. Formative (optional) dispositions assessments can be completed as needed for progress monitoring completed along the way.

System for accessing, storing, and collecting both the Dispositions Assessment and the STOT

• The Teacher Education Management System (TEMS) will be where the assessments are accessed and submitted. TEMS is the same system that holds all clinical placement records, so it automatically connects the teacher candidates’ records to the assigned clinical supervisor. AND, with TEM’s ability to allow users to edit, update, and save the STOT over time, users can now use the STOT in a more formative way with candidates!