08 Mar2019
By Tracy Spesia
AACTE is pleased to share excerpts from a testimonial by one of the 2019 Annual Meeting attendees, Tracy Spesia of the University of Saint Francis in Joliet, IL. In a letter to AACTE President and CEO Lynn M. Gangone, Spesia shared how the AACTE Annual Meeting has consistently influenced and brought value to her work as the edTPA coordinator at her institution:
“It was a professional and personal pleasure to attend the 71st AACTE Annual Meeting in Louisville. This annual conference’s tremendous impact on me, and the ripple impact it has had on my college and community, is clear. I actually have the documentation to prove it!
In 2010, I accepted the full-time position of Field Experience Coordinator (and Partnership Liaison) at the University of St. Francis. In 2012, my dean asked me to assume the edTPA coordinator position. The toolbox needed some new tools. By a stroke of luck, the AACTE annual conference was in nearby Chicago in spring 2013, and the dean suggested I attend to learn more about edTPA. I had never heard of AACTE. I had no idea what edTPA was about. I had never really attended a professional conference. This opportunity marks such a turning point in my career.
25 Sep2015
By Amee Adkins, Tracy Spesia and John Snakenborg
Editor’s Note: This blog is based on a July 22 article in Teachers College Record (TCR). The full version is available here. The original article was written in response to a previously published TCR piece about edTPA.
We have been immersed in edTPA implementation for several years as the lead administrators for implementation support in Illinois and as scorers and scoring trainers. We have been committed to moving beyond compliance with state policy to using edTPA as a positive support for critical inquiry by faculty into teaching and learning.
13 Apr2015
By Tracy Spesia
Editor’s Note: Tracy Spesia, a nationally trained edTPA scorer, is the recent recipient of an innovation award from the University of Saint Francis for her work on edTPA at the College of Education. According to the university, Spesia’s “creative and successful efforts with the implementation of edTPA have positioned USF as a leader in the state” and have helped enhance “the quality of USF students’ application of theory into practice during their field experiences.” In recognition of her leadership, she was appointed to the Illinois Association for Teacher Education in Private Colleges as the edTPA liaison. Spesia also serves on the executive board of the Illinois Association of Colleges for Teacher Education. Click here for information about becoming an edTPA scorer.
This year I became an official edTPA scorer, and it is one of the most rewarding professional experiences I have had since I started working in the area of teacher preparation.
