The edTPA is a “performance-based, subject-specific assessment and support system used by teacher preparation programs throughout the United States to emphasize, measure and support the skills and knowledge that all teachers need from day one in the classroom” (Pearson, 2019).
During full-time student teaching, teacher candidates at Pacific University prepare Teacher Performance Assessment portfolios for submission to Pearson for scoring. These portfolios comprise of a 3-5 lesson learning segment and include lesson plans, instructional materials, assessments, selected video recordings and student work samples from the learning segment lessons, and written commentaries explaining the teacher candidates’ planning, instruction, and assessment decision-making and reflections.
Although the edTPA was designed as an assessment of a teacher candidate’s ability to teach, in practice it is also an assessment of a teacher candidate’s “ability to write about their teaching” (Edmundson, 2017). Each of the three written commentaries revolves around responding to approximately five prompts, and these responses (along with cited evidence) are the primary scored components of each portfolio.
References
Edmundson, J. (2017). The edTPA: High-stakes assessment versus social justice teaching in the pacific northwest. In J. H. Carter & H. A. Lochte (Eds.), Teacher performance assessment and accountability reforms (pp. 141-155). New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan.
Pearson (2019). About edTPA. Retrieved from https://www.edtpa.com/PageView.aspx?f=GEN_AboutEdTPA.html