Main Menu NEWS RELEASE
Contact: Ericca Reynolds (reynoldse@nsula.edu)
News Bureau
Northwestern State University
Natchitoches, LA 71497
(318) 357-6466
1/14/2003
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
NATCHITOCHES-The College of Education at Northwestern
State University recently held at two-day workshop for its faculty
to implement PASS-PORT, a Web-based tool to gather and evaluate
performance data on pre-service teachers. NSU will begin using
PASS-PORT to help meet National Council for Accreditation of Teacher
Education (NCATE) standards.
Two trainers from University of Louisiana at Lafayette hosted
the workshop, co-principal investigator and project administrator,
Juanita Guerin and instructional trainer Delores Champagne.
The system provides functionality for the creation of electronic portfolios and a tool for guiding teacher candidates and institutions through the stages of pre-service teacher development and evaluation.
Through the efforts of the Louisiana Commissioner of Higher Education, E. Joseph Savoie, Ed.D., the Board of Regents funded the development as well as the hardware and software for all 21 universities in the state.
"It is the most innovative software and a terrific tool," said PK16+ coordinator Dr. Bob Lumpkins. "PASS-PORT will have a tremendous impact on how we access student learning and ultimately how we teach."
PASS-PORT directly addresses the NCATE requirements that higher education institutions by having a viable performance assessment system in place that makes teacher education programs accountable for demonstrating how they prepare teachers to impact K-12 student learning and by having a coherent system to manage and evaluate field experiences and clinical practice of student interns.
"The reason why we developed PASS-PORT was because NCATE implemented new accrediting standards indicating we have to go to performance assessment," Guerin said. "PASS-PORT is designed to assist teacher education programs meet the ultimate goal of preparing candidates to become quality teachers who provide the best education possible for students in their classrooms."
PASS-PORT was piloted at Xavier University and the University of Louisiana at Lafayette last year. According to Guerin, the pilot received a great amount of feedback used to revise the program. PASS-PORT will be implemented at Northwestern in the fall of 2003.