ABSTRACT
A component of student teaching that has long been debated is how to assess the effectiveness of teacher candidates’ practice. One assessment that has gained attention is the educative teacher performance assessment, or edTPA. Introduced in 2013 by Stanford Center for Assessment, Learning, and Equity (SCALE), edTPA has become a principal focus of the TESOL practicum and its companion seminar in schools of education that prepare teachers for state certification in the United States. EdTPA has been hailed by its supporters as an effective, authentic assessment, but TESOL teacher educators’ current perspectives about the edTPA in English as an additional language (EAL) have thus far been largely unexamined. Since its inception, has edTPA changed the TESOL practicum in concrete ways, and if so, how? In this chapter, the perspectives of six teacher educators are shared to shed light on current thought about the role and value of edTPA in English as an Additional Language (EAL) certification programs. Areas of inquiry were (1) changes in TESOL teacher preparation programs, (2) teacher candidates’ success or failure in completing edTPA, (3) the educational value of edTPA in teacher education, (4) the effect of edTPA on the practice of teacher educators, and (5) waiving edTPA in times of COVID-19.
