Three education faculty selected to help with new teacher assessment process

Three members of North Central College’s education faculty have been selected by Pearson Education, Inc. to be trained as scorers for the edTPA, the new state-mandated, pre-service Teacher Performance Assessment (edTPA).

The faculty are Julie Carballo (photo, left), director of the Teach First program and adjunct assistant professor of education; Kelli Diaz (lower right), coordinator of elementary partnerships and field experiences; and Mary Beth Ressler (lower left), assistant professor of education.

All scorers were recruited and selected because of their documented experience both with beginning teachers and subject-matter content. They began their training during summer 2013.

The edTPA will give teacher preparation programs access to a multiple-measure assessment system aligned to state and national standards, including Common Core and the Interstate Teacher Assessment and Support Consortium (InTASC). It helps guide the development of curriculum and practice around the common goal of making sure new teachers are able to teach each student effectively and improve student achievement.

The edTPA includes a review of a teacher candidate’s lesson plans, instructional materials, assessments and videotaped teaching segments as the culmination of a teaching and learning process that documents and demonstrates each candidate’s ability to effectively teach his/her subject matter to all students.   

Carballo has been teaching at North Central since 1997. She received her B.A. from Loras College, an M.Ed. from the University of Illinois at Chicago and an M.A. from Governors State University.

Diaz has been a member of North Central’s faculty since 2006. She earned her B.A. and an M.Ed. from Loyola University Chicago.

Ressler joined the faculty in 2010. She received a B.A. from Loyola University, an M.A. from Northern Illinois University and a Ph.D. from The Ohio State University.