The Impacts of edTPA on P-20 Educational Systems

Overview & Synopsis

Preparing high-quality teachers is supposed to be the responsibility of state Departments of Education and university teacher education programs, yet the mandated Teacher Performance Assessment (edTPA) is operated by Pearson, a private corporation. Standing on the frontline to implement edTPA, faculty have witnessed equity issues within the system that cause concern. Furthermore, faculty are essentially mandated to work for a private corporation. In this paper, we address the impacts of edTPA across p-20 education, including pilot studies of edTPA by university faculty across states to confront the privately copyrighted teacher performance assessments. We argue that allowing a private corporation to operate such an important assessment is against the value of U.S. public education, and has failed many capable teacher candidates. In conclusion, we provide recommendations for stakeholders to eliminate edTPA to ensure equitable access to high-quality education.