The regulatory effects of high-stakes accountability in preservice teacher evaluation

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article examines teacher candidates’ perceptions of two performance-based evaluation tools during the student teaching semester (edTPA, Danielson Framework). In particular, I sought to understand how teacher candidates perceived the role of both tools in the teacher education landscape and the extent to which they perceived the tools to be supportive of or distracting from their learning and student teaching experience. The findings from this study suggest that, while distinct in construction, function, and application, the edTPA and Danielson Framework both carry the potential to distract from a student teaching experience. This potential is activated when candidates perceive the tool’s purpose to primarily be to measure, score, or rank their teaching. Furthermore, I argue that a measurement-focused approach to teacher evaluation, particularly at the preservice level, can have regulatory effects, diminishing the educative capacity of such tools.