Frequently Asked Questions
No. There is no single assessment that can measure beginning teacher competence given how complex and varied the knowledge base is for measuring effective teaching. States have a long history of requiring various measures (subject matter exams, basic skills tests, program completion requirements, GPA, etc.) that collectively contribute to a licensure decision. edTPA is a rigorous and reliable measure of beginning teacher readiness that adds to that decision toward the end of the sequence of state requirements – in many cases candidates will have passed other measures or been counseled out of programs prior to attempting edTPA.
In addition to their state requirements, programs are encouraged to develop assessment systems that include formative, embedded signature assessments, as well as summative assessments that align with state, national and specialized professional association standards for beginning teachers. edTPA does not replace the evaluation of candidates in clinical placements, supervisory feedback and observation by faculty and cooperating teachers. Program leaders continue to make decisions about candidate readiness using edTPA as one measure. Developing a reliable understanding of whether a candidate is prepared to be the teacher of record in their own classroom requires the use of multiple measures of skills, practices and performance.
So many times when assessments for P-12 students are introduced, they are multiple-choice exams that randomly select questions about a narrow subset of a subject matter domain. In response, some teachers feel pressured to teach only to those narrow items. edTPA is not that kind of “test” -- edTPA represents a broad consensus of the teaching field about what knowledge and skills matter for a beginning teacher’s performance and good teaching in general (see Review of Research). edTPA is built on core aspects of teaching – planning for instruction, engaging students in learning, assessing learning and supporting academic language development – and requires them to be linked together to show the full cycle of teaching.
This is also why the assessment requires real artifacts from teaching — lesson plans, video and student work samples — in order to show the complexity of the local teaching context and the way the candidate responds to real students when trying to teach them in a real setting. edTPA portfolios should represent each candidate’s unique context for teaching and learning, as well as their own thinking and decision-making about planning, instruction and assessment. Candidates should feel free to select lesson plan formats and instructional strategies that represent their individual styles of teaching, while considering the best way to address the central focus of their learning segment within their particular classrooms (i.e., project-based learning, direct content delivery, small-group work, etc.).
We encourage programs (faculty and candidates) to look at edTPA tasks in small groups and to go through each task and ask the question: “Does this task represent authentic and important skills worth teaching to”? Hundreds of teacher educators and teachers have done this exercise as a form of curriculum inquiry and determined how edTPA is aligned with program mission, values and curriculum and what it does not measure. When programs are engaged in discussing edTPA in a multiple measures assessment system that authentically addresses effective teaching then edTPA can be integrated seamlessly into foundational and methods courses and clinical practice. Further, teaching narrowly to the test as a strategy for passing edTPA is disruptive and shortchanges the quality of the preparation program and the expertise of the faculty. Teaching to the test can result in colonizing the curriculum, as foreshadowed in large-scale high stakes student testing. We wholeheartedly recommend trusting the quality of the program and integrating edTPA as appropriate within the authentic context of program preparation.
Program coursework and feedback during fieldwork are the most important supports for developing candidate competencies in planning, instructing, and assessing student learning. EPP teacher educators are encouraged to provide formative support to candidates and are expected to support candidates as they prepare for edTPA. EPP teacher educators can provide candidates with support documents (like Making Good Choices), handbooks, local samples of previously completed edTPA materials, and locally developed lesson planning templates that help them understand rubrics and other materials.
Candidates’ submitted portfolios must represent original student work and the final product must be solely authored by the candidate. Programs should caution candidates about using commercially available support materials or online resources – the best preparation for candidates is provided by their own program. For more information on program embedded candidate support, see the following resources.
- Guidelines for Acceptable Candidate Support
- Teachers Who Support Teacher Candidates
- edTPA Guidance for P-12 Administrators and Leaders
Candidates who are not affiliated with an Educator Preparation Program (EPP) or if an EPP is not participating in edTPA, and edTPA is a requirement for licensure in the state in which the candidate intends to teach, please review the links below for support and guidance. Please note, handbooks are only available to candidates once s/he registers for the assessment. Candidates unaffiliated with an EPP should read and reference the following materials in the preparation and submission of an edTPA portfolio assessment.
Programs can determine the extent faculty members should be involved based on the content of the courses and how they contribute to candidate preparation. In some programs, content course instructors have a deep awareness of edTPA expectations, but support for edTPA is usually provided by foundations, methods and clinical faculty.
Programs determine the timeline of edTPA for teacher candidates. Programs may consider the design of local curriculum, number of weeks of clinical experiences, and other factors in decision making. SCALE encourages programs to frontload formative opportunities for candidates to develop and practice aspects of effective teaching measured by edTPA early in the teacher candidate’s program experience and for teacher candidates to submit edTPA as a summative integration of that learning later in the program. Teacher candidates should submit their edTPA portfolio only after they have had sufficient time to get to know their students and their learning needs, plan thoughtfully and teach well. Programs should consider score reporting dates, as well as the rare need for candidate retake opportunities for when establishing edTPA timelines for candidates.
For programs that provide a year-long student teaching placement, candidates may spend the entire first semester getting to know their students, their academic strengths and struggles as well as their personal, cultural and community assets, lived experiences and “funds of knowledge.” Late in the first semester or early in the second semester, candidates can develop their Context artifact and collaborate with their cooperating teacher to identify a learning segment to be taught in early to mid-second semester. Candidates can draft their Task 1 plans and receive appropriate feedback before teaching and video recording the lessons.
Once the lessons are taught and recorded, candidates are encouraged to write drafts of Task 2 and 3 and to receive feedback. edTPA scores are returned within three weeks of submission, so planning should include time for retaking the edTPA, in the rare case it is needed. Some programs allow candidates to submit as late as three weeks before graduation and provide opportunities for retakes through continuing education, receiving an incomplete (I) grade in a clinical experience or other contingency plans.
Candidates can access handbooks via their programs, integrated platform providers (TaskStream, LiveText, Chalk &Wire, etc.), or when they register for edTPA at edTPA.com. EPP teacher educators can access handbooks for download and/or printing in the Resource Library at edTPA.org. EPP teacher educators can download and share the handbooks with candidates and cooperating teachers with no charge associated.
Candidates should select the handbook aligned to the teaching license for which they will be applying. Candidates should review the state licensing requirements for the state(s) in which they are seeking licensure and contact the state office of educator licensing for specific details about which handbook is appropriate. State requirements and assessment options are available at edTPA.com or by reviewing our State edTPA Policy Overview.
No. By design, edTPA is not a prescriptive assessment and encourages candidates to use lesson planning templates required by their programs and/or select a lesson plan and instructional activity format that best fits their individual teaching style, classroom context, and learning segment focus. Several edTPA resources offer guidance to candidates and programs about components needed in edTPA artifacts.
For more information, see the following resources, also available at edTPA.org.
Yes. edTPA demonstrates technical reliability and validity with a high level of quality to meet the policy and implementation needs of State Boards of Education, Independent Standards Boards, and State Education Agencies. The edTPA also addresses the needs of EPPs using the assessment to inform decisions about curriculum improvement.
Validity evidence is used to establish that the assessment properly measures the constructs or concepts it intends to measure (construct validity) and that it measures content that is important for drawing the inferences the test is meant to inform (content validity).
Construct Validity
SCALE conducted a review of over 200 relevant studies (released as a research synthesis) and used this review to inform the design principles of, and foundation for, the common architecture of edTPA (SCALE, 2015). This research, along with the related standards of the NBPTS and InTASC, informs the representation of effective teaching and the underlying constructs evaluated by the 15 rubrics used in edTPA. A research study that evaluated the theoretical constructs underlying the development of edTPA concluded that “content and construct validity can be argued as being technically sound in the edTPA—when these arguments are also based on other professionalizing efforts such as the establishment of InTASC teaching standards and the performance assessment model of the NBPTS” (Sato, 2014).
Content Validity
Subject-specific, expert design teams provided content validity evidence of the specific job-related competencies assessed within each subject area and guided the development of edTPA handbooks across 28 subject area fields.
edTPA design teams included P–12 teachers, teacher-leaders, and faculty with deep subject-matter expertise, strong subject-matter pedagogy, and extensive experience working with preservice teachers. The design teams participated in a process using subject-matter-specific content and pedagogical standards to determine the types of teaching and learning that edTPA handbooks would emphasize for their field.
A separate job analysis study was conducted with an additional pool of educators who provided evidence to confirm the degree to which the job requirements of a teacher are aligned to edTPA. Survey design and data analysis for the job analysis were conducted by the Human Resources Research Organization (HumRRO). The survey data reinforced the strength of the relationship between edTPA tasks and rubrics, and the critical tasks performed by educators.
A separate content validation committee was convened to independently provide ratings on the importance, alignment, and representativeness of the knowledge and skills required for each edTPA rubric, in relation to national pedagogical and content-specific standards.
Yes. The results of edTPA scorer reliability are consistent with the Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing technical standards for licensure assessments of this type and support the use of edTPA scores as a reliable and valid estimate of a prospective teacher’s readiness to teach.
Evidence that the assessment is valid and reliable is publicly reported annually in its Administrative Reports available at the online Resource Library at edtpa.org.
The purpose of edTPA is to measure novice teachers’ readiness to teach the subject area in which they are seeking initial teacher certification. The assessment is designed with a focus on student learning and principles from research and theory. It is based on findings that successful teachers
- develop knowledge of subject matter, content standards, and subject-specific pedagogy;
- develop and apply knowledge of varied students’ needs;
- consider research and theory about how students learn; and
- reflect on and analyze evidence of the effects of instruction on student learning.
As a performance-based assessment, edTPA is designed to engage candidates in demonstrating their understanding of teaching and student learning in authentic ways.
The edTPA Administrative Reports describe edTPA’s continued support and expansion as a performance-based assessment and support system for initial teacher licensure, program completion, and accreditation. The reports present analyses based on teacher candidate performance data on an annual basis. The findings and analyses presented in the reports reaffirm reliability and consistency of scoring, examine evidence of validity, and document trends in candidate performance.
As of June 2016, programs are required to use multiple measures in their AAQEP or CAEP review and to make their own case as to how edTPA data provides evidence of candidate performance and informs program renewal. SCALE has developed an extensive crosswalk to InTASC standards demonstrating alignment with edTPA commentary prompts and rubrics.
Cooperating/mentor teachers’ role will remain the same in terms of providing support and feedback for early beginning teachers’ plans, instruction, and assessment methods. Teacher candidates completing edTPA, however, candidates may need input about the context and background of the school community and students so they can identify and/or plan and enact equitable learning tasks, planned supports, instructional strategies, and assessments.
edTPA resources include nearly 200 resources (e.g., edTPA Assessment Handbooks, Academic Language Handout) support items for the edTPA Community at edTPA.org. Further, the edTPA National Academy members have facilitated approximately 150 workshops (e.g., edTPA 101, Handbook Rubric and Deep Dive, Curriculum Inquiry) and webinars (e.g., Equity Features of edTPA) for EPPs and their P-12 school partners.
For the most up-to-date information on webinars check out our News and Announcements page.
NOTE: There is no cost to attend a workshop or webinar.
The design of edTPA includes the goal of evaluating the “totality of the evidence” submitted in each portfolio in order to understand how the teacher engages in a cycle of teaching. A scorer views the entire teaching cycle, so that the integrated teaching and learning experiences are judged in totality, not in separate parts. Having the same scorer evaluate all three tasks of the assessment (planning, instruction, and assessment) allows the scorer to obtain a comprehensive picture of the candidate’s performance, understanding how decisions made in the context of planning around student needs are also relevant to subject-specific instruction and the assessment of student learning, for example.
Before becoming an official edTPA scorer, educators must go through an extensive scorer training curriculum developed by the Stanford Center for Assessment, Learning and Equity (SCALE) and meet qualification standards demonstrated by scoring consistently and accurately. Once scorers qualify and score operationally, they are systematically monitored during the scoring process (through quality monitoring processes such as backreading, validity/calibration portfolios, and requalification exercises) to ensure that they continue to score reliably, including adjudication and resolution measures.
NOTE: Scorers cannot continue scoring if flagged by quality monitoring.
The criteria for selecting and training scorers are rigorous and include:
- expertise in the subject matter and developmental level of the teaching field (degree and professional experience)
- teaching experience in the field (or experience teaching methods courses or supervising candidates in that field)
- experience mentoring or supervising beginning teachers or administering programs that prepare them
- verification that the qualifications above are recent (within the past 5 years).
Candidates can retake the entire edTPA or register for a single-task or multiple-task retake to demonstrate they can plan, teach and assess the learning for their students and to meet their institution or state requirement(s). Candidates should refer to the edTPA Retake Instructions for Candidates for more information on retaking edTPA.
Faculty members should refer to the document Guidelines for edTPA Retake Decision-making and Support, which provides guidance supporting candidates with retake decisions. More information about retake guidelines and what candidates submit can be found in the edTPA Resource Library at edTPA.org and in the Candidate Policies at edTPA.com.
Candidates are not penalized on edTPA for not having students with an IEP or 504 plan. All classrooms include a wide variety of learners and candidates are encouraged to consider the full range of learning differences to be fully inclusive of all students’ assets and needs. Candidates are directed to identify all student learning needs in the Context for Learning artifact. In addition, the handbook prompts candidates to “Consider the variety of learners in your class who may require different strategies/support (e.g., students with IEPs or 504 plans, English language learners, struggling readers, underperforming students or those with gaps in academic knowledge, and/or gifted students)” and address diverse learners’ strengths and needs.”
In Task 3: Assessment, candidates are instructed to select student work samples that represent the patterns of learning identified in the assessment analysis. In turn, these students who produced the selected work samples become the focus student(s) for the task.
The Special Education handbook requires only one focus learner and the Early Childhood handbook requires two focus learners. All other handbooks require three focus learners.
For every handbook, at least one of the focus students must have specific learning need, for example, a student with an IEP (Individualized Education Program) or 504 plan, an English language learner, a struggling reader or writer, an underperforming student or a student with gaps in academic knowledge, and/or a gifted student needing greater support or challenge.
Note: see “How do California candidates select focus students” for California focus learner requirements.
Within the edTPA, candidates who are affiliated with a California educator preparation program must include an English language learner, a student with an identified disability, and a student from an underserved education group at least one time across the four tasks.
If candidates do not have any English language learners, they should select a student who is challenged by academic English. If candidates do not have a student with an identified disability or a student who is from an underserved education group, they should select a student receiving tiered support within the classroom or a student who often struggles with the content.
Candidates may select a learning segment in which they teach literacy embedded in another subject area (e.g., social studies or science). The central focus should clearly address literacy, and the standards, objectives, and learning tasks should address an essential literacy strategy and skills for comprehending or composing text. This focus may also include teaching using informational text, exploration of science or social studies topics, or other engaging developmentally appropriate content. For example, in an extended social studies unit on the local community and its resources, the candidate could embed an edTPA learning segment on persuasive writing to address a compelling issue identified by students within the community.
In some states, a four-task Elementary edTPA has been selected which includes Literacy Tasks 1-3 and the Mathematics Task 4. Based on SCALE’s experience in California with PACT, two edTPA handbooks were available originally because CA programs had a choice to assess teacher candidates in either literacy or mathematics teaching. As more states adopted edTPA, some states preferred to assess both literacy and mathematics in a combined assessment. Rather than require candidates to do a full edTPA portfolio in both subjects, we developed a math Task 4 to accompany the Literacy handbook and a literacy task 4 to accompany the Mathematics handbook. Based on input from the field, SCALE developed the fourth task to emphasize analysis of student learning and a re-engagement lesson that would focus on the needs of students.
