Evaluating the use of group interviews to select students into teacher-education programs

This study presents findings on the reliability and validity of a group-assessment interview procedure designed to evaluate the verbal, interpersonal, and leadership qualities of students applying to a teacher-education program. We examine whether (a) the group-assessment process predicts future student-teaching performance, (b) the group-assessment scores are reliable across raters, and (c) the group-assessment interview is a better predictor of student-teaching performance than academic criteria. After gathering data from 68 student-teachers who had previously participated in the group-assessment process, we found that the group-assessment overall rating predicts student-teaching performance and does so better than academic criteria. Finally, we found high interrater reliability on the group-assessment measures.