TPA - Teacher Performance Assessment
What is the Teacher Performance Assessment?
Originally developed as the Performance Assessment for California Teachers, this performance assessment for teacher candidates who are learning to be teachers has been transformed into the Teacher Performance Assessment (TPA) and is being scaled up for national use in programs that prepare teachers.
Who is leading the adoption of the TPA in Minnesota?
The national scale up of the TPA is being led by
the American Association for Colleges of Teacher Education (AACTE), the
Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO), and Stanford University. A
partnership among the Minnesota Association of Colleges of Teacher Education
(MACTE), the Minnesota Board of Teaching, the Minnesota Department of
Education, and the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities is leading the
Minnesota adoption of the TPA. These organizations are working together with
P-12 school partners to support the TPA adoption in Minnesota. The Bush
Foundation has provided funding for the TPA pilot in Minnesota.
2010-11 TPA Pilot in Minnesota
Minnesota is one of 5 states in accelerated
adoption of the TPA for all teacher candidates. In the 2010-11 pilot, all 31
teacher preparation institutions in Minnesota learned about the TPA and
several piloted the whole instrument with their teacher candidates.
2011-12 National Field Test
All 31 teacher preparation institutions in
Minnesota are participating in The Minnesota adoption of the TPA in 2011-12.
Candidates in 12 licensure areas will complete and submit TPAs for scoring
by trained and certified scorers. Campuses are redesigning curriculum and
working with school partners to embed the performance aspects of the TPA in
their programs in order to prepare candidates for the rigor of the
assessment. Many individuals from Minnesota’s higher education institutions
are participating in national development teams to ensure that the TPA
instrument is technically sound, professionally valid, and educative for
teacher candidates.
Performance Measures for Teacher Candidates in the TPA
Planning for Instruction and Assessment
| Teacher candidates provide evidence of their ability to select,
adapt, or design learning tasks and assessments that offer all students
equitable access to curriculum content. Candidates must show how they
actively assist students in developing the academic language skills they
need for the learning activities. Artifacts include lesson plans and
assessments.
Engaging Students & Supporting Learning
| Teacher candidates provide evidence of their ability to engage
students in meaningful tasks and demonstrate how they facilitate students’
developing understanding of the content. Artifacts include video of the
candidate teaching and written commentary.
Assessment of Student Learning
| Teacher candidates provide evidence of their ability to develop
evaluation criteria that are aligned with learning goals, analyze student
performance on an assessment, and provide feedback to students. Artifacts
include classroom assessments of the whole class and cases of individual
student learning over time.
Reflection | Teacher
candidates provide a brief reflection that synthesizes their understanding
of the effect of their teaching on student learning, drawing on assessment
evidence and student engagement.
