State Board of Education Considers Changes to edTPA Requirements
At our October quarterly meeting, State Board of Education members considered amending Tennessee’s educator licensure requirements for job-embedded candidates. This change, if approved, would remove the pedagogical edTPA assessment requirements for job-embedded educator licensure candidates. A job-embedded licensure candidate differs from a traditional licensure candidate in that these individuals have already completed a Bachelor’s degree and serve as the teacher of record in a classroom while actively working on completing educator preparation requirements. Like traditional licensure candidates, job-embedded candidates must still demonstrate expertise in their content area, either by passing content assessments in their area of focus — such as the English language arts PRAXIS exam — or by having completed an undergraduate major in the focus area. After consultation with districts and other stakeholders across the state, the Board has proposed this policy change to reduce local teacher shortages. The edTPA exam is a performance-based assessment designed to measure educators’ teaching readiness. While the edTPA assessment is crucial for the preparation of traditional educator licensure candidates, the assessment is duplicative for job-embedded candidates who already serve in a classroom full-time and are regularly evaluated by school leadership.