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What Can Be Known and How People Grow: The Philosophical Stakes of the Assessment Debate

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Abstract

Fierce debates over standardized assessments in teacher preparation have revolved around flaws in implementation and the politics of privatization. While important, this focus obscures the philosophical divide between proponents and opponents of standardized assessments. This article examines how faculty in New York State argue for and against a controversial performance assessment for teacher candidates, the edTPA. Revealing the distinctive ways that teacher educators on opposing sides of this debate understand the nature of knowledge, human development, professionalism, and social justice clarifies what is at stake in debates over how to prepare teachers. Such clarification can deepen the discussion on how to evaluate learning and growth as well as enrich the conversation on how to protect the integrity of educational professions and practices.

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Notes

  1. For an example of government reform efforts, see “Race to the Top and Teacher Preparation” (Crowe 2011). For an example of consortia of educators proposing reforms, see the CAEP Standards (2013).

  2. For an example of such a conference, see the conference on which this article draws: “EdTPA: Challenges, Initiatives, Questions” at Barnard College, March 8, 2014, https://ourtc.wordpress.com/2014/03/07/edtpa-conference-tomorrow-at-barnard/. For faculty and student networks and boycotts see for example #ResistedTPA from the University of Illinois and Can’t Be Neutral (cantbeneutral.org) at the University of Massachusetts.

  3. For example see New York State Assembly Bill A09207B http://assembly.state.ny.us/leg/?default_fld=&bn=A09207&term=2013&Summary=Y&Mmo=Y&Text=Y.

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Acknowledgments

I gratefully acknowledge the Spencer Foundation and the Carnegie Corporation for supporting this research. I am also grateful to Mary Brabeck, Anna Hillary, Sahtiya Hammell, Lauren Ware, and Danielle Wingfield for their contribution to the research.

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Correspondence to Rachel Wahl.

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Wahl, R. What Can Be Known and How People Grow: The Philosophical Stakes of the Assessment Debate. Stud Philos Educ 36, 499–515 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11217-016-9525-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11217-016-9525-4

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