Integrating edTPA® into the Undergraduate Music Ed Performance­Based Curriculum


Nancy H. Barry, Jane Kuehne, and Guy Harrison


The Alabama Department of Education has set Fall 2018 as the target date for implementing edTPA as a new requirement for statewide teacher performance assessment that will be linked to initial teacher certification.


According to the edTPA website (http://edtpa.aacte.org/):


edTPA® (Teacher Performance Assessment) is a performance­based, subject­specific assessment and support system used by more than 600 teacher preparation programs in some 40 states to emphasize, measure, and support the skills and knowledge that all teachers need from Day One in the classroom.


Developed by educators for educators, edTPA is the first such standards­based assessment to become nationally available in the United States. It builds on decades of work on assessments of teacher performance and research regarding teaching skills that improve student learning.


It is transforming the preparation and certification of new teachers by complementing subject­area assessments with a rigorous process that requires teacher candidates to demonstrate that they have the classroom skills necessary to ensure students are learning.


edTPA is comprised of three main tasks designed to


represent an effective teaching cycle. Planning Task 1 documents “intended teaching,” Instruction Task 2 documents “enacted teaching,” and Assessment Task 3 documents “how teaching impacts student learning” (edTPA, 2015, p. 2). Figure 1 provides a visual overview of the edTPA process.


Performance­based teacher assessment is a laudable goal, but both university students and educators have raised serious questions about the edTPA process. There are concerns about the $300 basic student cost of edTPA on top of other fees already associated with teacher certification as well as ethical questions about the potentially profit­driven motives for Pearson (edTPA publisher). Another important concern is whether the edTPA process is equally valid across all teacher­education settings. Does this process sometimes force a “teaching to the test” mentality?


EdTPA invades this [teacher education] experience. Students tend to focus on meeting the requirements at the expense of realizing when they are making value­based ideological choices. As long as they follow the rubrics, which operate in the land of “value­free” language, they can score well. The edTPA’s detailed instructions and rubrics communicate that teaching requires following rules and can be reduced to a number. Because edTPA is high­stakes, students lock in on it. Class time is taken over by anxious questions about evidence and scoring. What will be left out? (Madeloni & Gorlewski, 2013, par. 10)


Contexts such as large music classes emphasizing active student participation in music making may be particularly problematic. As interns face the challenges of teaching responsibilities in a K­12 music classroom, maintaining the integrity of Instrumental, Choral, and General Music student performance and literacy objectives as outlined in the new 2014 Music Standards (NAfME, 2014) while also completing edTPA requirements (including recording an intensive teaching video and writing detailed narrative responses to prompts for reflective writing about planning commentary, instruction commentary, and assessment commentary) may seem overwhelming. The Alabama Department of Education set Fall 2018 as


Figure 1. Student learning components (edTPA, 2015, p.2) 42


the target date for implementing edTPA as a new requirement for statewide teacher performance assessment and initial teacher certification. This new requirement will affect all stakeholders in the Music Education Student Teaching/Internship process including university students majoring in music education, K­12 cooperating teachers who supervise student teachers in their music classrooms, and university faculty who supervise student teachers. Currently, twenty­six teacher education institutions across the state are participating in the implementation process with many pilot programs underway in teacher education programs throughout Alabama. Auburn University was one of several Educator­Preparation Programs receiving Alabama Department of Education grant funding to pilot edTPA. We have had six music education students volunteer to participate in our edTPA pilot program (two in Fall 2015, four in Spring 2016), and


August/September 2016


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