Required assessment has education students testy

By Lauren Oliver, For The Miami Student

Although not yet mandated by the state of Ohio, Miami University is requiring that all education majors complete the Education Teacher Performance Assessment (edTPA) during their senior year, along with the Ohio Assessment for Educators (OAE), in order to receive their teaching license - much to the dismay of many Miami education majors.

Natalie Huffman, a senior Spanish education major at Miami, along with her fellow members of the Education Student Advisory Council, conducted a survey among 170 student teachers, and out of the 128 that responded, 72 percent disagreed/strongly disagreed that the edTPA enhanced their student teaching experience.

Ninety percent disagreed Miami should continue mandating the completion and passing of the edTPA, and 94 percent disagreed the state of Ohio should require the completion and passing of the exam, as well.

However, 22 percent of the student's agreed/strongly agreed the edTPA provided a meaningful and holistic representation of their capability and readiness to teach, and 20 percent agreed/strongly agreed the test enabled them to develop and apply knowledge of subject matter, content standards and subject-specific pedagogy.

The OAE is a content and theory-based exam, whereas the edTPA is a reflection and performance-based assessment. The edTPA was developed by faculty and staff of Stanford University and contains three parts: planning for instruction and assessment, instructing and engaging students in learning (which is a recorded video), and assessing student learning.

In order to have their submissions evaluated, students are required to submit a $300 fee. Pearson Education, the authorizers of the assessment, uses the expense to hire and train evaluators from the ranks of retired teachers and administrators.

Along with being displeased with the payment, Huffman said she thinks the test is unnecessary due to the academic courses and fieldwork that most education students have completed. Unlike other majors where students can pursue various occupations based on their degree, Huffman said the main goal of education majors is to secure their teaching license.

"I think it's silly because you're going through all of this schooling for four years on how to be a teacher, and if you don't pass, then they're telling you you can't be a teacher," she said.

Douglas Brooks, a professor in the Department of Teacher Education, said the decision to implement the edTPA at Miami was not discussed with much of the education faculty.

"This was a classic mistake in [creating] embedded change in any organization," he said. "There was no early discussion or buy-in stakeholders, [which] has impacted faculty perception of the process and requirement."

Taylor Sieve, a senior and integrated mathematics education major who completed the edTPA last semester, said one of her main disputes about the assessment is it must be completed around halfway through the fourteen-week student teaching experience.

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Sieve said being assessed around three weeks into her student teaching was not an accurate representation of whether she is capable of being a good teacher.

Sieve also explained students are required to continue student teaching while preparing for the exam, which she said affected her students' experience.

"I felt like I was taking away from my students," Sieve said. "I couldn't give them my full attention, and I couldn't find different or interactive ways to teach them because I was trying to complete this edTPA."

Michelle Steinberg, another senior and integrated mathematics education major, also said the assessment impinges on the students' ability to learn.

In fact, while recording the teaching portion of her edTPA, Steinberg said a student waited until the recorded teaching portion was completed to ask a question; he told her he was uncomfortable and was afraid of being embarrassed on camera.

"This is a prime example of where my obligation to completing the [exam] took away from a student's chance to learn," she said.

Brooks also agreed the assessment is much too early into the student teaching experience.

"The three to five weeks of student teaching are the most demanding and exhausting of the student teaching semester," he said. "Adding the edTPA process to this period of development [creates] conflicts in focus."

Steinberg additionally said she felt forced to submit the edTPA based on what would receive the highest score, rather than what she actually believed.

"I cared more about matching my commentary to what the rubrics wanted than to what actually happened when I taught," she said. "I would have gained more from having those eight weeks to fully devote myself to teaching."

Huffman said she and the Education Student Advisory Council have plans of contacting the Ohio Council of Deans of Education in hopes of eliminating the edTPA at Miami and preventing it from becoming a state-mandated assessment.

"We want to approach our dean and [explain] that we have all of these results that show the edTPA doesn't work for our students," she said. "Maybe students at other colleges are feeling the same way, and we go to the Ohio legislation and say 'It's not going to work' and find something else."