Nicole Merino, an alumna of UC Santa Barbara’s Gevirtz School, has been appointed the national director of edTPA at Stanford University. She earned her Ph.D. (2010) in Child and Adolescent Development from the Department of Education at UCSB.
edTPA is a performance-based, subject-specific assessment and support system used by teacher preparation programs throughout the United States to emphasize, measure and support the skills and knowledge that all teachers need from Day 1 in the classroom. Stanford University faculty and staff at the Stanford Center for Assessment, Learning, and Equity (SCALE) developed edTPA. They received substantive advice and feedback from teachers and teacher educators and drew from experience gained from over 25 years of developing performance-based assessments of teaching including the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards, the Interstate Teacher Assessment and Support Consortium Standards portfolio, and the Performance Assessment for California Teachers.
Dr. Merino has been a member of the SCALE team for over a decade, and led edTPA programs in several key states, as well as the tremendously successful National edTPA Implementation Conferences. As the lead for edTPA in California and New York, she has been critical in supporting preparation program providers and state policy makers. During her 10+ years at SCALE and Stanford University, she has held significant leadership roles associated with both edTPA and other teacher and student performance assessments. Additionally, Dr. Merino’s research and teaching background spans from early childhood to higher education. Most recently, she taught in the Stanford preparation program for eight years, focusing on preparing candidates to support the needs of early through middle childhood. Dr. Merino is dedicated to improving instructional practices by creating evidence-based systems designed to help all learners, with a specialized focus on early learning.