“It took my knowledge to the limits”: The edTPA teacher performance assessment and its implications for TESOL

Abstract

Teacher performance assessments have the potential to act as a powerful, authentic learning and assessment tool for teacher education programs and teacher candidates. However, in a climate of increased accountability and standardization, high-stakes performance assessments can take on a larger-than-intended role in teacher education. This study examined the experiences of a cohort of pre-service teachers of English for Speakers of Other Languages as they navigated the completion of the edTPA teaching portfolio, which had recently been adopted by their teacher education program to satisfy a teacher licensure requirement. The edTPA, developed by Pearson, Inc. and the Stanford Center for Assessment, Learning, and Equity, consists of a candidate’s lesson plans, video-recordings of teaching, assessments, and reflections, which are then scored locally or by Pearson. Teacher candidates were interview to uncover their perceptions of the challenges and benefits of the edTPA as well as the ways they found to work around the challenges. Teacher candidates’ concerns centered on the language of the edTPA directions and rubrics, which candidates found to contain terminology and concepts unfamiliar to them; as well as localized constraints such as scripted curricula and student testing calendars at the candidates’ field placement schools. Candidates saw these factors as hindering their ability to showcase their teaching, but worked around the challenges by collaborating with their peers and drawing on coursework relevant to the edTPA. Candidates also identified benefits of the edTPA, including an increased ability to reflect on their planning, teaching, and assessment, and the connections between the three. The article concludes by discussing how closely the edTPA matches the hallmarks of a true, authentic performance-based assessment; as well as by recommending next steps for the developers of the edTPA and for teacher education programs using the assessment.