Redesigning Teacher Education in the Context of Multiple Reform Initiatives
Numerous teacher educators are revising their programs by focusing on high-leverage practices (HLPs). Concurrently, edTPA has been adopted by a number of states as a way to assess teacher candidates' readiness to teach. There is considerable conceptual congruence in these reform strategies. Both are practice-based, focusing on the authentic work of teaching. Nonetheless, the origins of these strategies, language, and materials are not seamless. HLPs, and ways of teaching them, are generated by local teacher educators themselves; edTPA was developed on a national scale with one purpose being to provide a common assessment of readiness to teach. This chapter illustrates the collective efforts of one teacher education program to productively handle the challenges that emerge in this dual reform climate while simultaneously meeting accreditation association requirements, including a conceptual framework for educator preparation programs. A model is subsequently presented for meaningful integration of edTPA, HLPs, and institutional conceptual frameworks.