Overview of edTPA- Teaching Event
California Teacher Candidates are required to pass the edTPA in order to earn their California teaching credential. Candidates will be working on this assessment during their student teaching, in their student teaching seminars. Successful completion of the edTPAs (education teaching performance assessments) during a Teacher-Candidate’s final semester is required to earn a California Preliminary Multiple Subject or Single Subject Teaching Credential. Developed by Stanford’s SCALE (Stanford Center for Assessment Learning and Equity) and aligned with the Common Core State Standards, the EdTPA centers on: (1) Planning, (2) Instruction, and (3) Assessment for a one-week learning segment during the Teacher-Candidate’s authentic student teaching experience (see Figure 1)
Teacher-Candidates are required to complete three tasks (Planning, Instruction and Assessment). In addition to these three tasks, Multiple Subject students are required to complete a fourth task 4; Task 4 demonstrates their ability to teach math. Teacher- Candidates plan for, support, and analyze their students’ academic language use as well as reflect on their own instructional choices in light of what they know of educational theory and research. Teacher-Candidates will submit lesson plans, instructional materials, student assessment samples, video clips of teaching, and commentaries. For each commentary, Teacher-Candidates respond to approximately five commentary questions in each section to explain the thinking behind their work.
To document this work, Teacher-Candidates must complete a portfolio of tasks. This portfolio consists of the following components:
- Context for Learning – Teacher-Candidates must describe their school and classroom settings. They must also identify their struggling students.
- Permission Forms – Because Teacher-Candidates need to video-record their teaching, they need to obtain permission from their students’ parents to be filmed. For students who do not have permission, Teacher-Candidates must blur their faces in their video clips.
- Task 1: Planning – Teacher-Candidates will create a learning segment for 3-5 lessons. They will submit lesson plans, instructional materials, and a commentary.
- Task 2: Instruction – Teacher-Candidates will videotape themselves teaching.
- ○They will select 2 clips not to exceed 15-20 minutes total. They will analyze themselves teaching and complete a commentary.
- Task 3: Assessment – Teacher-Candidates will create a chart summarizing student performance on a key assessment task. They will also select three focus students, analyze their student sample assessments, and give students feedback. They will submit these sample assessments and a commentary.
- Task 4: Math (Multiple Subject Teacher-Candidates only) – Multiple Subject Teacher-Candidates will plan and assess a math lesson. They will include their lesson plans and complete a commentary.
Please note that the edTPA is a rigorous and time consuming assessment that must be passed in the state of CA for your credential completion. Completion of the EdTPA is typically spread over a 2-month period, with three to four weeks of planning leading up to it (including completion of Task 1: Planning), a week to teach it, and anywhere from two to four weeks to finish the remaining tasks and review the work. The exact schedule depends on the logistics at Student Teachers’ school sites and the credential program’s due dates for credential recommendation. The EdTPA is submitted electronically (on-line) and is scored by professionals who are trained by SCALE and hired by Pearson. These professionals follow strict protocol for scoring reliability, including triple scoring of any failing or borderline teaching events, and participate in regular benchmarking for scorer accuracy.