A team of teacher preparation experts experienced with edTPA has been formed and will be available beginning in January to support the implementation of edTPA by teacher preparation programs across the country.

The National Academy consultants will be recruited and trained by the Stanford Center for Assessment, Learning and Equity (SCALE) in partnership with the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education (AACTE).

When Georgia begins requiring edTPA for teacher certification in 2015-16, it will be the final phase of an implementation process marked by small steps to help educators learn more about performance assessment and then bigger steps to include, inform, and support key audiences.

Georgia educator preparation providers (EPPs) took the first steps. Supported funding from the Georgia Professional Standards Commission, they sent representatives to the edTPA National Implementation Conference in 2012 and then used their own funds to send representatives each year since. Several EPPs also participated in a national field test, sparking greater interest in edTPA. Georgia EPPs have since supported limited and then full-state edTPA pilots in 2013-14 and 2014-15, respectively.

John M. Holland, a National Board Certified Teacher in early childhood, who teaches in some of Richmond, VA’s toughest neighborhoods, writes about edTPA in his blog for the Center on Teaching Quality. Titled  “7 Ways edTPA can Transform the Teaching Profession” the blog argues that edTPA makes teacher prep about the candidate—not the institution, and levels the playing field for teachers of color and teachers in diverse classrooms.

Read the full blog.