Abstract
Teacher preparation programs (TPPs) stand to benefit if they can reliably link pre-service teacher characteristics with later teaching quality--for example, by better supporting underperformers and spotting high-potential candidates early. In this study, I use data from a university in the Mountain West to analyze the relationships between pre-college student characteristics and teaching evaluation scores during student teaching, as scored on Danielson's Framework for Teaching (FFT) rubric. My findings suggest that no significant relationship exists between FFT scores and demographic characteristics such as age, sex, marital status, or poverty. Pre-college academic variables (i.e., GPA and standardized test scores) show small but positive relationships with FFT scores. Additionally, pre-service teachers in secondary education majors (e.g., secondary math, music education) receive evaluation scores between 3% and 7% of a standard deviation lower on average than elementary, special education, and early childhood majors across FFT sub-domains. These results caution against overreliance on academic variables as indicators of future teaching success. They also suggest that a small portion of TPPs' contribution to teacher quality is attributable to student characteristics rather than program value-added.
Degree
EdD
College and Department
David O. McKay School of Education; Educational Leadership and Foundations
Rights
https://lib.byu.edu/about/copyright/
BYU ScholarsArchive Citation
Pacini, Benjamin, "The Crystal Ball is Cloudy: Teacher Preparation Programs' Challenges in Predicting Effective Teaching From Teacher Characteristics" (2025). Theses and Dissertations. 10764.
https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/etd/10764
Date Submitted
2025-04-18
Document Type
Dissertation
Handle
http://hdl.lib.byu.edu/1877/etd13600
Keywords
teacher education programs, teacher preparation programs, preservice teachers, teacher effectiveness, teacher evaluation, accountability
Language
english