Teacher education has long relied on locally-developed assessments that lack reliability and validity. Rigorous performance-based assessments for preservice teachers have been advanced as one possible way to ensure that all students receive instruction from a high-quality teacher. Recently, performance-basedassessments have been developed which focus on the application of knowledge of teaching and learning in a classroom setting. Our book explores factors related to the implementation of teacher performance assessments in varying state and institutional contexts. The contributors, teacher educators from across the country, focus on what was learned from inquiries conducted using diverse methodologies (quantitative, qualitative, self-studies, and mixed methods). Their research encompassed faculty, supervisors, cooperating teachers, and students' perceptions and concerns of teacher performance assessments, case studies of curricular reform and/or resistance, analyses of experiences and needs as a result of the adoption of such assessments, and examinations of the results of program alignment and reform. The chapters showcase experiences which occurred during high-stakes situations, in implementation periods prior to high-stakes adoption, and in contexts where programs adopted performance assessments as an institutional policy rather than as a result of a state-wide mandate.

Teacher education has long relied on locally-developed assessments that lack reliability and validity. Rigorous performance-based assessments for preservice teachers have been advanced as one possible way to ensure that all students receive instruction from a high-quality teacher. Recently, performance-basedassessments have been developed which focus on the application of knowledge of teaching and learning in a classroom setting. Our book explores factors related to the implementation of teacher performance assessments in varying state and institutional contexts. The contributors, teacher educators from across the country, focus on what was learned from inquiries conducted using diverse methodologies (quantitative, qualitative, self-studies, and mixed methods). Their research encompassed faculty, supervisors, cooperating teachers, and students' perceptions and concerns of teacher performance assessments, case studies of curricular reform and/or resistance, analyses of experiences and needs as a result of the adoption of such assessments, and examinations of the results of program alignment and reform. The chapters showcase experiences which occurred during high-stakes situations, in implementation periods prior to high-stakes adoption, and in contexts where programs adopted performance assessments as an institutional policy rather than as a result of a state-wide mandate.

Policy emphasis on use of standards for assessments in K-12 education has also affected teacher education. Teacher educators are being asked to use standards for assessment and produce concrete evidence for the skills and knowledge their candidates possess prior to certification. This study examined the assessment data produced in one teacher education program with an aim to identify the purposes these assessments fulfilled for the program, and whether these assessments produced the evidence desired by policy makers. My findings concur with other studies which claim that the lack of research on use of standards in teacher education and inexperience of the field leads to inefficient systems of assessments. This study also highlights the potential that use of standards holds for teacher education programs such as: creating linkages between theory and practice, creating coherence within the programs, serving as tools for self-reflection for the student teachers, and facilitating the process of learning to teach.