/Institutions/United-States-University/json/current/Student-Teaching-Handbook-local.json

/Institutions/United-States-University/json/current/Student-Teaching-Handbook.json

Assessment of Teacher Credential Candidates

Overview of TPEs

The College of Education teaching credential program requires Teacher- Candidates to complete a series of Teaching Performance Assessments in order to successfully complete the program. Teacher- Candidates must complete:

• Embedded Signature Assessments (ESAs)

• edTPA - Teaching Assessment (CTC credential requirement) 

 

Overview of Signature Assignments

Embedded Signature Assessments (ESAs) are common, major assignments that students in each section of a course complete to show mastery of specific teaching standards.

 tTese assessments help prepare Student Teachers for the edTPA. 

Evaluation of Student Teachers

Evaluations will be completed in:

• Week 4

• Week 8 (Grade for Session I)

• Week 12

• Week 16 (Grade for Session II)

• The student teacher, cooperating teacher, and University supervisor will evaluate the same lesson and meet to debrief after the lesson.

• Overview of edTPA – Teaching Event

Our California Teacher Candidates are required to pass the edTPA in order to earn their California teaching credential. Your best resource is the Teacher’s Lounge, which has everything you need in order to complete the edTPA. Ultimately, you will create and record a 3-5 day mini-unit and submit it for evaluation. This is an incredibly difficult performance assessment that includes many nuances. Take a look at the checklist at the end of this book, to help guide you. If you ever have any questions, please reach out to our EdTPA Coordinator, Professor Curiel, at mcuriel@usuniversity.edu. You can also ask questions directly in the Teacher’s Lounge, in the EdTPA discussion forum. What follows is a brief overview:

Task 1: Planning for Instruction and Assessment

Task 1 is the planning portion of the edTPA. This task is divided into 5 parts and each of the five parts have specific requirements that include recording and uploading video segments, lesson plans, and narrative to substantively support achievement of the task. For Task 1, the bulk of the task is responding to prompts about the lesson that you will be teaching. The five parts in task 1 are:

• Part A: Context for Learning (4-page limit)

• Part B: Lesson Plans (3–5-day learning segment/mini-unit plan)

• Part C: Instructional Materials (5-page limit)

• Part D: Assessments (pre-assessments, and narrative on assessment planning)

• Part E: Planning Commentary (9-page limit)

Task 2: Instruction and Engaging Students in Learning

Task 2 is the teaching portion of the edTPA. The focus of this task is establishing an effective learning climate and showing that there is a rapport between the student and student teacher. It is critical that the contents of Task 2 align with the planning in Task 1 - they should all be on the same 3–5-day learning segment.  

• Part A: Video Clips (10–20-minute clips depending on content area)

• Part B: Instruction Commentary (6-page limit)

Task 3: Assessment

This is the assessment portion of the edTPA to demonstrate how assessments are used to evaluate student learning, monitor effectiveness of instruction, and guide future instruction. Assessments are briefly covered in Task 1 - but that is just the planning of the assessment as well as any pre-assessment that might be used prior to the teaching portion of the edTPA. Task 3 is divided into four parts: 

• Part A: Student Work Samples (2-3 individual assessments of students)

• Part B: Evidence of Feedback (audio/video feedback and evidence of written feedback)

• Part C: Assessment Commentary (reflection on assessment results)

• Part D: Evaluation Criteria (rubrics, exit slips, etc.)

ELEMENTARY Task 4: Assessing Students’ Mathematics Learning

Task 4 is only for Multiple Subject candidates. All Elementary pre-service teachers are required to teach a Mathematics lesson that reflects student achievement in procedural fluency, development of mathematical reasoning, and advancement of problem-solving skills. This task is NOT required to be aligned with Tasks 1-3 and a different classroom can be used altogether if the student teacher prefers. This task is divided into seven parts:

• Part A: Context for Learning (similar to Task 1 but focused on mathematics)

• Part B: Description of the Learning Segment (objectives & standards)

• Part C: Assessment (formative assessment & directions, no student sample)

• Part D: Rubric (copy of rubric, not evaluated)

• Part E: Student Work Samples from the Learning Segment (three student samples)

• Part F: Student Work Samples from the Re-Engagement Lesson (video or three student samples)

• Part G: Mathematics Assessment Commentary (8-page limit)

Scoring of edTPA

The edTPA Tasks are scored across targeted competency areas using approximately 15-18 rubrics. For each Task, the first 2-3 competency areas correspond directly to the specific Tasks (Planning, Instruction, and Assessment). The last 1-2 competency areas require Teacher-Candidates to use evidence across all the tasks to analyze teaching and academic language. The Rubrics are as follows:

• Rubrics 1-5 relate to the Planning Task.

• Rubrics 6-10 relate to the Instruction Task.

• Rubrics 11-15 relate to the Assessment Task.

• Rubrics 16-18 relate to the Math Task – Multiple Subject Candidates only.

 

The Rubrics used to score the edTPA include five proficiency levels, from low performance at level 1 to the outstanding performance at level 5. The following chart describes the general description of each score/level.

 

© SCALE 2012, all rights reserved

 

The passing score for most edTPA Teaching Events is 41. For edTPA Teaching Events with more or less than 15 rubrics (e.g., World Language, Elementary Education), the passing score is adjusted. For example, Multiple Subject Student Teachers complete and submit the Elementary Education edTPA, which consists of 18 rubrics. These Student Teachers must pass with a total score of 49; they must score at least 41 in the Literacy part (Rubrics 1-15) and at least an 8 in the Math part (Rubrics 16-18).

EdTPA Score Appeals Policy

A Score Confirmation request is the process for appealing a score. If you believe that a score (not a condition code) on one or more rubrics was reported in error, you may submit a request for a score confirmation in writing. The fee is $200. Information about the score confirmation service is available on edtpa.com.

Please note that only one score confirmation request is permitted per submission and requests received after the initial score confirmation request will not be honored.

If you are unsure why a condition code was assigned to one or more rubrics in your score profile, you should refer to the information in your score profile. The performance description(s) will provide information regarding any condition code(s) assigned. For additional information about condition codes, please review edTPA Submission Requirements and Condition Codes.

EdTPA Video Recording Permissions Policy

Before you record your classroom instruction, you must ensure that you have the appropriate permission from the parents/guardians of your students and from adults who appear in the video recording.   The permission slips should stay on file with your Cooperating Teacher, and kept for the duration of your student teaching. If you do not receive a permission slip from a student or an adult in the classroom, you will need to make sure they DO NOT appear any videos that you record in that classroom. That may mean you record a smaller group of students, or strategically place your camera so those students are not on video. Reach out to your University Supervisor with any questions or concerns.

EdTPA Teaching Event Submission Procedures

It’s important for Teacher-Candidates to follow the timelines, deadlines, and checklist given to them by the edTPA Coordinator and Team Leader. Teacher-Candidates must submit the edTPA in the Sibme platform and then transfer to Pearson. Teacher-Candidates should be prepared to pay the edTPA submission/scoring fees, which range from $300-400.

 

University Supervisors will help Student Teachers prepare to submit their edTPA portfolios during the student teaching seminar in their final semester of the program.

edTPA submission and reporting dates can be found at this webpage: https://www.edtpa.com/PageView.aspx?f=GEN_ScoreReportDates.html.  Student Teachers need to make sure they have enough time to submit and get scores back before the end of the semester so that their credentials can be processed on time. The following is a suggested checklist for edTPA submission. 

EdTPA Appeals

Evaluation Systems will notify examinees of the determination made with regard to their requests for alternative arrangements. You may appeal the denial of some or all of your requests for alternative arrangements. Before you submit your appeal, it is suggested that you review the information on this website about alternative arrangements, including the documentation requirements for different types of alternative arrangements requests.

If after reviewing this information you still wish to proceed with an appeal of the decision, you may do so by submitting your appeal, in writing, to Pearson. The appeal should include the following information:

• Your name and address

• The date of the appeal

• Any documentation, in addition to the documentation that you submitted with your original request, that supports your alternative arrangements requests

• A brief summary of the reasons why your alternative arrangements requests should be granted

• Your signature

Your appeal should be submitted as soon as possible. After your appeal is reviewed, you will be notified as to whether your appeal has been granted or denied. All appeal determinations are final. 

EdTPA Appropriate Use of Materials Policy

EdTPA materials (handbooks, rubrics, Making Good Choices, local evaluation training materials) can all be found in the Teacher’s Lounge in the D2L platform. These materials can be shared with cooperating teachers under secure conditions. They may not be posted on public websites and local evaluation materials require a nondisclosure agreement. In addition, all materials related to your EdTPA submission must be kept confidential so as to not share any information about the participants in the video recordings.

EdTPA Resources

There are many resources to help Student Teachers prepare for the edTPA. These resources include but are not limited to:

• Content-Specific Handbook and Rubrics

• “Making Good Choices”

• “Understanding Rubric Level Progressions”

• Academic Language Handout

 

Student Teachers are responsible for reading and knowing all the content in these documents and following the instructions therein. These resources can be found in the Teacher’s Lounge in D2L.

 The following is a checklist for submitting edTPA to Sibme and Pearson:

 

STEP ONE: Register for Pearson (this should be done immediately)

http://www.edtpa.com/PageView.aspx?f=GEN_RegisterPearson.html

• Enter the last 5 digits of SSN.

• Select the assessment, choose the "national" version.

• Select United States University when asked which program.

o   This ensures we get your scores to process your credential.

• When asked if edTPA is a program requirement, state license requirement, or both, select BOTH.

o   This way your scores are sent to both USU and CCTC.

• If you are planning to teach in another state (e.g., NY, Washington, Georgia, Ohio, Minnesota, Iowa), you can select to have your scores sent to that state if it's listed as a state that currently requires edTPA for credentialing

• Go to the bottom portion to enter Visa or Mastercard or PayPal information to pay the balance.

• Registration needs to be done before submission.

• When you get to submitting the edTPA, be sure to identify that you are transferring your portfolio from Sibme to Pearson (and not loading directly into Pearson site).

• When you sign up for Pearson and you hit the "Next" button after you purchase the edTPA, choose the Platform Provider option and you should receive a key code. If you already paid and you do not have the right eportfolio head to "My account", then hit "Current Registrations." Then on the left-hand side there will be a section that says "Managing edTPA Portfolio'', then it will ask you to accept or acknowledge the information. Make sure it is the edTPA Platform Provider.

 

STEP TWO: Submit to Sibme.

• Do not use any identifying information in file names or within documents.

• Remove student names, school names, city names or your own name. Upload to Sibme all scanned permission slips with class roster while completing the Authorization & Authenticity drf

• Upload all artifacts and commentaries to Sibme and save in edTPA drf(see evidence chart in handbook for formatting requirements.) Do NOT submit yet.

• Transfer all of edTPA drf from Sibme to Pearson edTPA* website via the scores/results tab. Start this process at least 5 days before the final submission deadline. Transfer may take anywhere from 2 hours to 5 days.

One of the most difficult parts of guiding students through the process of submitting their edTPA is that the faculty cannot give feedback on the submission, outside of helping with technical issues, grammar, or mechanics. The content of the edTPA must be evaluated by the edTPA reviewers. Here are some helpful links that give additional information:

Assessment Process Overview: http://www.edtpa.com/PageView.aspx?f=GEN_AssessmentProcessOverview.html

Submission and Reporting Dates: 

http://www.edtpa.com/PageView.aspx?f=GEN_ScoreReportDates.html

edTPA for California: http://www.edtpa.com/PageView.aspx?f=GEN_California.html

Policies for Students: http://www.edtpa.com/PageView.aspx?f=GEN_CandidatePolicies.html

Candidate FAQs: http://www.edtpa.com/PageView.aspx?f=HTML_FRAG/GENRB_FAQ_Candidat