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Regarding the new pre-service teacher assessment, the TPA, as discussed on the Brian Lehrer show, a few thoughts from someone who has worked with the TPA in MA. First, the TPA, at least in MA, does not replace a paper and pencil test. The MA paper and pencil tests for certification (Massachusetts Test for Educator Licensure or MTEL) are gatekeepers for entry into student teaching.  The MTEL ‘assesses’ reading, writing and content area knowledge. The TPA is being used to evaluate students at the end of the student teaching semester. Therefore, the TPA is replacing observations and evaluations completed by university supervisors and cooperating teachers. For example, where I teach, student teachers are observed 5 times by a supervisor. This supervisor meets with the student teacher and the cooperating teacher to discuss the students development, the students are in weekly contact with the supervisor and, when needed, the supervisor meets more often and completes more observations. Students also participate in a seminar where they review and share their work with each other and faculty. Supervisors and cooperating teachers decide if students should pass student teaching-not a test. Could this be improved? Yes, with more observations and more opportunities to discuss the student teacher’s development. But the TPA is replacing the evaluations of supervisors and cooperating teachers with a PAPER AND PENCIL test, in which students WRITE about their teaching and then have their writing, and a brief video clip, evaluated by a person who does not know the student teacher or the context. My understanding, from colleagues in California who have been working with the Performance Assessment for California Teachers(PACT) from which the TPA is derived, is that when students fail the PACT, remediation is not about their teaching, but about their writing about their teaching. The TPA is a paper and pencil test that rewards facility with language as much as any standard essay examination.
And none of the above even begins to address that this is a huge money grab for Pearson, whose interest is profit not democratic education.