| Mandates by the State Board for Educator Certification necessitated that by January 1, 2000, a critical thinking assessment become part of the admission criteria for teacher education programs throughout Texas. In compliance, the School of Education at The University of Texas at Brownsville and Texas Southmost College selected the Watson-Glaser Critical Thinking Appraisal . This decision has had far reaching implications for teacher education program applicants, the School of Education, and the university.; Preliminary analyses of the performance of the teacher education program applicants on the Watson-Glaser Critical Thinking Appraisal revealed that more than forty percent of the applicants did not achieve the minimum required score on the test. In response, the University's Learning Assistance Center's Watson-Glaser Critical Thinking Appraisal Test Preparation Program was designed and implemented. However, since its implementation, the effectiveness of the Program has not been evaluated.; The purpose of this study was to describe the effectiveness of the Test Preparation Program. A causal comparative research design was used to examine the Program's effectiveness. The participants consisted of all applicants who took the Watson-Glaser Critical Thinking Appraisal as part of the admission requirements for the teacher education program in the School of Education at an open-door admission policy university. This study required the collection and systematic analysis of the following archival data: (1) the results of teacher education program applicants' performance on the Watson-Glaser Critical Thinking Appraisal; and (2) the Test Preparation Program's attendance records.; To test the hypothesis that there is a statistically significant difference in the critical thinking of teacher education program applicants who participated in the Watson-Glaser Critical Thinking Appraisal Test Preparation Program and the critical thinking of teacher education program applicants who did not participate in the Watson-Glaser Critical Thinking Appraisal Test Preparation Program, the data were analyzed using the Pearson chi-square statistical technique. The ninety-five percent confidence level (p < .05) was used as the criterion level for determining program effectiveness.; Although the Watson-Glaser Critical Thinking Appraisal pass rate was slightly higher for applicants who participated in the Test Preparation Program, the results of this study indicated that the critical thinking of teacher education program applicants who participated in the Watson-Glaser Critical Thinking Appraisal Test Preparation Program was not statistically significantly higher than critical thinking of teacher education program applicants who did not participate in the Watson-Glaser Critical Thinking Appraisal Test Preparation Program. |
