Beginning Teachers' Perceptions of the California Teaching Performance Assessment (TPA)
Research has consistently shown that an effective teacher has the single greatest impact on student learning (Darling Hammond, 2000; Rivkin, Hanushek, Dain, 2005; Sanders Rivers, 1996) Therefore it is essential that state policy makers and university decision makers develop and implement assessments that reliably identify effective teachers. Because traditional paper and pencil tests of content knowledge do not assess teaching performance, policy makers in California mandated the teaching performance assessment (TPA) system. The TPA was introduced in California in 2004 with programs piloting it and then became mandatory for candidates enrolling in preliminary programs in 2008. This study is the first to explore the experiences of candidates who were required to pass a TPA to earn a teaching license. The TPA seeks to measure the knowledge, skills, and competencies of teachers during the credential phase of their training. This assessment allows credentialing agencies to gain some insight into the potential effectiveness of teacher candidates. Teacher education programs have used course grades, fieldwork experiences, and clinical practice performance to determine candidate readiness for their own classrooms for almost a century. Recent legislation in many states, however, requires that candidates pass a standardized summative assessment of teaching performance to earn their teaching credentials (Stanford Center for Assessment Learning and Equity [SCALE] 2015) Although California has multiple years of implementation with three approved TPA models, and despite the recent advent of edTPA as a national level teaching performance assessment, many question whether the TPAs have value. This is especially important for credentialing agencies, which may use the data to emphasize, measure, and support the skills and knowledge that all teachers need from their first day in the classroom. This article describes the various models of TPAs and examines the perceived value of TPAs from the perspective of newly employed teachers in California. Multiple Models for Teaching Performance Assessment At the turn of the 21st century, both federal and state K 12 education improvement efforts proposed sweeping changes in teacher assessment. During this time, states relied on written licensure tests to document readiness for K 12 classrooms. California took the lead in developing preservice TPA with Senate Bill 2042 (California Department of Education, 2008) mandating that all teacher education programs require a summative assessment of teaching performance as part of preservice teacher preparation. In addition, this assessment was mandatory for all multiple subject (elementary) and single subject (secondary) teacher candidates entering California preliminary credential programs after July 1, 2008, and had to be aligned with the Teaching Performance Expectations (California Commission on Teacher Credentialing, 2013a) The TPA models required a candidate to complete defined tasks relating to subject specific pedagogy, designing and implementing instruction, student assessment, and a culminating teaching experience. The first assessment, known as the California Teaching Performance Assessment (CalTPA; California Commission on Teacher Credentialing, 2013b) was designed by the Educational Testing Service at the request of the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing (CCTC) Teacher educators at Fresno State University developed the second assessment, the Fresno Assessment of Student Teachers (FAST) FAST is the only locally designed performance assessment approved by CCTC (Torgerson, Macy, Beare, Tanner, 2009) The third commission approved performance assessment, the Performance Assessment for California Teachers (PACT; 2013) was developed by a consortium of teacher education programs led by teacher educators at Stanford University. According to Pecheone and Chung (2006) many teacher educators at these campuses were dissatisfied by the content and format of the state's teacher performance assessment [CalTPA] which was designed as a generic assessment that applies across all grade levels and subject areas.