K-State PDS Partnership
Assessment Program

The KSU PDS Partnership continuously gathers assessment information from all stakeholders in the partnership, including the KSU preservice students and faculty, PDs mentor teachers, clinical instructor, and administrators, and K-12 students and their parents through test scores, surveys, interviews focus groups, and observations. The clinical instructors representing each PDS and the KSU-PDS coordinators coordinate and facilitate this process. Every semester new information is gathered to help plan improvements in the PDS program and improve the overall quality of the PDS Partnership. The annual building report is designed to document PDS assessment data on a yearly basis.

The PDS assessment design is both quantitative and qualitative in nature. PDS experiences are documented through formal and informal observations, interviews, focus groups, and structured and open-ended questionnaires. All evaluation efforts are based on the concept of triangulation where multiple assessment strategies are used to confirm the trustworthiness of the results. Data is analyzed using content analysis techniques where categories are created and frequencies tabulated. Different sources of data from a variety of PDS stakeholders are then synthesized and trends and patterns are recorded and assertions are generated. Through this assessment process a spiral of improvement is crated in which PDS experiences are planned, implemented, and assessed. The assessment results then lead to revised plans that are implemented and reassessed as the process repeats itself.