The edTPA is supposed to be a performance based assessment that can help predict the effectiveness of future teachers. For one of the best analysis of edTPA and how it correlates to effectiveness please read Peter Greene’s post from May 2016.
So why kill it? Because even though Peter thoroughly dismantled the edTPA; it continues to be used as a high-stakes gateway test into the profession of teaching. And, according to Peter, the edTPA
insults college ed departments by assuming a premise that your college ed program, your professors, your co-operating teacher, and basically none of the people who work with you and give you a grade– none of those people can be trusted to determine whether or not you should be a teacher.
Despite this, many of my teacher education colleagues still cling to the edTPA as if it had some magic ability to legitimize teacher education. Some even believe the edTPA can shield teacher education from reformers who would like to see “alternative pathways into teaching”—like being able to breath.
Reality check!
Reformers who want “alternative pathways” don’t give a $h!t about edTPA. They want what they want and will not be deterred by a self flagellation performance by teacher educators. And, raising test scores of children is not the job of teachers and therefore not the job of teacher educators.
Our job—teacher educators—is to empower future teachers that will call out the racism inherent in the achievement gap. We (teacher educators) must help our students understand the role that inequity plays in scholastic achievement. We have a responsibility to demonstrate how to politically advocate for the children of poverty, trauma, and societal neglect.
Dare the schools build a new social order? How about dare the teacher educators engage in social imagination and empower future teachers to dismantle a system of standardization that sorts the “least of these” and continues to stratify those that lack access to European privilege.
