Over 30 states have adopted the edTPA as a performance assessment for pre-service teachers. While many have adopted the edTPA as a program requirement, few require the edTPA for licensure of individual teacher candidates, but many states are poised to do so. While the edTPA is grounded on experiences with advanced certification and program level uses of teacher performance assessments, the research in these areas has focused on program implementation. Little research features student teacher voices and the impact of the assessment on the student teaching experience. The purpose of this article is to describe the perspectives of the first rounds of teacher candidates who completed the edTPA as a licensure exam while student teaching in multiple initial certification programs within a single School of Education. In addition to score results and student work, in-depth interviews and survey responses were the primary data collected and analyzed. In spite of pass rates over 80% with 35% at mastery levels across programs during the first two cohorts of implementation, candidate perceptions revealed contradictory views of the edTPA and its impact on candidate learning and the student teaching experience. These experiences are discussed in consideration of four themes that explore the edTPA as a reflective, educative, mandated, and subtractive experience. In light of the use of the edTPA as a high-stakes test for individual licensure, important considerations and cautions for teacher educators, policymakers, and administrators poised to phase in full-scale implementation of this assessment for high-stakes purposes are raised.