Individual Presentation or Panel Title

Standardization Perversions: Navigating the Boundaries of the edTPA

Abstract

This presentation examines the boundaries around one method of standardization: the performance assessment known as edTPA. As an assessment tool, the edTPA is intended to ensure that teachers entering the profession have the dispositions and skills to perform in the classroom and provide equitable experiences for their students. In practice, the edTPA presents as a standardized assessment with many of the fears and indignities that are associated with routinized, homogenous testing programs. Using data from a two-year study on the experiences of preservice teachers with preparing for the edTPA, this paper presents a number of findings. First, anxiety and fear abound, creating a scenario in which preservice teachers perform to the test rather than test its boundaries. Second, notions of accountability and standards are rigorously enforced within the discourses of the edTPA, leaving teacher educators and teacher candidates little room to negotiate boundaries. This presentation will allow the presenter and attendees to exchange ideas on agitation within and against the confines of edTPA, with particular attention to the roles of teacher educators.

Presentation Description

This presentation examines the boundaries of standardization around the performance assessment known as edTPA. This session invites attendees to examine and contest assumptions about the edTPA, and in particular, it offers a space for attendees to explore alternative ways of thinking about standardization for teacher candidates.

Keywords

Standardization, certification, teacher candidates, teacher educators

Publication Type and Release Option

Event

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Standardization Perversions: Navigating the Boundaries of the edTPA

This presentation examines the boundaries around one method of standardization: the performance assessment known as edTPA. As an assessment tool, the edTPA is intended to ensure that teachers entering the profession have the dispositions and skills to perform in the classroom and provide equitable experiences for their students. In practice, the edTPA presents as a standardized assessment with many of the fears and indignities that are associated with routinized, homogenous testing programs. Using data from a two-year study on the experiences of preservice teachers with preparing for the edTPA, this paper presents a number of findings. First, anxiety and fear abound, creating a scenario in which preservice teachers perform to the test rather than test its boundaries. Second, notions of accountability and standards are rigorously enforced within the discourses of the edTPA, leaving teacher educators and teacher candidates little room to negotiate boundaries. This presentation will allow the presenter and attendees to exchange ideas on agitation within and against the confines of edTPA, with particular attention to the roles of teacher educators.