Nicole Merino and Alexis Spina
For this special edition of both our Alumni Spotlight and our Current Student Spotlight, doctoral student Alexis Spina interviewed Nicole Merino (Education, Ph.D., ’09) about her work in improving teacher assessment with edTPA and her experiences as a graduate student at GGSE.
Spina jumped at the opportunity to connect with Merino. As an Educating Teacher Educators Fellow with CTERIN (CA Teacher Education Research and Improvement Network led by Dr. Tine Sloan), she works with other graduate students across the nine UC campuses on one of the core research aims: building a system-wide program to better prepare doctoral scholars for the work of teacher education. One of Spina’s recent qualifying exams focused on teacher performance assessments--specifically the edTPA. “It’s like talking to a celebrity,” she joked during her recent conversation with Merino who was more than happy to discuss her research, career journey, and reflect on her time at UCSB.
For more than a decade, Dr. Nicole Merino has played a critical role in the development and implementation of teacher and student performance assessments at the Stanford Center for Assessment, Learning, and Equity (SCALE). She was recently appointed as the National Director of edTPA, a subject-specific, teacher performance assessment and support system used by teacher preparation programs throughout the United States. Faculty and staff at SCALE developed edTPA to emphasize, measure and support the skills and knowledge that all teachers need from Day 1 in the classroom.
Dr. Merino was kind enough to speak with Spina over the phone on a recent weekday morning. The following is an edited transcript of their conversation:
Spina: Could you describe your new role as the National Director of the edTPA?
Merino: First I’ll provide a little background information. I have been working at for 10 years. Initially, I came to SCALE as the Director of PACT (Performance Assessment for California Teachers), which was the assessment used in California prior to edTPA. We launched edTPA pretty soon after I started so I was able to help at the beginning and now, fast-forward ten years later, I’m now National Director, which is very exciting.
We currently have 41 states that are using edTPA in some way. States have different policies on how they are approaching teacher performance assessment. Some states have a policy that requires all candidates to complete a performance assessment for initial license. Some states maybe in the process of developing policy, and some state may have any number of education preparation programs that are trying out edTPA. We could be working a state that has one preparation program using edTPA or a perhaps a consortium of programs that are working together to try it out.
We have close to 900 educator preparation programs involved. We as a team help support those different states with their edTPA implementation. Our involvement is more on the front end when a state is first getting started. We help the preparation programs learn more about the assessment and how it might work in their state or program given their state policy. Our team divides up the work, meaning the states and handbooks for each subject-specific handbook. As the National Director, I oversee this process and work closely with my team. I also work closely with our partners, the policies that are emerging and help direct support needed on the national level as well.
Spina: That sounds amazing. It’s so interesting to hear what you’re saying and reflect back on everything I wrote.
Merino: (Laughs) I’m sure you already know much of what I’ve been talking about based on your research.
Spina: It’s so different to read about it and then actually hear you say the words. Sounds like a very interesting position. Congratulations!
Merino: Thank you. It’s very fun. I joke with Tine [Sloan, Lead PI for CTERIN] because I blame her for all of this amazing work I get to do. I love it. When you think about each of the 41 states involved, so many preparation programs and the different contexts within each of those states and regions, it’s always different. At the core, we have a student-centered approach and so the conversations are about the students and who they are as learners which is the most fun.
Spina: That’s one of my favorite things about the edTPA is how much it focuses on the students and teacher reflection within that process. What do you think are the strengths of the edTPA in assessing preservice teachers level of readiness to enter the classroom? Challenges?
Merino: One of the strengths of edTPA is that it’s subject-specific. We’re looking at content pedagogy and we are very centered on the learner. You have to know your students; it isn’t just about the content. There’s still an argument out there that as long as you know the content you can teach, but that is not our approach. You also need to know the context of where the learner is learning. edTPA asks those these things together--content pedagogy, the learner, context information. It can be difficult in an assessment to ask about those things at the same time, but I believe this is a strength of the edTPA assessments.
Another strength that I think is very important is that we do pull on multiple pieces of evidence. We are asking teachers to look at the learner from different angles: how are you talking to them, how are you building on what they are saying, and then how are you reflecting and building on what you have learned about them. It’s a cycle of planning, instruction, and assessment. It’s an educative process for the pre-service teachers.
But it is equally important for this process to be educative for the programs as well. At UCSB, Tine created a culture of evidence. We, as the instructors, looked at the data and understood it as a team of educators, not just thinking about pass/fail but really getting into the qualitative data. It’s so important to reflect as a group of educators on how we prepare our candidates. Once programs have these data, what can they do with it? At edTPA, we promote this additional piece called a local evaluation and I believe this is a huge strength of the assessment.
Spina: As an ETE (Educating Teacher Educators) fellow for CTERIN, I work with other graduate students focusing on what it means to be a teacher educator and in what ways, as future teacher educators, we should be prepared for entering the field. What do you think we should know about the edTPA so that we can best prepare our future preservice teachers?
Merino: For this question, I think it’s important to start with the history of teacher performance assessment, specifically in California. When teacher performance assessment policy first came about, it was to ask what are we doing as a state that is consistent to prepare high quality teachers? At SCALE, we are constantly looking back at our approach and how it fits with each new context and if it is still addressing these questions. We often ask ourselves, if not edTPA, then what? Well, we want something that puts the learners at the center. We want something that is authentic to practice. We want the candidates to be able to use what they are learning in the program and in their placements and apply it.
In my experience as a teacher educator, and in my theory course, it was very important to focus on the reason why we do things. I want to know that my candidates are grounded in their decision-making. Let’s say they are confronted with a new policy from a new principal or from the district and, now they have to implement this new thing. This goes back to Dewey of course, and the combination of theory and practice: how are you going to know that what you are doing makes sense in this context? For me, this is the foundation of a teacher preparation program.
Having this understanding of this history and looking at edTPA through this lens, is helpful when we receive questions of why we need edTPA. We are always open to questions and feedback. As a teacher educator, I have to know the answer of why it matters to me and how it connects to this history of theory and practice.
Spina: I really appreciate that you are connecting this back to the roots of performance assessment and the history of theory and practice. And now, the final question which I’m very excited about: How did feel the program at UCSB prepare you for this job? Can you describe your journey a little bit since graduating from UCSB to starting this new position?
Merino: This is such a fun question to think about. At UCSB, I loved how I felt part of a big campus but also the intimate feeling of a small cohort. Yukari [Okamoto, Professor of Education] was just amazing. When I think of Yukari and her students, I think of them as family. She created that culture for us. I had to think about this experience before I talk about my journey because that really laid a foundation for how I experienced everything. The faculty across the board were really helpful and supportive.
It is challenging to engage in multiple levels of conversation on a national platform about edTPA. I credit UCSB for giving me opportunities to practice these skills not only through how graduate programs are structured but also through the comprehensive exams and really owning your ideas and conversations. Having very strong women as examples to look up to--Yukari, Tina, Betsy Brenner, Laura Romo, and so many others--was critical. They were supportive but also made the point of “you have to do that on your own” and that helped prepare me for this position. Learning how to handle situations, policies, and whatever comes up, especially as a woman of color, prepared me a lot for this position.
When I was at UCSB as a grad student I started teaching in TEP. I often joke that Tine said to me, "There is this little thing called PACT," and all of a sudden I was the PACT coordinator. Through that position, I started doing some work for my boss now. Through that work and the conferences being held at UCSB, I was able to network with other colleagues and see more possibilities for this work. After my time at UCSB, I transitioned over to the Director of PACT and kept working with my current boss, and then now have transitioned into this current position.
Spina: This is all very inspiring to hear. Thank you so much for speaking with me this morning.
Merino: Of course! I’m glad we could connect.