"edTPA is a content specific, performance based national assessment currently being implemented in 694 Education Preparation Programs in 38 states and the District of Columbia. edTPA is both a requirement for teacher licensure in Illinois and for the completion of ISU teacher education programs that lead to licensure." - Lauby Teacher Education Center
Discover more dissertations (and other publications) written by ISU students/staff/faculty on edTPA at ISU ReD
Understanding the World Language EdTPA by A volume in Contemporary Language Education In Understanding the World Language edTPA: Research Based Policy and Practice, two researchers in the forefront of world language edTPA discuss the new beginning teacher portfolio, including its required elements, federal and state policies concerning teacher evaluation, and research from their own programs. Higher education faculty members and language teacher preparation program coordinators who would like to better understand edTPA requirements and gain suggestions for necessary programmatic changes will find this book of interest. The book is composed of eight chapters. The authors begin by describing edTPA and how it became a national trend to assess beginning teacher ability. In Chapter 2, the authors present ideas about curricular changes that may need to occur in traditional world language teacher education programs, as well as suggestions to assist teacher candidates as they begin to develop their portfolios. Afterward, the authors discuss the context for learning (Chapter 3) and they begin with assessment, moving to planning, and then to instruction (Chapters 4, 5, 6). In each chapter, the authors discuss the work sample that teacher candidates must create, an analysis of a high scoring portfolio, and steps to stimulate teacher candidates' professional thinking. In Chapter 7, the authors present activities for the methods classroom. In the final chapter, the authors provide a critical analysis of edTPA, in general, and the world language edTPA, in particular. Understanding the World Language edTPA: Research Based Policy and Practice provides readers with a much needed guide to inducting teacher candidates into the new portfolio requirements, while helping higher education faculty make appropriate curricular changes to accommodate edTPA."
Teacher Performance Assessment and Accountability Reforms by Winner of the 2017 AESA Critic's Choice Book Award This book provides multiple perspectives on the dual struggle that teacher educators currently face as they make sense of edTPA while preparing their pre-service teachers for this high stakes teacher exam. The adoption of nationalized teacher performance exams has raised concerns about the influence of corporate interests in teacher education, the objectivity of nationalized teaching standards, and ultimately the overarching political and economic interests shaping the process, format, and nature of assessment itself. Through an arc of scholarship from various perspectives, this book explores a range of questions about the goals and interests at work in the roll out of the edTPA assessment and gives voice to those most affected by these policy changes, teacher educators, and teacher education students.
Using Video to Assess Teaching Performance by Recent performance-based teacher assessments have challenged teacher educators to rethink the ways that candidates are prepared in education programs. edTPA (formerly the Teacher Performance Assessment) requires teacher candidates to demonstrate knowledge and skills through authentic teaching artifacts, written commentary, and video clips recorded in real classroom settings. As part of the edTPA requirements, teacher candidates submit video clips of their own teaching to be viewed and assessed by evaluators. This implies that teacher candidates should know how to utilize their own videos for the purpose of improving their instructional skills as well as the learning of their students. These initiatives have urged teacher educators to prepare their candidates for the active use of video-recorded instruction either in university classrooms or in field-based practices. This book provides research-based strategies to support video analysis of authentic teaching in initial teacher education programs. It also presents a review of video recording tools in reference to their features and practicality for different educational settings.
Researching EdTPA Problems and Promises by Teacher effectiveness and licensure in the United States continue to be scrutinized at the state and national levels. At present, 40 states plus the District of Columbia have adopted edTPA to inform initial teacher licensure and/or certification decisions (American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education, n.d.). edTPA is designed to measure novice teachers' readiness to teach their content area, with a focus on student learning and principles from research and theory (SCALE, 2015). Composed of planning, instruction, and assessment tasks, edTPA portfolios seek to provide evidence of teacher candidate readiness in three areas: (1) intended teaching, (2) enacted teaching, and (3) the impact of teaching on student learning. Specifically, edTPA measures teacher candidates' ability to: - develop knowledge of subject matter, content standards, and subject-specific pedagogy - develop and apply knowledge of varied students' needs - consider research and theory about how students learn - reflect on and analyze evidence of the effects of instruction on student learning (p. 1) Teacher candidates create extensive portfolios that include written commentaries explaining each task and video excerpts of a recorded teaching event. Teacher candidates must submit evidence to show their teaching prowess and pay $300, at present, to Pearson Education for their portfolio to be evaluated by external reviewers. In this volume, researchers share their experiences working with edTPA in three areas of language learning: English Language Arts, English to Speakers of Other Languages, and World Languages. The volume provides empirical research in the areas of multicultural perspectives, pedagogical practices, and edTPA (in)compatibility. Findings are of interest to multiple stakeholders such as teacher candidates, mentor teachers, teacher preparation faculty members and program coordinators, and administrators.
A Practical Guide for EdTPA Implementation by edTPA is the most widely-used performance assessment for pre-service teachers in the United States, and a requirement in many states for teaching licensure. Through edTPA, teacher candidates demonstrate their effectiveness in different aspects of teaching, including planning, instruction, assessment, analysis of teaching, and use of academic language. This book is a practical guide for anyone involved in edTPA implementation. The chapters are written by experienced teacher educators who are leading successful edTPA programs in their own universities, who are in the field, and involved in the work. They represent diverse teacher preparation programs, each with their own strengths and challenges. This book addresses the challenges of edTPA, while providing practical strategies for educative and thoughtful implementation. Organized into four sections, each section explores a different aspect of edTPA implementation, and provides guidance for leading faculty and teacher candidates through edTPA.
Implementing and Analyzing Performance Assessments in Teacher Education by Teacher education has long relied on locally-developed assessments that lack reliability and validity. Rigorous performance-based assessments for preservice teachers have been advanced as one possible way to ensure that all students receive instruction from a high-quality teacher. Recently, performance-based assessments have been developed which focus on the application of knowledge of teaching and learning in a classroom setting. Our book explores factors related to the implementation of teacher performance assessments in varying state and institutional contexts. The contributors, teacher educators from across the country, focus on what was learned from inquiries conducted using diverse methodologies (quantitative, qualitative, self-studies, and mixed methods). Their research encompassed faculty, supervisors, cooperating teachers, and students' perceptions and concerns of teacher performance assessments, case studies of curricular reform and/or resistance, analyses of experiences and needs as a result of the adoption of such assessments, and examinations of the results of program alignment and reform. The chapters showcase experiences which occurred during high-stakes situations, in implementation periods prior to high-stakes adoption, and in contexts where programs adopted performance assessments as an institutional policy rather than as a result of a state-wide mandate.
Schools of Education As Sites of Resistance by Who Decides Who Becomes a Teacher? extends the discussions and critiques of neoliberalism in education by examining the potential for Schools of Teacher Education to contest policies that are typical in K-12 schooling. Drawing on a case study of faculty collaboration, this edited volume reimagines teacher preparation programs as crucial sites of resistance to, and refusal of, unsound education practices and legislation. This volume also reveals by example how education faculty can engage in collaborative scholarly work to investigate the anticipated and unanticipated effects of policy initiatives on teaching and learning.
Reclaiming Accountability in Teacher Education by Winner of the 2019 Society of Professors of Education Outstanding Book Award Winner of 2018 AESA Critic's Choice Award Teacher accountability has been a major strategy for "fixing" education for the last 2 decades. In this book, Cochran-Smith and her research team argue that it is time for teacher educators to reclaim accountability by adopting a new approach that features intelligent professional responsibility, challenges the structures and processes that reproduce inequity, and sustains multi-layered collaboration with diverse communities. The authors analyze and critique major accountability initiatives, including Department of Education regulations, CAEP accreditation procedures, NCTQ teacher preparation reviews, and edTPA, and expose the lack of evidence behind these policies, as well as the negative impact they are having on teacher education. However, the book does not conclude that accountability is the wrong direction for the next generation of teacher education. Instead, the authors offer a clear and achievable vision of accountability for teacher education based on a commitment to equity and democracy. Book Features: Proposes a new approach to reclaim accountability: democratic accountability in teacher education. Offers a historical overview of accountability in the era of education reform. Embraces accountability and reconstructs its targets, purposes, and consequences in keeping with the larger democratic project. Introduces an accessible framework for investigating dimensions of accountability policy and practice. Deconstructs four of the most visible education reform initiatives relevant to teacher educators and education stakeholders.
Visions from Professional Development School Partners by Rich clinical preparation combined with progressive experiences in professional development school (PDS) settings are proposed to bring about systemic and impactful transformation of educator preparation and professional growth in order to improve and enhance P-12 student learning. In this book, diverse authors describe their efforts to forge PDS partnerships to develop and deliver high quality training and practical experiences for candidates, and simultaneously provide professional development for experienced practitioners in ways that mirror recommendations found in authoritative reports and literature. The authors' collective wisdom is vividly captured in the multi-voiced chapters that are collaborations between cooperating teachers, school administrators, county and district level administrators, university supervisors, and instructional faculty. The contexts authors write about are recognizable, and the accomplishments they experienced and challenges faced will resonate with institutions courageously undertaking change or renewal. The book will be invaluable to school and university faculty and administrators as they transition to a partnering model of clinical preparation for teacher candidates: it will help stakeholders decide if their schools and institutions are ready to commit to a partnership, and highlight the benefits they stand to gain, but realistically address challenges that may be faced by administrators and faculties as well as teacher candidates in the PDS enterprise.
A Student's Guide to Academic and Professional Writing in Education by This concise handbook helps educators write for the rhetorical situations they will face as students of education, and as preservice and practicing teachers. It provides clear and helpful advice for responding to the varying contexts, audiences, and purposes that arise in four written categories in education: classroom, research, credential, and stakeholder writing. The book moves from academic to professional writing and chapters include a discussion of relevant genres, mentor texts with salient features identified, visual aids, and exercises that ask students to apply their understanding of the concepts. Readers learn about the scholarly and qualitative research processes prevalent in the field of education and are encouraged to use writing to facilitate change that improves teaching and learning conditions. Book Features: Presents a rhetorical approach to writing in education. Includes detailed student samples for each of the four major categories of writing. Articulates writing as a core intellectual responsibility of teachers. Details the library and qualitative research process using examples from education. Includes many user-friendly features, such as reflection questions and writing prompts.
