1. Traveling the Road to Initial Teacher Certification
edTPA 101 – Getting Started

2. Agenda Introductions Mark Proffitt Dr. Paula Talty
edTPA Overview and Background
Review Making Good
Choices document – Partner Share
Group Work around
the three edTPA tasks
Content Area Presentations
Group Share
Getting Started with edTPA
Homework Assignment
Final Thoughts

3. Mark will do this slide – This graphic represents a cycle of effective teaching, i.e. teaching that is focused on student learning. Planning Task 1 documents your intended teaching. Instruction Task 2 documents your enacted teaching. Assessment Task 3 documents the impact of your teaching on student learning. As you develop, document, and teach your lessons, you will reflect on the cyclical relationship between Planning, Instruction, and Assessment with a focus on your students’ learning needs.

4. Background
edTPA is a performance-based, subject-specific assessment and support system used by teacher preparation programs throughout the United States to emphasize, measure and support the skills and knowledge that all teachers need from Day 1 in the classroom.
edTPA features a common architecture focused on three tasks: Planning, Instruction, and Assessment.
edTPA portfolios are scored by highly trained educators, using 15 rubrics (five for each task) to evaluate high-leverage teaching competencies.
The five-level scale used for edTPA rubrics represents a continuum of practice from not quite ready to teach to advanced beginning teacher.

5. Aspiring teachers must prepare a portfolio of materials during their student teaching clinical experience.
edTPA requires aspiring teachers to demonstrate readiness to teach through lesson plans designed to support their students' strengths and needs; engage real students in ambitious learning; analyze whether their students are learning, and adjust their instruction to become more effective.
Teacher candidates submit unedited video recordings of themselves at work in a real classroom as part of a portfolio.

6. edTPA is designed to ensure that those who become teachers not only understand educational theory and subject matter content, but can demonstrate their ability to lead a classroom and ensure that students with diverse strengths and needs are learning. New teachers have to be effective from Day 1.
Source -
Stress that teachers need to be effective from day 1. Hit the ground running for quality instruction.

7. A Connecticut Requirement for Initial Teacher Licensure
In December, 2016, the Connecticut State Board of Education officially adopted the edTPA as a requirement for program completion. Beginning fall of 2018, edTPA will be required as a completion standard for all initial licensure teacher candidates completing student teaching.
During , teacher candidates will be required to complete edTPA only.
Beginning fall 2019, teacher candidates will needed to achieve a passing score established by the State Board of Education on edTPA.
ARC candidates can either complete edTPA during their six week student teaching practicum this winter or choose to complete it during their first 90 days of a new teaching assignment next fall, at which time a passing score must be achieved for initial licensure.
Paula will talk to this. This year it is a completion standard – next year will be a cut score issue.

8. What is a Cut Score?
In simplest terms, it's the minimum score set by a state or institution to pass edTPA. edTPA offers consistent scoring nationwide against a consistent standard, but each state can set its own pass/fail mark as they implement the assessment and teacher preparation programs learn how to support edTPA activities.
All candidates will complete edTPA and be scored the same way in Connecticut. States that hire teachers who are certified and licensed in other states will determine reciprocity conditions - whose scores and what scores they will take to license new teachers.
Source -

9. What is Expected of Teacher Candidates during the Student Teaching experience
Teacher candidates will
prepare a portfolio of materials during their student teaching experience that demonstrates their readiness to teach,
develop lesson plans and engage students in learning experiences consistent with the cooperating teacher’s school mission, standards, and curricula,
Choose a learning segment of 3-5 lessons (we encourage you to have 5) that builds toward a central focus for teaching and learning.
Collect artifacts(lesson plans, instructional materials, teaching videos, assessments, and samples of student work)
Write commentaries in response to prompts in the subject-specific edTPA handbook, and teacher candidates will need to provide a rationale to support their instructional practices based on their students’ learning strengths and needs.

10. Overview of Group Work
Partner Share regarding pp. 2-6 in Making Good Choices manual Work through Planning, Instruction and Assessment tasks with colleagues Presentations to Content Area groups regarding key points to learn about the Planning, Instruction, and Assessment tasks Group Share regarding Planning, Instruction, and Assessment Tasks – What are your takeaways from this activity?
Hand out the manual – let’s go through it. Have them review the manual – give them 10 minutes to read pages 2 – 6, move into content groups – and discuss what they’ve read and any questions. Share out.
Take students through the planning, instruction and assessment sections – in mixed groupings then move back into content groupings – teach this section.

11. Presenting to your colleagues
Be ready to present your task to your colleagues –
What key decisions are associated with your task?
What are the important takeaways related to your task?
What do you want to share with your colleagues about your task?
Each group will have 20 minutes total to present. Be ready to debrief after!

12. Break Time Take a quick 10 minute break!!
Be ready to come back and present to your content colleagues.

13. Now Let’s Get Started Go to www.edTPA.com
Click on Candidates at the top of the page
Click on Getting Started
Review the following:
Learn about edTPA
Review Your Requirements
Candidate Polices and Online Training
Identify your Portfolio System
Review the Submission and Reporting Dates
Register for edTPa
Access your edTPA Handbook – Note: Handbooks also available in the Google Classroom Folder for edTPA

14. Continuing on the Road to Initial Teacher Licensure
Another online resource available to you to learn more about edTPA as well as accessing resources to assist you in completing the assessment is
Once you have created your account, you will have access to numerous resources, templates, tutorials, etc.
Other resources to review on the edTPA website: Understanding Rubric Level Progressions and Understanding Academic Language in edTPA: Supporting Learning and Language Development
As you have only a six week student teaching practicum to complete edTPA this year, you must start NOW to get prepared!!!!!!!!!!

15. edTpa submission and scoring
Submission dates
Cost $ initial submission
If you need to resubmit tasks - Resubmission of tasks

16. Next Steps and Decisions that Need to be Made….
Strongly consider completing the edTPA during your student teaching practicum this winter, so that upon receiving your first teaching assignment, you will just need to focus on beginning the TEAM process as structured in your school district. Although completion of the edTPA is a requirement, you will not need to worry about a passing score if you opt to complete the edTPA this winter.
Begin to familiarize yourself with the two edTPA websites shared with you and the abundance of information contained within each, and set up an account for yourself so that you can begin to access all the resources available to you in preparation for completing the edTPA.

17. Final thoughts
See the FAQ sheet related to edTPA – Click on FAQs at top of and then click on Candidates
Methods faculty will walk you through the Rubric Progressions in a later class
Download the Assessment Handbook for your specific content area! Review it thoroughly.
Your host teacher will not have a significant role in your completing edTPA.
questions to Mark or Paula –
Mark at
Paula at

18. Homework
Read and review the following document – Equitable Classroom Practices Observation Checklist and respond to the following question –
How do you see yourself using these classroom practices within your student teaching experience? In your day to day instruction?
Why are these practices important to consider as a component of your planning and instruction?
How do you see these practices embedded in the edTPA requirements?
Your reflection should be one page and is due on February 16, 2019!

19. TEAM
The mission of the TEAM program is “to promote excellence, equity, and high achievement for Connecticut students by engaging teachers in purposeful exploration of professional practice through guided support and personal reflection.”
Beginning teachers who hold an initial educator certificate and are teaching under such a certificate are required to participate in TEAM.
Beginning teachers will be paired up with a trained mentor who will provide support throughout the TEAM induction process.
TEAM is designed as a professional growth model. Beginning teachers will complete each instructional module according to the method described in their district’s three year education and mentoring plan.

20. TEAM
Teachers who hold an initial educator certificate are required to successfully complete TEAM requirements in order to advance to a provisional educator certificate.
As part of TEAM, beginning teachers shall satisfactorily complete instructional modules in the following areas: Classroom management and climate, Lesson planning and Unit design, Delivering instruction, Assessing student learning, and Professional practice
The following criteria for successful completion of a module applies, regardless of the method selected by the district to demonstrate completion of each instructional module:
Evidence of new learning 2. Impact on practice 3. Impact on students

21. TEAM
Based on current teacher certifications, beginning teachers will either fall into Category 1 or Category II. Currently, all ARC certification programs for the school year fall under Category 1.
Category 1 – Full Five Module Program – Teachers have two years to complete TEAM. It is expected that beginning teachers will complete the full five module process in their first two years of participation in the program(two modules in year one and three modules in year two)