| Summary: | <p> This study analyzed the results of undergraduate and graduate teacher candidate scores on the Elementary Missouri Content Assessment at a private Midwestern University. The intent was to examine the possibility of a difference between pre-service teachers who satisfied coursework requirements through an undergraduate program or through a graduate program. This study focused on the content knowledge domain of teacher knowledge that had been the focus of teacher competency studies since Lee Shulman’s research in 1986. This study used pre-service teacher Missouri Content Assessment scores, subtest scores, number of attempts to earn a passing score, number of years since a college math or science class was taken, cumulative grade point average, and grade point average in each content area in order to determine if any correlation existed between academic performance and performance on the Elementary Missouri Content Assessment. </p><p> The researcher anticipated that pre-service teachers with higher GPA would receive higher scores on the Missouri Content Assessment. The 12 hypotheses in this study tested the relationship of both undergraduate and graduate pre-service teacher academic performance and performance on the Missouri Content Assessment. The site of the study was a medium-sized Private Midwestern University. A random sample of 50 undergraduate and 35 graduate pre-service teachers were selected from a total population of 205 graduates, which included 169 undergraduate candidates and 36 graduate candidates. The study was quantitative utilizing the Pearson Product-Moment Correlation Coefficient and a <i>z</i>-test for difference in means. The analysis of the 12 hypotheses revealed no statistically significant correlation between academic performance and the Missouri Content Assessment scores. The lack of a significant correlation suggests that further studies are conducted to determine what factors could be indicators that both the Researched University and future pre-service teachers enrolled at the Researched University use as predictors of readiness and success on the MoCA. Because the MoCA assessment has a limited implementation of four years, it may be beneficial to examine what changes the research university has made in course and program design to meet the requirements and then examine the MoCA scores after the changes.</p><p>
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