For teacher candidates, the system can help jumpstart entry into the teacher certification process by allowing him or her to demonstrate teaching proficiencies based on prior professional and personal experiences.

In addition, quality professional development resources are provided some of which can be accessed via direct internet links. These resources can be used to support near- and long-term professional development goals, graduate-level credits leading to an advanced teaching degree, or instructional credits that can be used to obtain a teaching certification.

Benefits to Districts & Schools

Data Driven Decision Making and Program Accountability
The Assessment Tools for Teaching ProficiencyTM provides district and school administrators with an accurate, data-driven and cost-effective method for determining where training resources should be focused to achieve the greatest impact. The Assessment Tools for Teaching ProficiencyTM is the only available system for objectively and systematically determining what classroom teaching skill areas are in need of training. The Assessment Tools for Teaching ProficiencyTM can also be used to evaluate the extent to which subsequent training improves teaching effectiveness.

Two key features of the Assessment Tools for Teaching ProficiencyTM are that feedback to individual teachers is confidential and it can be administered to a single teacher or to a large number of teachers during a single session. The use of a central scoring computer allows results from multiple schools/sites to be immediately available to administrators as an aid in budgeting and resource planning activities. The Assessment Tools for Teaching ProficiencyTM software provides districts with a variety of Trend Analysis Reports (TARs) that summarize performance trends across a variety of teacher groups (for example, by grade, experience level or subject area taught). These reports can also be used to compare results within the district to results of other similar districts across the state, region, or nation.

The system also can be used to demonstrate program accountability . Accountability is fostered by linking tangible outcomes to programs that produce immediate impact within the classroom. The Assessment Tools for Teaching ProficiencyTM provides districts and schools with a cost-effective tool for impacting student performance outcomes by improving the information teachers have available to them when planning and implementing their ongoing professional development activities. As a result of the extensive validation and its use of a proven performance technology, the system has been incorporated into successful grants proposals related to teacher professional development, teacher quality and educational reform.

Benefits to Colleges & Universities

The Assessment Tools for Teaching ProficiencyTM provides faculty members with detailed performance data that can be used to tailor program curricula, activities, and other resources to the individual needs of the student or to a specified group of students (e.g., class, cohort, etc.). The system also can be used to gauge progress through the program, for example by including a self-assessment component just prior to the beginning of the teaching internship phase. The results of this self-assessment can be used by student interns provide copies of the system generated feedback reports to their faculty advisor, as well as to the onsite teacher-mentor, for the purpose of developing a focused internship experience that facilitates knowledge/skill transfer to the classroom.

The system also can be used for research purposes, for example to establish a performance baseline to use as when making between group comparisons, or as part of a battery of variables related to teaching ability when exploring teaching effectiveness. Faculty members interested in using the Assessment Tools for Teaching ProficiencyTM for research purposes are encouraged to contact Applied Simulation Corporation to discuss where and how it will be used.