Proposed Research Title: Implementation Status of edTPA and its influence on pre- service teacher’s professional competence. IntroductionThis research will broadly examine the relationship between the adoption of edTPA to evaluate teaching capability and professional standards of pre-service teachers. Hence, reading an article titled “Assessment in the clinical experience: student teaching and the edTPA” recently, inspired me on various underlying conceptions of edTPA as a tool to measure teacher’s competence, quality, effectiveness, readiness and teachers of diverse backgrounds. In this study, the researcher is interested in appraising the rate at which edTPA has been contributing great feats to the professional development of teachers and the improvement in students learning outcome, which will account for either success or failure of the intended objectives.Problem Statement Outcomes from available research continue to pose dilemmas on edTPA and compound how edTPA is going to move forward (Holland, 2014).
Molly (2018) discussed his results that edTPA did not measure all aspects of teacher readiness as perceived by the four first year teachers. While edTPA is rapidly getting into higher education teacher education programs, it is important to continue to examine the impact of high stakes assessments such as edTPA and its impact on teacher preparation, teacher quality, student learning, and teacher work force. Previous studies have attempted to identify mixed opinions on the status of edTPA on evaluating teacher education programs success. However, this study will bridge the gap of influence of edTPA administration on teachers and its impact on students learning achievement. How competent are the student teachers? And does administering edTPA facilitates students’ mastery of the subject?Significance of the Study• This study would examine pedagogic styles for diverse learners in order to demonstrate teacher’s competence in the classroom.
• This study would help identify strategies in providing feedback to encourage pre- service teacher about their performance which will aid the progress of student learning.• This study would sensitize significant change in educator training curriculums by spotting the strengths and flaws of edTPA.• This would suggest possible resolutions to edTPA policy advisory council in refining policy implementation process that can be used to update teacher training programs curriculum.Preliminary Literature ReviewedTPA is a teacher performance assessment. It is a current emphasis of change for teacher education programs in higher education. edTPA is a portfolio created by pre – service teachers usually during their student teaching semester before they exit out the teacher education program. Though, edTPA is not only an expense for pre – service teachers, but also a high-stake assessment used to evaluate a future teacher’s readiness for effective teaching in five dimensions: planning, instruction, assessment, analysis of teaching, and academic language (Greenblatt ; O’Hara, n.d; Navickas, 2016).
The implementation of edTPA by teacher education programs in higher education is increasing. As an authentic assessment available nationally, edTPA has been used by about 700 educator preparation programs (more than 70% of teacher education programs in the country) across 38 states and the District of Columbia; in 2014 alone, about 18,000 preservice teachers took the edTPA assessment (edTPA, n.d.
; edTPA Participation Map, n.d.; Greenblatt & O’Hara, n.d.; Sawchuck, 2016). Thirteen states have used or planned to use edTPA for licensing or to gauge program quality such as national and state program accreditation, program approval, and job placement (Made, 2016; Sawchuck, 2016)The analysis of related literatures, shows that there is actually a connection between the teacher performance test, quality of the teacher, teacher’s readiness, teacher’s competence and the role of the teacher education programs. The prevailing literatures revealed that, edTPA is transformative for prospective teachers because the process requires candidates to actually demonstrate the knowledge and skills required to help all students learn in real classrooms. edTPA is intended to be used as a summative assessment given at the end of an educator preparation program for teacher licensure or certification and to support state and national program accreditation (Stanford Centre for Assessment, Learning, and Equity, n.
d.; Greenblatt, 2016). More so, edTPA is the first nationally accessible pre – service teacher assessment and the goals of the teacher’s assessment are: Improve student outcomes; Improve the information base guiding improvement of teacher preparation programs; Strengthen the information base for accreditation and evaluation of program effectiveness; Be used in combination with other measures as a requirement for licensure; and Guide professional development for teachers across the career continuum.This study therefore, is intending to explore how the present status of edTPA has influenced pre- service teacher’s professional competence and it corresponding implications on students learning outcomes.Methodology The study setting will be in Saskatchewan.
The goal population will be a group of randomly selected pre-service teachers. They will be interviewed, observed and tested. Few questions will be raised during the individual interview which will be about 40 – 50 minutes and all these interviews will be strategic and recorded. Collected data will be written out and analysed. Also, Students Achievement Tests (SAT) with respect to classes will be used to ascertain the mastery level of students and to prove the teaching capability of the instructor. Students in rural schools will be targeted in order to impact native education.
This case study research will be a month by month plan which will aid a well organised research.ReferencesedTPA. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://scale.
stanford.edu/teaching/edtpa edTPA: Participation Map. (n.d.). http://edtpa.aacte.
org/statepolicyGreenblatt, D. (2016). The consequences of edTPA. Educational Leadership, 73(8), 51-54. Greenblatt, D., ; O’Hara, K.
E. (n.d.) Buyer beware: Lessons learned from edTPA implementation in New York State. Retrieved from http://www.nea.org/home/63423.
htmHolland, J. (2014). 7 ways edTPA can transform the teaching profession. Retrieved from http://www.
teachingquality.org/content/blogs/john-holland/7-ways-edtpa-can-transformteaching- professionSawchuk, S. (2016). Study on teacher test finds mixed results. Education Week, 35(32), 10-10Stanford Center for Assessment, Learning, and Equity (SCALE).
(n.d.). edTPA. Retrieved from https://scale.
stanford.edu/teaching/edtpaZhou, Molly (2018) “edTPA as a Tool to Measure Teacher Readiness: A Case Study on First Year Teachers,”Georgia Educational Researcher: Vol. 14 : Iss. 2 , Article 5. DOI: 10.20429/ger.2018.140205 digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu:https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1125&context=gerjournal
