Preparing Elementary School Teachers for Social Studies Instruction in the Context of Edtpa

Abstract

In a context of high-stakes accountability in teacher education, concerns are emerging about challenges to the already tenuous position of elementary social studies teacher education. In this case study, the author administered a survey to elementary social studies teacher educators in Georgia and conducted follow-up interviews focusing on the impact of edTPA on elementary social studies teacher education and the ways in which they are navigating the new context of teaching elementary social studies methods. The findings reveal the possibility of further decline of social studies in elementary teacher education programs due to elementary edTPA's singular focus on literacy and math content pedagogy along with the high-stakes nature of edTPA process. Implications for future research on edTPA and elementary social studies education are discussed.

The Struggle to Professionalize Teaching: Examining edTPA as a Professionalization and Deprofessionalization Tool

“…Teacher candidates' edTPA portfolios are assessed by Pearson, a for-profit company, which in their view further devalues localized knowledge and promotes the depersonalization of teacher education (Tuck & Gorlewski, 2018). Third, they question whether a standardized assessment can adequately address all content areas (An, 2017), contexts (De Voto, 2016;Dover, 2018), and races/classes equally (Dover, 2018;Petchauer et al, 2018). As such, proponents of this view disagree with the use of edTPA as a tool for boosting the professionalization of teacher education and for improving teacher quality more generally.…”

The control, content, and consequences of edTPA: World language teacher educators’ perceptions

“…Although edTPA "is leagues better than any pencil-and-paper test could be" (Au, 2013, p. 22), content-specific challenges that appear to be particular to WL teaching and teacher education exist, which is a cause for concern in an era of an ongoing nationwide K-12 WL teacher shortage. Over a four-year period (2014-2017Stanford Center for Assessment, Learning, and Equity, 2015, 2016a, 2017, 2018b, the number of WL edTPA portfolios submitted for review increased from 416 to 655 while the total mean scores on the assessment declined slightly more than 10%, or 4.10 points (Hildebrandt & Swanson, in press), from 40.00 in 2014 to 35.90 in 2016, with decreasing means for each of the three tasks. For example, on Rubric 8 (Subject-Specific Pedagogy, which has been shown to be somewhat problematic; Hildebrandt & Swanson, 2016), there was a notable decrease from 2.40 to 1.90 from 2014 to 2017 (Stanford Center for Assessment, Learning, and Equity, 2015, 2016a, 2017, 2018b.…”

“…Over a four-year period (2014-2017Stanford Center for Assessment, Learning, and Equity, 2015, 2016a, 2017, 2018b, the number of WL edTPA portfolios submitted for review increased from 416 to 655 while the total mean scores on the assessment declined slightly more than 10%, or 4.10 points (Hildebrandt & Swanson, in press), from 40.00 in 2014 to 35.90 in 2016, with decreasing means for each of the three tasks. For example, on Rubric 8 (Subject-Specific Pedagogy, which has been shown to be somewhat problematic; Hildebrandt & Swanson, 2016), there was a notable decrease from 2.40 to 1.90 from 2014 to 2017 (Stanford Center for Assessment, Learning, and Equity, 2015, 2016a, 2017, 2018b. It has been suggested that the rubric's expectations-that beginning teachers demonstrate the ability to engage learners in analyzing the perspectives, products, and practices of the Cultures goal area and help students make Comparisons with their home cultures (National Standards Collaborative Board, 2015) in a 15-minute video-may be unreasonable (e.g., Hildebrandt & Swanson, 2016).…”

“…Research on the WL edTPA has also shown that the assessment represents an unintended barrier to native/heritage language speakers becoming language teachers (Jourdain, 2018a(Jourdain, , 2018bRussell & Davidson Devall, 2018). What is more, because national data have shown that mean WL edTPA composite scores have decreased (Stanford Center for Assessment, Learning, and Equity, 2015, 2016a, 2017, 2018b while the cut scores to pass the assessment in some states are scheduled to increase each year in many states (AACTE, 2018), edTPA may be a barrier for candidates across a range of profiles who hope to enter the profession (Hildebrandt & Swanson, in press).…”

“…A number of studies have highlighted the assessment's potential to effectively assess aspiring teachers’ knowledge and skills across varying subjects (Youngs & Whittaker, ), but edTPA has motivated only a modest amount of content‐specific research interest, with the exception of, for example, An () in elementary education; Castellano, Duckor, and Wihardini () in elementary mathematics; and Heil and Berg () in music education. In contrast, the impact of the WL edTPA on WL teacher education programs seems to have provided a rich area of investigation (e.g., Behney, ; Hildebrandt & Swanson, ; Jourdain, ; Kissau & Algozzine, ; Okraski & Kissau, ; Russell & Davidson Devall, ; Swanson & Hildebrandt, ; Troyan & Kaplan, ).…”