1. CA Teacher Performance Assessments Orientation
Claremont Graduate University
Teacher Education

2. Overview of the California Teaching Performance Assessment (CA TPA)
Senate Bill 2042 (Chapter 548, Statutes of 1998), signed by the governor in 1998, requires all multiple and single subject preliminary credential candidates attending fifth year, intern, or blended teacher preparation programs in California to pass a Teaching Performance
Assessment (TPA).
This assessment is designed to give you the opportunity to develop, refine, and demonstrate your teaching knowledge, skills, and abilities during your teacher preparation program.

3. California Commission on Teacher Credentialing and the CA TPA
The California Commission on Teacher Credentialing (CCTC), along with the Educational Testing Service (ETS) and the educational community, developed the CA TPA.
This performance assessment measures the domains of the Teaching Performance Expectations (TPEs) that describe what California teachers need to know and be able to do before being recommended for a Preliminary Credential.

4. Teacher Performance Expectations
Making Subject Matter Comprehensible to Students
TPE 1 - Specific Pedagogical Skills for Subject Matter Instruction
Assessing Student Learning
TPE 2 - Monitoring Student Learning During Instruction
TPE 3 - Interpretation and Use of Assessments
Engaging and Supporting Students in Learning
TPE 4 - Making Content Accessible
TPE 5 - Student Engagement
TPE 6 - Developmentally Appropriate Teaching Practices
TPE 7 - Teaching English Learners

5. Teacher Performance Expectations
Planning Instruction and Designing Learning Experiences for Students
TPE 8 - Learning About Students
TPE 9 - Instructional Planning
Creating and Maintaining Effective Environments for Student Learning
TPE 10 - Instructional Time
TPE 11 - Social Environment
Developing as a Professional Educator
TPE 12 – Professional, Legal, and Ethical Obligations
TPE 13 - Professional Growth

6. The CA Teacher Performance Assessments (TPAs) are directly linked to the CA Teacher Performance Expectations(TPEs)

7. Overview of the Teaching Performance Assessment Tasks
There are four inter-related yet separate tasks that are sequenced and increase in complexity as you move through them.

8. CA Teacher Performance Assessments
Subject-Specific Pedagogy Task (TPA Task 1)
Designing Instruction Task (TPA Task 2)
Assessing Learning Task (TPA Task 3)
Culminating Teaching Experience Task
(TPA Task 4)

9. Subject-Specific Pedagogy (TPA Task 1)
TPE
Subject-Specific Pedagogy
(TPA Task 1)
Designing Instruction (TPA Task 2)
Assessing Learning
(TPA Task 3)
Culminating Teaching Experience
(TPA Task 4) 1
Measured 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13

10. Principles of Subject-Specific Pedagogy (TPA Task 1)
In this task interns will:
Demonstrate their knowledge of content-specific pedagogy and developmentally appropriate pedagogy related to their subject/credential.
Respond to four content-specific scenarios demonstrating their ability to address developmentally appropriate pedagogy, assessment practices, adaptation of content for English learners, and adaptation of content for students with special needs.
Submit their completed response on August 4, 2008.

11. Designing Instruction (TPA Task 2)
In this task interns will:
Demonstrate their ability to learn important details about a classroom of students, an English learner, and a student who presents a different instructional challenge.
Plan instruction that is shaped by those students’ characteristics.
Demonstrate their ability to connect learning about students to instructional planning.
Submit their task with accompanying artifacts in TLP II.

12. Classroom Assessment of Academic Learning Goals (TPA Task 3)
In this task interns will:
Select a unit of study and learning goal(s) to plan a standards-based, developmentally appropriate student assessment.
Make assessment adaptations for two focus students: an English learner and a student with an identified special need.
Score, review, and analyze evidence of student learning and reflect on assessment implications of this evidence.
Submit a completed response, the assessment(s), selected students’ assessment responses, and, if appropriate, scoring scales, rubrics, and/or scoring guides as artifacts. This is submitted during TLP III.

13. Academic Lesson Design, Implementation, and Reflection after Instruction (TPA Task 4)
In this task interns will:
Design a lesson based on state-adopted academic content standards for students, implement the lesson making appropriate use of class time and instructional resources, meet the differing needs of individuals within the class, manage instruction and student interaction, assess student learning, and analyze the strengths and weaknesses of the lesson.
Make lesson adaptations for two focus students.
Analyze evidence of student learning and reflect upon instruction.
Submit a completed response, a DVD of the lesson taught, instructional artifacts, and samples of student work. This is submitted during TLP IV.

14. How Your Response Is Scored
Task-specific rubrics (score levels 1-4)
Score level 1 is the lowest and score level 4 is the highest
Score level 3 and above is a passing score.
All interns must pass all four TPAs in order to apply for a preliminary credential
Score level 2 tasks are read twice or more to verify score
Trained assessors score tasks (instructors will not score their own students’ tasks)
Identified by TPA ID Number only

15. KEY SCORE LEVEL CRITERIA
LEVEL 4 Appropriate, relevant, accurate, and clear or detailed. Purposefully connected and reinforced across the response. Clear, consistent, and convincing.
LEVEL 3 Appropriate, relevant, or accurate, Connected across response. Clear.

16. KEY SCORE LEVEL CRITERIA
LEVEL 2 Minimal, limited, cursory, inconsistent, and/or ambiguous, Weakly connected across response and may be inconsistent. Partial.
LEVEL 1 Inappropriate, irrelevant, inaccurate or missing. Unconnected across response. Little or nothing.

17. How You Will Receive Support
Score level 4 Benchmark and rubrics for TPA Task 1 are provided as reference
Instructors will supply course instruction related to appropriate pedagogy reflected on TPA tasks
Tasks steps will be reviewed during TLP II and III instruction
CA TPA resource materials are available on the Teacher Education website, including the TPA Candidate Handbook (CCTC).
Templates for all tasks are located on the Teacher Education website with additional support materials

18. Remember
The focus is not for you to be perfect, the focus is to learn from your planning, your students, your assessments
Review the TPEs as you complete the task to note what is being measured
Review the task-specific rubrics (based on the TPEs)
Note that the format for all tasks is similar
Don’t procrastinate -- jump in and do it!

19. CA Teacher Performance Assessments Pacing at CGU
Subject-Specific Pedagogy Task
This task is completed by all interns during Summer 2008
Designing Instruction
This task is completed by all interns
in TLP II.
Assessing Learning
This task is completed by all interns
in TLP III.
Culminating Teaching Experience
This task is introduced in TLP III and completed by all interns in TLP IV.