NSF Award
0083276
0083276<br/>BAXTER<br/><br/>The National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS) rewards teachers for their content knowledge and skill through a portfolio assessment system where teachers' performances are judged against a set of professional teaching standards. The data base of candidate portfolios represents a rich, potentially useful, and untapped reservoir of information about accomplished teaching practice in middle grades mathematics and science. This project will examine portfolio entries of candidates who applied for certification in 1999 (N = 250 and 204 for mathematics and science, respectively). Both qualitative and quantitative analyses will be undertaken, with a goal toward characterizing the nature and quality of teachers' assessment and instruction practices. The PIs will discuss what the analyses suggest about teaching and learning in middle grades mathematics and science.
