Standardizing Teacher Performance Assessment: Analyzing the edTPA

• In Event: Fixing Teacher Preparation: Analysis and Critique of Major Reform Initiatives

Abstract

Problem and Significance
In recent years, teacher education reforms have sought to improve the quality of teacher candidates through the use of various accountability measures. One increasingly popular and highly publicized measure has been the evaluation of teachers on the basis of their performance in the classroom (Darling-Hammond, Amrein-Beardsley, Haertel, & Rothstein, 2012; Zeichner, 2012). The most prominent performance assessment, the edTPA, is currently used in 35 states and the District of Columbia as well as by more than 626 U.S. preparation programs to assess teacher candidates, shape program standards, and guide practice (edTPA, 2015). Although the edTPA enjoys widespread use, it is also subject to serious debate and critique. The purpose of this paper is to investigate and analyze the edTPA as a teacher education reform initiative within the larger context of the nation’s current policy focus on teacher quality and accountability.
Perspectives, Modes of Inquiry, and Data Sources
In this paper, we examine the edTPA using the concept of “teacher quality policy dimensions” and frame analysis (see Paper 1), and we unpack and analyze the underlying theory of action of the edTPA. Data sources include more than 50 related documents, ranging from official edTPA field test reports to a series of editorials published by proponents and opponents of the edTPA in the widely-circulated magazine, Rethinking Schools. (See Table 4.)
Interpretations and Conclusions
Our analysis revealed three major contested aspects of the edTPA: professionalization, equity and social justice issues, and issues of privatization and control. EdTPA proponents use a professionalization prognostic frame to promote the edTPA, maintaining that this assessment will improve teacher education quality by holding candidates to high standards of reflection, planning, and assessment. The logic here is that the problem of teacher preparation quality is the lack of unified, high professional standards for all teachers entering the classroom. Opponents disagree with this diagnosis, questioning the premise that preparation can (or should be) improved through a standardized assessment. Instead opponents frame the edTPA as a high-stakes accountability measure that forces teachers and preparation programs to teach to the test, and undermines local, authentic, high-quality preparation. Examining the policy dimensions of the edTPA reveals that it is different in many ways from the initiatives described in Papers 2 and 4, particularly in terms of horizontal dimensions related to policy actors, implementers, and jurisdictions. Unlike debates about new USDOE regulations and NCTQ reviews, the debate about the edTPA is not about an external mandate or an evaluation imposed rom outside of the field of teacher educations. Rather, in some ways similar to CAEP, debates about the edTPA are internal, reflecting highly-contested issues of power, control, professionalism, and equity.
Contributions
Clearly the edTPA is driving changes in teacher preparation programs, licensure decisions, and classroom practice, particularly in states where it is now required. Analysis of the intended and unintended roles, purposes, and perspectives about the edTPA is imperative to understanding how it connects to other teacher preparation reforms in the name of teacher quality.

Authors

• Juan Gabriel Sanchez, Boston College

• Rebecca H. Stern, Boston College