As nationwide calls for educational rigor and accountability continue across the U.S., many states have made the edTPA®, a teacher performance assessment, a requirement for teacher certification. The edTPA® is a subject-specific performance assessment that requires aspiring teachers to plan, implement, assess, and reflect upon a learning segment, while demonstrating pedagogical skills related to their disciplines. While it is designed to promote teaching excellence, the edTPA® can drive already-stressed teacher candidates to their breaking point, as it places them in an unfamiliar classroom and asks them to quickly display their knowledge and savvy. This book is here to help teacher candidates not only survive the challenge of the edTPA®, but also thrive. It maps out precisely what steps aspiring secondary education teachers should take to ensure successful completion of the edTPA®. Demystifying the language used in the assessment, it uniquely connects edTPA® requirements with what teacher candidates learn within their teacher preparation programs, showing them how the assessment relates to what they are already doing in their classrooms. The strategies in this book draw on both academic research and practical experience to guide student teachers as they plan for their edTPA® portfolios and for their teaching careers beyond.
edTPA is the most widely-used performance assessment for pre-service teachers in the United States, and a requirement in many states for teaching licensure. Through edTPA, teacher candidates demonstrate their effectiveness in different aspects of teaching, including planning, instruction, assessment, analysis of teaching, and use of academic language. This book is a practical guide for anyone involved in edTPA implementation. The chapters are written by experienced teacher educators who are leading successful edTPA programs in their own universities, who are in the field, and involved in the work. They represent diverse teacher preparation programs, each with their own strengths and challenges. This book addresses the challenges of edTPA, while providing practical strategies for educative and thoughtful implementation. Organized into four sections, each section explores a different aspect of edTPA implementation, and provides guidance for leading faculty and teacher candidates through edTPA.
A comprehensive guidebook for anyone with a desire to teach. Dr’s Bevis and Bailey provide a roadmap for the many details required of entry into and completion of an Educator Preparation Program. Key elements such as teacher disposition, professionalism, test preparation, and entry requirements are explored. This guide is designed to be used both individually and in an early career preparation course as a key text. The guidebook provides opportunities to complete some classroom research, gain insight into the importance of teacher dispositions, and to ensure an appreciation of all students. This guide hopes to encourage more students to see the need for great teachers across all states, all cities, and all neighborhoods in the United States.
Given the increasing diversity of the United States and students entering schools, the value of teacher learning in clinical contexts, and the need to elevate the profession, national organizations have been calling for a re-envisioning of teacher preparation that turns teacher education upside down. This change will require PK-12 schools and universities to partner in robust ways to create strong professional learning experiences for aspiring teachers. University faculty, in particular, will not only need to work?in?schools, but they will need to work?with?schools in the preparation of future teachers. This collaboration should promote greater equity and justice for our nation’s students. The purpose of this book is to support individuals in designing clinically based teacher preparation programs that place equity at the core. Drawing from the literature as well as our experiences in designing and coordinating award-winning teacher?education programs, we offer a vision for equity-centered, clinically based preparation that promotes powerful teacher professional learning and develops high-quality, equity-centered teachers for schools. The chapter topics include policy guidelines, partnerships, intentional clinical experiences, coherence, curriculum and coursework, university-based teacher educators, school-based teacher educators, teacher candidate supervision and evaluation, the role of research, and instructional leadership in teacher preparation. While the concepts we share are research-based and grounded in the empirical literature, our primary intention is for this book to be of practical use. We hope that by the time you finish reading, you will feel inspired and equipped to make change within your own program, your institution, and your local context. We begin each chapter with a “Before You Read” section that includes introductory activities or self-assessment questions to prompt reflection about the current state of your teacher preparation program. We also weave examples, a “Spotlight from Practice,” in the form of vignettes designed to spark your thinking for program improvement. Finally, we conclude each chapter with a section called “Exercises for Action,” which are questions or activities to help you (re)imagine and move toward action in the (re)design of your teacher preparation program. We hope that you will use the exercises by yourself, but perhaps more importantly, with others to stimulate conversations about how you can build upon what you are already doing well to make your program even better. Praise for (Re)Designing Programs: A Vision for Equity-Centered, Clinically Based Teacher Preparation: "Jennifer Jacobs and Rebecca West Burns’ book, “(Re)Designing Programs: A Vision for Equity-Centered, Clinically Based Teacher Preparation,” is a must-read for all teacher educators, especially those involved in the creation and/or direction of clinically based teacher education programs. Their text provides a roadmap for higher education and school-based teacher educators to collaboratively design a program that prepares teachers to meet the needs of future students. They not only redefine the terms and language we use within clinical practice programs but also encourage us to reflect upon how teachers should be prepared in an equity-centered, clinically based teacher education program. Their text deserves to be on the book shelves of all teacher educators." - D. John McIntyre
The Education Teacher Performance Assessment (edTPA) is required in multiple states as a licensure requirement. This book guides the reader step by step in preparing for edTPA, sharing support and resources which will lead to a successful completion of an edTPA entry and increase the probability of attaining a state teaching license.
"The goal of The Field Guide to Teaching: A Handbook for New Teachers is to provide very specific and practical guidance for those who are entering the teaching profession. The book offers guidelines, hints and fundamental information geared to help the novice teacher avoid common pitfalls and to make a start on the road to becoming a professional educator. It is written from the point of view that those who read the book are unfamiliar with the profession beyond the training they have or will receive in their college teacher preparation program or other alternate route program."--Publisher's website.
