What Do We Really Know About the edTPA? Research, PACT, and Packaging a Local Teacher Performance Assessment for National Use

Abstract

This article calls attention to the overreliance on research about the Performance Assessment for California Teachers (PACT)—often labeled edTPA's predecessor—as justification for the edTPA. The article argues that the distinctions between the assessments are too vast to rely on PACT data to support the edTPA, given the localized nature of PACT and the way in which it is scored.

Key words:

• assessment/evaluation/measurement/testing
• edTPA
• PACT
• performance assessments
• teacher education/certification

Funding

This work was supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC). This article is part of a larger project that examined teacher candidate identities as constructed by the edTPA.