An Examination of the edTPA Portfolio Assessment and Other Measures of Teacher Preparation and Readiness

Abstract

AbstractThe authors examined the outcomes on several measures of world language teacher preparedness, including university‐ and state‐mandated summative evaluations and the edTPA portfolio assessment, for seven world language teacher candidates during their final semester of clinical practice. The candidates were enrolled in an initial certification program (Spanish P–12) at the same university in Georgia. The results revealed that edTPA scores were not well aligned with mentor teachers’ and supervisors’ evaluations on the university‐wide instrument and that measures of teacher content knowledge and target language proficiency did not correlate well with candidates’ edTPA scores. The disparity between edTPA scores and other measures of teacher preparation was most apparent for the two nonnative English speakers. The findings suggest that candidates whose primary language is not English may need additional support with academic English. Moreover, the present study found that candidates, mentors, and supervisors lacked an understanding of how the various university, state, and national assessments fit together to measure the knowledge, skills, and dispositions that are necessary for effectively teaching a world language. Training on the content and purpose of the edTPA may be needed so that stakeholders understand the benefit of having a national‐level view of candidates’ knowledge and skills.