Chapter 7: Teacher Candidate edTPA Support: A Five-Pronged Approach

The edTPA can be daunting for most candidates, particularly if they are left to develop their own learning strategies to navigate the journey toward successful completion. One highly respected and award-winning school of education in Washington State has developed successful strategies to ensure teacher candidates are supported from the beginning of their program, up to and including submission, and resubmission of their portfolio when necessary. The three teacher preparation programs at this university implement a five-pronged, data-driven, student support system to ensure candidates are pedagogically proficient and academically prepared for the edTPA assessment. The end result is candidates feeling well supported and a 90% pass rate on the first attempt with scores that are higher than state and national averages over the past 5 years.