FTCE Professional Education 3 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: A student's IEP team is meeting to discuss placement. Who is REQUIRED by IDEA to be a member of the IEP team?
- The school principal
- A general education teacher of the student (Correct answer)
- The school psychologist
- The district special education director
Correct answer: A general education teacher of the student
IDEA requires IEP teams to include at least one general education teacher when the student is or may be participating in general education.
Question 2: Which assessment type is BEST suited for monitoring a student's ongoing progress toward a specific learning goal during instruction?
- Summative assessment
- Norm-referenced assessment
- Formative assessment (Correct answer)
- Diagnostic assessment
Correct answer: Formative assessment
Formative assessments are ongoing checks for understanding used during instruction to guide teaching and learning in real time.
Question 3: A teacher consistently praises effort and strategy rather than intelligence when students succeed. This practice BEST supports which theory?
- Self-determination theory
- Growth mindset (Dweck) (Correct answer)
- Multiple intelligences (Gardner)
- Zone of Proximal Development (Vygotsky)
Correct answer: Growth mindset (Dweck)
Carol Dweck's growth mindset research shows praising effort and process helps students develop resilience and a belief that ability can improve.
Question 4: Which action would be a violation of the Florida Principles of Professional Conduct for a teacher?
- Sharing a student's IEP with the student's classroom aide
- Discussing a student's academic struggles with the student's parent
- Posting a student's full name and grade on a public social media page (Correct answer)
- Reviewing a student's cumulative record before a parent conference
Correct answer: Posting a student's full name and grade on a public social media page
Publicly disclosing student personally identifiable information without consent violates FERPA and Florida's Principles of Professional Conduct.
Question 5: Scaffolding, as described by Vygotsky, refers to:
- Breaking complex tasks into isolated sub-skills for practice
- Providing temporary support that is gradually removed as learner competence grows (Correct answer)
- Grouping students by ability level for targeted instruction
- Using physical manipulatives to represent abstract concepts
Correct answer: Providing temporary support that is gradually removed as learner competence grows
Vygotskian scaffolding is temporary instructional support within the Zone of Proximal Development that fades as the student gains independence.
Question 6: A teacher wants to increase the validity of a classroom test. Which action BEST achieves this?
- Increasing the number of questions on the test
- Ensuring test items directly align with the stated learning objectives (Correct answer)
- Using only multiple-choice questions for consistency
- Grading the test without knowing which student wrote which paper
Correct answer: Ensuring test items directly align with the stated learning objectives
Validity is the degree to which a test measures what it is intended to measure; alignment to learning objectives is the foundation of content validity.
Question 7: Under Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, accommodations are required for students who:
- Have been identified as gifted and talented
- Have a disability that substantially limits a major life activity (Correct answer)
- Qualify for free or reduced-price lunch
- Are English Language Learners with a language processing delay
Correct answer: Have a disability that substantially limits a major life activity
Section 504 protects individuals with a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities, which includes learning.
FTCE Professional Education 3
A student's IEP team is meeting to discuss placement.
Who is REQUIRED by IDEA to be a member of the IEP team?