Recent changes in art teacher certification requirements in New York, the state in which I teach, have prompted me to reconsider relationships between language, contemporary art, and art education. New York is participating in the educational Teacher Performance Assessment (edTPA), a national version of the Performance Assessment for California Teachers (PACT). edTPA is currently being implemented in partnership with Pearson Education in 33 states and the District of Columbia as part of its teacher certification process. edTPA is a portfolio-based assessment that evaluates candidates for teacher certification in all disciplinary areas on their abilities to plan, instruct, assess student learning, analyze their teaching, and support academic language learning within their content areas (edTPA, n.d.). As my colleagues and I have worked to understand the edTPA requirements in relationship to our art teacher preparation program, I have found myself both curious and hesitant about the academic language requirement.