Dr. Gina M. Almerico
Dr. Gina Almerico serves as Director of Educator Preparation Programs, for which she develops program assessment processes and serves as a team leader for state and nationwide program review/approval.
Watermark-EDA Products
Educational Disposition Assessment (EDA)
Designed to assess the dispositions of candidates in traditional educator preparation programs, the Educational Dispositional Assessment was developed through 700 hours of research over seven years. The EDA consists of dispositions and related indicators explicitly aligned to CAEP standards, InTasc Standards*, and professional dispositional elements found in prominent teacher evaluation instruments.
- Formatted as a three-point rubric with nine research-based dispositions
- Aligned to CAEP and InTasc standards
- Reviewed and rated by more than 350 experts, including professors, deans, directors, principals, district-level representatives, and cooperating teachers
CAEP Standards addressed by the EDA include:
- Standard 1: Content and Pedagogical Knowledge
- Standard 2: Clinical Partnerships and Practice
- Standard 3: Candidate Quality, Recruitment, and Selectivity
- Standard 5: Provider Quality Assurance and Continuous Improvement
Dispositions of the Online Learner Instrument (DOL)
The Dispositions of the Online Learner Instrument is designed for candidates participating in educator preparation programs that include a significant online component. It is aligned to ISTE, AECT, and CAEP standards and can be used along with the EDA rubric to capture a holistic view of online student dispositions.
- Formatted as a three-point rubric with eight research-based dispositions
- Aligned to ISTE, AECT, and CAEP standards
- Reviewed and rated by more than 150 online educators and subject matter experts
- Complements the EDA by offering indicators of learners’ online dispositions
Educational Leadership Disposition Assessment (EDLDA)
Education leaders require a unique set of dispositions to be effective in their roles as administrators, coaches, and advocates. The Educational Leadership Disposition Assessment includes leadership dispositions for performance-based growth and development aligned with NELP and CAEP standards.
- Formatted as a three-point rubric with fifteen research-based leadership dispositions
- Aligned with both CAEP and NELP standards
- Reviewed and rated by more than 100 professors and principals, as well as deans and directors of educational leadership programs
What’s included?
Each of our Watermark-EDA packages includes:
– The assessment rubric
– A detailed technical manual, including timeline for implementation and curricular suggestions
– An initial calibration session with EDA experts
– Annual calibration with on-demand training sessions
If you are interested, we encourage you to contact us to set up a call to discuss your needs.
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Why should I use the Watermark-EDA instruments?
Accreditors, including CAEP, require that education programs address and assess candidate dispositions throughout their experience — both in the classroom and during field experience. Why do dispositions matter? Because these attitudes, values, and behaviors shape how educators interact with students, colleagues, and families in their work guiding student learning and development.
Providing candidates with information about programmatic dispositional expectations can help cultivate positive attitudes and actions, and motivation for assessing dispositions is particularly helpful to expedite the course of change needed to address problems associated with inappropriate attitudes and actions before and during clinical experiences. Commonly used teacher evaluation instruments contain elements of dispositions, and feedback from such evaluation tools is critical to candidate growth.
The Watermark-EDA dispositions are aligned to the InTASC standards and other prominent teacher evaluation instruments to provide programs with the evidence needed to meet CAEP and state-level accreditation requirements. It is recommended that institutions align their respective state standards with the InTASC standards identified in the instrument.
As an added benefit, when you use the EDA instruments with Watermark assessment solutions, we can help you simplify the rubric distribution, score collection, and reporting processes – while archiving data for quick reference at any time and increasing data transparency in your program.
How were the Watermark-EDA instruments developed?
The instruments were designed with careful consideration of the psychometric properties associated with informal assessment so that any inferences made about a candidate’s disposition are more likely to be true. The intent of the instrument construction was to extend typical psychometric expectations associated with informal assessments. The effort was grounded in an attempt to clear any confusion about the expectations so that growth in dispositions may be enhanced during coursework and subsequent clinical experience. Construct validity was measured through a series of steps aimed at procuring a collective understanding of dispositional meaning, while inter-rater reliability was estimated with the calculation of generally high Pearson Product Moment correlational coefficients.
The instruments successfully address each component of the CAEP Evaluation Framework to include:
- suggestions for administration and explanation of purpose
- indicators that require evaluators to judge consequential attributes of candidate proficiencies and standards
- well-defined scoring criteria
- estimates of reliability to include reported reliability coefficients, and
- evidence of construct validity with composite scores that move toward predictive validity.
The instruments are designed to be used at multiple points during a program–from admission to graduation — to collect baseline data and track candidate progress to both highlight exemplary dispositions, and identify when additional support is needed to ensure candidate success. The assessments can be used individually or in tandem to provide institutions with valid, reliable, and meaningful data to support continuous improvement, while documenting alignment for accreditation.
Who is the EDA, LLC?
The Educational Dispositional Assessment Consultants, LLC is composed of four research professors from The University of Tampa.
Dr. Pattie Johnston
Dr. Pattie Johnston coordinates the graduate Curriculum and Instruction program at The University of Tampa. She earned her Ph.D. from the University of South Florida in Measurement and Research.
Dr. Adrianne Wilson
Dr. Adrianne Wilson coordinates the Master's in Educational Leadership program and has conducted over 500 classroom observations, giving her extensive experience in mentoring and coaching teachers.
Dr. Suzanne Ensmann
Dr. Suzanne Ensmann is Assistant Professor in the College of Social Science, Mathematics, and Education, contributing teaching and research to the M.S. in Instructional Design and Technology program.