Is the edTPA a portfolio assessment?: Applying academic language in teacher education

Abstract

The appropriate use of academic language demonstrates a learner’s understanding of discipline specific—arts or education—knowledge. Educators are responsible for ensuring that learners acquire and correctly apply academic language in context. Entrance into the teaching profession requires teacher candidates to develop facility with the academic discourse of teaching and learning; however, when academic language is misused in ways impacting teacher candidates, confusion may occur. In the evaluation of teachers and teacher candidates, academic language such as teacher performance assessment (TPA), portfolio, and authentic assessment are often employed to describe an ideal form of assessment that captures the in-context nature of the teaching profession. The purpose of this paper is to critically examine this language, in particular the characteristics and definition(s) of portfolio assessment, and to consider the appropriate descriptor of the edTPA. Although the edTPA is often referred to as a portfolio, referring to this high-stakes, summative assessment as a portfolio may mislead teacher candidates given their emerging understandings of educational academic language. Based on the analysis presented in this paper, the edTPA is a TPA that most closely resembles a credentialing portfolio, rather than a learning portfolio, but lacks crucial qualities necessary for an authentic assessment.