In response to Senate Bill 2042, the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing (CTC) launched a substantial revision of its standards for teacher preparation. The Commission's goal in the development of new standards was to ensure all teachers have been rigorously prepared in their desired content area and have a solid foundation in the methods of teaching and classroom management. The teacher preparation standards were modified to embed a standards-based teacher performance assessment in teacher preparation programs. These programs will ensure teacher quality and inform induction support providers about the teacher candidate's strengths and weaknesses based upon a specific set of criteria and standards.

These standards include Teacher Performance Expectations (TPEs) that define the knowledge and abilities required of California teachers.  They include classroom management, reading instruction, child development, assessing students in relation to the K-12 Academic Content Standards, intervening to help students meet the K-12 Standards, computer skills, students with special needs, and English learners. All teacher candidates state-wide are required to demonstrate comprehension of the TPEs through an assessment before they receive a Preliminary credential. The Teaching Performance Assessment (TPA) is one method of that standards-based assessment of TPEs. 

In December 2006, the CTC took action to require all candidates in a Multiple and/or Single Subject teaching preparation programs pass the TPA prior to recommendation for a credential. Therefore any candidate who begins a Multiple or Single Subject teacher preparation program on or after July 1, 2008 will be required to complete the TPA.

The California TPA Model consists of 4 tasks:

                           Subject Specific Pedagogy (1st task)

                           Designing Instruction (2nd task)

                           Assessing Learning (3rd task)

                           Culminating Teaching Experience (4th task)

Each task is designed to be completed at different times within the Multiple and Single Subject credential programs.  The knowledge to complete each task is embedded within the curriculum; teacher education credential candidates are encouraged to work on their tasks as they correspond with their academic courses.

In order to complete and submit TPA tasks, a Taskstream account must be created.  Each task will be submitted electronically in this online system.  A trained TPA assessor will then score the task. Once a score has been assigned to a submission, Taskstream will automatically direct the teacher education candidate to log-in to view their score in Taskstream. 

All tasks are each scored on a scale of 1-4.  A task assigned score level 3 or score level 4 is considered passing, while tasks assigned score level 2 or score level 1 are considered non-passing.  If a student receives a score of 1 or 2, they will remediate with a TPA Remediation Specialist. For more information on non-passing scores and remediation, please click here. 

After a second non-passing submission, a teacher education candidate will be placed on a Candidate Assistance Plan (CAP) and will work with the TPA Faculty Coordinator for further submission instructions. If a candidate has submitted a task for the 3^rd time and does not receive a passing score of at least “3” they may be counseled out of the program.