The control, content, and consequences of edTPA: World language teacher educators’ perceptions

Implemented in more than 870 teacher education programs across 41 states and the District of Columbia, edTPA is marketed as a content-specific, standardized portfolio assessment of beginning teacher performance. However, concerns about edTPA and its content-specificity are pervasive. To that end, the researchers surveyed teacher educators with World Language edTPA experience (N = 88) to ascertain their perceptions of the assessment, including its impact on teacher candidates, teacher education programs, and clinical placements, as well as the resources required, support experienced, and consequences perceived as a result of its implementation. Using Cochran-Smith et al.’s (2018) framework of teacher education accountability, the researchers explore issues of control, content, and consequences related to power relationships and the World Language edTPA, centering on the assessment’s intended content-specificity, while recounting an ACTFL task force’s efforts in 2016 to influence the assessment’s content