A Research-Based Rubric for Driving Improvement in Physics Teacher Preparation.

Given the insufficient number of well-qualified future physics teachers, physics programs often seek guidance for how to address this national need. But, as the saying goes, “if you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it.” Measurement tools can provide useful guidance, both by defining excellence and providing a means to measure progress towards excellence. This talk describes the development of such a measurement tool – the Physics Teacher Education Program Analysis (PTEPA) Rubric. The rubric defines levels of success in several areas that are important for physics teacher education, such as strength of program leadership, or the content of licensure courses, based on observed practices at 8 “thriving” U.S. physics teacher education programs. Initial findings suggest that thriving programs are strong in multiple areas (especially institutional commitment, leadership, and collaboration among partners in education and physics), and that several areas of strength align with those indicated by the existing physics teacher education literature. However, thriving programs are not necessarily strong in all areas, instead reflecting local conditions at the institutional and state level. The rubric and its’ associated supporting materials are intended to shed light on critical practices in physics teacher education, supporting research and hypothesis testing. The rubric is also intended to help program leaders in using a process of continuous improvement to strengthen local programs. We will briefly describe development of the rubric, insights gained from it, and how physics programs can use it to drive improvements.