Revisiting the edTPA as an assessment of authentic teaching practices of a teacher candidate

            Lagging or trailing indicators of success, such as the edTPA, requires demonstration of the appropriate level of knowledge and skills expected of a beginning teacher.  As such, the ed TPA is intended to be a tool for demonstrating the appropriate level of knowledge and skills that are important for performing the responsibilities of a novice educator.  Designed as a portfolio assessment, the edTPA’s rubrics align with the authentic teaching practice of the teacher candidate (SCALE, 2020).

            Authentic assessments comprise diverse assessment techniques.  Typically, the educational literature discusses three variations of authentic assessment.  These include dynamic assessments (Newton, 2007), performance assessment (Meyer, 1992), and portfolio assessment (Salvia & Ysseldyke, 2004).  The edTPA is a portfolio assessment intended to authentically assess the following characteristics:

• Direct measurement of skills related to long-term educational outcomes.  For instance, success in the workplace;
• Tasks requiring extensive engagement and complex performance; and
• Analysis of the processes used to produce the response.

           Accordingly, Stanford University faculty and staff at the Stanford Center for Assessment, Learning, and Equity (SCALE) developed the edTPA.  The development team received substantive advice and feedback from teachers and teacher educators.  The team garnered extensive experience from over 25 years of developing performance-based assessments of teaching.

            The edTPA Annotated Bibliography (2015), developed by SCALE, with input from educators and researchers, is freely available and identifies the foundational research literature that informed the development of the edTPA.  The cited literature provides a research foundation for the role of assessment in teacher education, for the common edTPA architecture, and for each of the fifteen shared rubric constructs.  SCALE encourages educators, policy-makers, programs, and teacher candidates to utilize the literature review to examine the underlying constructs of edTPA as a measure of effective teaching.

            The American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education (AACTE) is a national alliance of educator preparation programs dedicated to high-quality, evidence-based preparation that assures teacher candidates are ready to teach all learners at the beginning of their careers.  As a national edTPA implementation partner, the AACTE seeks to strengthen an edTPA professional learning community by supporting communications, implementation, professional development and resources to help all programs graduate teachers who are ready to educate each and every child.  AACTE believes that edTPA will help give the public and educators confidence that teacher candidates are graduating ready to be effective teachers from their first day in the classroom.  In this pursuit, AACTE facilitates the edTPA Resource Library.

            Teacher Candidates access the required edTPA handbooks, templates, and resources, via their teacher preparation institution.  They also can download these materials from the portfolio system they use to build their portfolios.  Registered faculty and teacher preparation institutions can access edTPA handbooks, templates, and resources via the edTPA Resource Library

            The following edTPA process overview is provided as initial guidance for teacher candidates.  Teacher candidates will gain access to the required edTPA handbooks and templates from their teacher preparation institution.  Candidates may also be able to download these materials in the portfolio system.  Completing the Assessment requires careful adherence to completion of each edTPA task.  To optimize success, teacher candidates must:

• Review the submission and reporting dates, which allows proactive planning for edTPA submission with a required receipt of assessment results.
•  Register for the edTPA. 
• Draft and edit edTPA materials prior to attempting submission. The teacher candidate must be online to upload and submit completed edTPA materials.  However, the candidate may download templates to his or her laptop or workstation for drafting and editing written materials in advance of submission. Similarly, task 2 video clips should be viewed and prepared locally before uploading.
• Build the professional edTPA portfolio in the system used at your institution.
• Submit your completed edTPA for scoring by following directions for submitting the assessment.  Then, rejoice over your success! 

 

To cite:

Anderson, C.J. (August 31, 2021) Revisiting the edTPA as an assessment of authentic

            educational practice of a teacher candidate  [Web log post] Retrieved from

             http://www.ucan-cja.blogspot.com/

Effective teacher induction programs optimize teacher competencies that sustain success

            To increase effectiveness, teacher preparation and induction programs must align the intent of reform efforts to research-based leading indicators for successful pedagogy.  Reform efforts cannot be to content alone.  Innovative teacher preparation and induction programs should endeavor to exhibit balanced support between the development of the teacher candidate’s pedagogy, promotion of the teacher candidate’s active inquiry, and engagement of faculty across the disciplines.  This endeavor raises expectations for critical thinking, professionalism, and self-efficacy.  Monitoring and adjusting these leading indicators of success requires a clear mission, action-based vision, and systemic invitations to promote intentionality, care, optimism, respect, and trust (I-CORT). 

            Clinical-based training models, inspired a panel commissioned by the National Center for the Accreditation of Teacher Education to endorse “programs that are fully grounded in clinical practice and interwoven with academic content and professional courses” (NCATE, 2010, p. ii).  The report recommended “sweeping changes in how we deliver, monitor, evaluate, oversee, and staff clinically-based preparation to nurture a whole new form of teacher education” (p. iii).  To develop the desired skills and professional competencies, teacher preparation and induction programs must focus upon improving the leading indicators of success. 

However, many teacher preparation programs may erroneously focus upon one trailing indicator: the edTPA.  "The edTPA is designed to align with the authentic teaching practice of the teacher candidate" (SCALE, 2017).  As an authentic assessment of actual practice, the edTPA should encourage teacher preparation and induction programs to ensure its teacher candidates plan, implement and assess, thorough lessons that exhibit differentiated instruction to diverse learners that promote progress monitoring of learning.

However, poor communication and rushed timelines during the implementation of more stringent accountability requirements resulted in unintended consequences.  Significant to this was the fear of failure became the single most powerful force guiding a program’s change initiatives.  Without the time for development and integration of the leading indicators for success, teacher preparation and induction programs will remain subject to unintended consequences. 

            To begin the process of developing teacher competencies that sustain professional success and promotes attainment of the learning for all mission, teacher preparation and induction programs seeking to be high performing need to utilize an aligned lesson plan.  Minimally, adoption and utilization of an aligned lesson plan will elicit every teacher candidate’s understanding of:

•          The context for learning;
•          The state’s learning standards such as the Common Core, etc…;
•          The connection to previous learning;
•         The group’s measurable learning objective;
•          The central focus for the group;
•          The need for differentiated instruction that includes:

o   any focus learner’s primary learning target,

o   necessary instructional supports,

o   how to incorporate academic language,

o   the range of diverse instructional strategies, and

o   a reliable assessment of learning that is linked to the measurable learning objective. 

    

     Thus, a standards-based measurable learning objective becomes the foundation for an aligned lesson plan.  Effective teacher preparation and induction programs that expect utilization of an aligned lesson plan would not ask, “How do we help our students pass the edTPA?”  Rather, by teaching its teacher candidates to utilize a formative and summative perspective, an effective teacher preparation and induction program would empower its teacher candidates to master the development of measurable learning objectives and the other areas of the aligned lesson plan.  When this occurs, the leading indicators of success positively influence the results of trailing indicators such as the edTPA. 

            An effective teacher preparation and induction program emphasizes an action research approach to promote sustainability of success.  Through curriculum mapping and a respect for learning progressions (Idol & West, 1993), an effective teacher preparation and induction program ensures the establishment of solid learning outcomes for its preparation course work.  Once the three-pronged foundations are engrained systemically, the teacher preparation and induction program is freed to monitor how to deliver, evaluate, oversee, and staff a clinically-rich, teacher preparation and induction program. 

            Effective teacher preparation and induction programs seek to create a solid foundation formed from research-based leading indicators for success.  Matching a program’s non-negotiable goals with individual school needs will expand rather than limit the availability of research-based and success-proven strategies and interventions.  Programs that promote such a clearinghouse of support ensure professional development is available and within reach.  

Optimized support empowers stakeholders to access, review, and implement a range of interventions, thereby enriching teacher candidates through defined autonomy.  This systematizes sustained pedagogical success by ensuring the foundational indicators are available to and mastered by its teacher candidates.  The stakeholders of an effective program can then be more reflective, data-driven, and innovative, as the engrained systems reinforce the concept of defined autonomy (Marzano & Waters, 2009).  By focusing upon the leading indicators rather than trailing indicators, teacher preparation and induction programs ensure its teacher candidates successfully develop the competencies that are essential for attaining the learning for all mission (Edmonds, 1979).  That is a far, far, better outcome than focusing upon how to craft commentaries that would yield a proficient score on a teacher preparation test.  

To cite:

Anderson, C.J. (October 31, 2018) Effective teacher induction programs optimize teacher competencies

that sustain success.[Web log post] Retrieved from http://www.ucan-cja.blogspot.com/

References:

Edmonds, R. (1979). Effective Schools for the urban poor. Educational Leadership, 37, 15-24.

Marzano, R. & Waters, T.(2009).  District leadership that works. Bloomington, In: Solution Tree Press

The edTPA: Assessment of the authentic teaching practice of the teacher candidate

            As noted in previous blogposts, the NYSTCE tests, include the ALST, EAS, CST, and edTPA.  The explicit purpose of the NYSTCE tests is to help identify for certification those candidates who have demonstrated the appropriate level of knowledge and skills that are important for performing the responsibilities of an educator in New York State public schools.  These trailing indicators of success require a demonstration of the appropriate level of knowledge and skills expected a beginning teacher.  As such, they are tools for demonstrating the appropriate level of knowledge and skills that are important for performing the responsibilities of an educator.  

            The diversity of assessed skills and the use of multiple modalities to evaluate the teacher candidate’s professional readiness provide a very interesting aspect of the NYSTCE tests.  This month’s blogpost will review the edTPA.  As a portfolio assessment, the edTPA is designed to align with the authentic teaching practice of the teacher candidate" (SCALE, 2014).

            Authentic assessments comprise diverse assessment techniques.  Typically, the educational literature discusses three variations of authentic assessment.  These include dynamic assessments (Newton, 2007), performance assessment (Meyer, 1992), and portfolio assessment (Salvia & Ysseldyke, 2004).  The edTPA is a portfolio assessment.  Crucially, Powers and Gamble (1969) found authentic assessments possess the following characteristics:

1.     Direct measurement of skills related to long-term educational outcomes.  For instance, success in the workplace;

2.     Tasks requiring extensive engagement and complex performance; and

3.     Analysis of the processes used to produce the response.

            Stanford University faculty and staff at the Stanford Center for Assessment, Learning, and Equity (SCALE) developed edTPA.  The development team received substantive advice and feedback from teachers and teacher educators.  The team garnered extensive experience from over 25 years of developing performance-based assessments of teaching.

               The edTPA Annotated Bibliography, developed by SCALE, with input from educators and researchers, is freely available and identifies the foundational research literature that informed the development of the edTPA.  The cited literature provides a research foundation for the role of assessment in teacher education, for the common edTPA architecture, and for each of the fifteen shared rubric constructs.  SCALE encourages educators, policy-makers, programs, and teacher candidates to utilize the literature review to examine the underlying constructs of edTPA as a measure of effective teaching.

            The American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education (AACTE) is a national alliance of educator preparation programs dedicated to high-quality, evidence-based preparation that assures teacher candidates are ready to teach all learners at the beginning of their careers.  As a national edTPA implementation partner, the AACTE seeks to strengthen an edTPA professional learning community by supporting communications, implementation, professional development and resources to help all programs graduate teachers who are ready to educate each and every child.  AACTE believes that edTPA will help give the public and educators confidence that teacher candidates are graduating ready to be effective teachers from their first day in the classroom.  In this pursuit, AACTE facilitates the edTPA Resource Library.

            Teacher Candidates access the required edTPA handbooks, templates, and resources, via their teacher preparation institution.  They also can download these materials from the portfolio system they use to build their portfolios.  Registered faculty and teacher preparation institutions can access edTPA handbooks, templates, and resources via the edTPA Resource Library

            Recently. a New York statewide task force on the edTPA presented its recommendations to the New York State Board of Regents.  The appointed edTPA Task Force was created to refine the edTPA assessment.  The refinement mission included a review of the edTPA rubrics and handbooks, support for statewide implementation, and optimal collaboration between teacher preparation institutions, NYSED, and SCALE in order to identify and disseminate exemplary practices.

      The following edTPA process overview is provided as initial guidance for teacher candidates.  Teacher candidates will gain access to the required edTPA handbooks and templates from their teacher preparation institution.  Candidates may also be able to download these materials in the portfolio system.  Completing the Assessment requires careful adherence to completion of each edTPA task.  To optimize success, teacher candidates must:

1. Review the submission and reporting dates, which allows proactive planning for edTPA submission with a required receipt of assessment results.
2. Register for the edTPA. 
3. Draft and edit edTPA materials prior to attempting submission. The teacher candidate must be online to upload and submit completed edTPA materials.  However, the candidate may download templates to his or her laptop or workstation for drafting and editing written materials in advance of submission. Similarly, task 2 video clips should be viewed and prepared locally before uploading.
4. Build the professional edTPA portfolio in the system used at your institution.
5. Submit your completed edTPA for scoring.  Follow directions for submitting the assessment.  Rejoice over your success! 

To cite:

Anderson, C.J. (April 30, 2015) The edTPA: Assessment of the authentic teaching practice of the teacher candidate

                    [Web log post] Retrieved from http://www.ucan-cja.blogspot.com/

The focus of effective teacher preparation programs: Teacher competencies that sustain success

      This blog series planned to emphasize the explicit purpose of the NYSTCE tests.  Collectively, these exams help identify for certification those candidates who have demonstrated the appropriate level of knowledge and skills considered important for performing the responsibilities of an educator in New York State public schools.  As noted in previous blogposts, the NYSTCE tests, include the ALST, EAS, CST, and edTPA.  These trailing indicators of success require a demonstration of the appropriate level of knowledge and skills expected a beginning teacher.  As with any assessment system, by extension the NYSTCE tests evaluate teacher preparation programs, requiring institutions and programs to monitor and adjust their leading indicators of success. 

            The failure of teacher preparation programs to address reform of their leading indicators for effective teacher preparation resulted in the need for this blog series to address the unintended consequences rather than the tests alone.  Reform efforts cannot be to content alone.  Innovative teacher preparation programs exhibit balanced support between development of the teacher candidate’s pedagogy, promotion of the teacher candidate’s active inquiry, and engagement of faculty across the disciplines.  This endeavor raises expectations for critical thinking, professionalism, and self-efficacy.  Monitoring and adjusting these leading indicators of success requires a clear mission, action-based vision, and systemic reform. 

            Aiming to ease entry into teaching, nearly every state and the District of Columbia either delays or bypasses some teacher preparation requirements demanded by traditional university-based preparation programs (NAE, 2008).  Since 2002, “Urban Teacher Residency”(UTR) programs, have become an increasingly popular a third option for teacher preparation after initially being introduced in Boston, Chicago, and Denver.  UTR has attracted public and philanthropic investment.  These practice-based preparation program require a teacher candidate to work alongside a mentor teacher for a year before becoming a teacher of record.  UTR programs exhibit more racial and ethnic diversity as well as far greater retention rates.  However, a study of the Boston UTR found only modest student achievement attributable to the program (Papay, West, et al., 2011). 

            The greatest impact of the “third-rail” innovative UTR programs may result from the reform conversations at university-based teacher preparation programs.  Practice-based training models, inspired a panel commissioned by the National Center for the Accreditation of Teacher Education to endorse “programs that are fully grounded in clinical practice and interwoven with academic content and professional courses” (NCATE, 2010, p. ii).  The report recommended “sweeping changes in how we deliver, monitor, evaluate, oversee, and staff clinically based preparation to nurture a whole new form of teacher education” (p. iii).

            This blogpost series continues to address the need to develop the aforementioned skills desired of effective teachers through a focus upon improving the leading indicators of success.  However, many teacher preparation programs may erroneously focus upon one trailing indicator: the edTPA.  "The edTPA is designed to align with the authentic teaching practice of the teacher candidate" (SCALE, 2014).  There are 607 Educator Preparation Programs in 33 states and the District of Columbia currently participating in the edTPA.  New York State, intends for the edTPA to be “a student-centered multiple measure assessment of teaching.  It is designed to be educative and predicting of effective teaching and student learning” (NYSTCE, 2014).  Unfortunately, the New York State rollout of the edTPA resulted in reports that NYSED once again advocated for “a rushed, rather than a fair and effective, rollout” (Pinto, 2014). 

            NYSED requires that a teacher preparation program be “responsible for providing instruction sufficient to ensure all candidates are adequately prepared for certification” (2014, p.7).  Despite the $10 million Race to the Top investment to support SUNY, CUNY and the Commission on Independent Colleges and Universities (cIcu) in this endeavor, the focus remains on NYSTCE test results for rating teacher preparation programs.  Proposed federal regulations will require states to classify their teacher-preparation programs into four categories: from low-performing to high-performing.  The rating will be weighed in part on outcomes indicators that include: surveys of graduates and school districts, teacher placement and retention rates, and results of the teacher candidate’s competency exams.

            Teacher education preparation practices are now very different compared to a generation ago.  Undoubtedly, accountability is now the most emphasized element in efforts to promote effective and sustained educational reform efforts.  Accountability requirements within legislation such as No Child Left Behind (NCLB, 2002) and IDEA (2004) created the impetus for sustained change efforts within education.  However, poor communication and rushed timelines during the implementation of more stringent accountability requirements resulted in well-documented unintended consequences.  Significant to this reality was that the fear of failure became the single most powerful force of change. 

            Without the time for careful development of the leading indicators for success assessed through NYSTCE tests, teacher preparation programs will be subject to unintended consequences.  As an authentic assessment of actual practice exhibited by the teacher candidate, the edTPA should encourage teacher preparation programs to promote carefully planned lessons that exhibit differentiated instruction to diverse learners that allow promotes progress monitoring of learning. 

            To begin the process of developing teacher competencies that sustain professional success and learning for all, teacher preparation programs seeking to be highly performing need to utilize an aligned lesson plan.  An aligned lesson plan will elicit every teacher candidate’s understanding of: the learning context; the (Common Core) standards for learning; the connection to learning; the group’s measurable learning objective; the central focus for the group; the differentiation of instruction; any focus learner’s primary learning target; the needs for instructional supports; how to incorporate academic language; the range of diverse instructional strategies; and reliable assessment of learning that is linked to the measurable learning objective.  Therefore, the measurable learning objective is a foundation for any lesson.  An effective teacher preparation programs will not ask, “How do we help our students pass the edTPA?”  By contrast, using a formative and summative perspective, an effective teacher preparation program is confident its students mastered how to develop measurable learning objectives and the other areas of the aligned lesson plan.  

            An effective teacher preparation program emphasizes the reality that an action research approach is essential for sustaining success.  Through curriculum mapping and a respect for learning progressions (Idol & West, 1993), an effective teacher preparation program ensures the establishment of solid learning outcomes for its preparation course work.  Once these three reforms are in place, sweeping changes in how to deliver, monitor, evaluate, oversee, and staff a clinically-based preparation program can begin. 

            An effective teacher preparation program not only knows what is needed to creates a solid foundation for future pedagogical success but ensures this foundation is mastered by its teacher candidates.  An effective program is reflective, data-driven, and nurtures innovation.  Therefore, it reinforces the concept of defined autonomy (Marzano and Waters, 2009) while sustaining teacher candidate success through the development of competencies that are essential for an effective educator rather than focusing upon passing a set of teacher tests

To cite:

Anderson, C.J. (March 31, 2015) The focus of effective teacher preparation programs: Teacher competencies that

               sustain success.[Web log post] Retrieved from http://www.ucan-cja.blogspot.com/