When I heard from my retired colleague Sandy Deines about how Illinois and other states were mandating Pearson’s edTPA as the official teacher certification process I immediately posted her article.
I had not heard about this.
It has been a long time since I was a student teacher. I remember the process as both a time of anxiety and excitement.
I was finally getting in front of a class, teaching lessons I had created and was being mentored by a veteran cooperating teacher as well as a university supervisor.
The system was not without its faults.
It always seemed a little odd to me that I had to wait four years of classwork before I started actually teaching. I believe firmly in the concept of learning by doing, whether it is my students I am talking about, or about myself learning to become a teacher.
Whatever the problems in the current system, not one problem will be solved by handing over the process to a private corporation like Pearson.
The responses to my edTPA posts have been overwhelming.
The original article has received over 21,000 page views since I posted it late Friday.
On the one hand I have heard from some who have defended the new system. Their defense seems to rest on endorsements- one telling me that since it was developed by professors at Stanford and by “people like Linda Darling-Hammond” it must be good.
I don’t know what that even means.
But a defense needs to rest on more than on celebrity or academic endorsements, otherwise lets ask Kanye or Matt Damon what he thinks about it.
More telling are the stories I have received from the student teachers who have been subjected to edTPA themselves.
Like this one:
I love your articles on the edTPA!
My friends and I are recent graduates from an education program and went through several obstacles together, including the trial of the edTPA.
We highly agree with what you are saying about Pearson and are sharing your articles.
Right now, my friends and I have barely or not passed the new APT test.
Many of my works, papers, and portfolios are being used as example pieces in the education program and I graduated with honors. My program even paid my ticket to have my edTPA graded and I got the highest score in the school but it wasn’t easy.
It took me about 2 months to read the edTPA handbook and no one could guide us through it. Now there’s a class to prepare students for the edTPA.
I was told by many teachers that student teaching was going to be the easiest and most exciting part of the program. It was fun but hard to enjoy when I was extremely stressed out and couldn’t enjoy my time at the school or with the kids.
Right now, I’m “studying” to retaking the APT test but it can’t be really studied for.
I’ll keep following your word press because it’s nice to see someone writing about these issues and is on our side.
Thank you! Hope to hear from you soon.
Fred Klonsky 