Next week, Torsh CEO Courtney Williams is heading to the Southeastern Regional edTPA Conference taking place in Raleigh, North Carolina. For those of you not familiar with edTPA, it is a “performance-based, subject-specific assessment and support system” developed by Stanford University’s Center for Assessment, Learning, and Equity. It is now used by more than 600 teacher preparation programs across 41 states. EdTPA measures teacher readiness and according to their website “builds on decades of teacher performance assessment, development and research regarding teaching skills and practices that improve student learning.”
This conference brings together stakeholders in teacher preparation that use or are planning to implement edTPA. Last year, Torsh TALENT, our online professional development platform, became an official integrated edTPA platform provider, which is something that makes us very proud. That’s why Courtney is not just attending the conference, he’s also a featured speaker.
Courtney’s presentation will highlight how schools can integrate TALENT with their certification programs, making the process easier and more streamlined. Courtney will use New York University as a case study and demonstrate how they use the edTPA tools in Torsh TALENT for their teacher residency program. To receive certification, teachers assemble a portfolio of materials such as lesson plans, student work, other artifacts, and videos of their classroom instruction. Teachers can create and store their portfolios right on Torsh TALENT, share their work with professors, colleagues, and mentors to receive feedback, then submit the final version directly to Pearson, the organization that scores their work. This organizes the process and allows students to receive valuable feedback on the work they are submitting.
Courtney very much looks forward to sharing how TALENT works with edTPA; he will also certainly enjoy connecting with faculty and staff involved in teacher preparation programs. We hope that access to tools such as TALENT will make it easier to adopt edTPA and will contribute to a more universal certification that elevates the teaching profession.
