The Education Teacher Performance Assessment (edTPA) became mandatory last fall for all teacher candidates in Illinois. We are happy to note that NIU candidates posted a 99.13 percent passing rate, with the vast majority of licensure programs posting a 100 percent passing rate. Overall, the state passing rate was 96 percent.
NIU started preparing for the edTPA assessment in 2011-2012 when the state first introduced the future mandate.
The edTPA is a performance-based assessment of teaching and learning created by SCALE (Stanford Center for Assessment, Learning and Equity).
Within each credential area, the standardized assessments measure five discrete but interrelated dimensions of teaching:
- Planning for Instruction and Assessment. Candidates provide evidence of their ability to select, adapt or design learning tasks and assessments that offer all students equitable access to curriculum content. Artifacts include lesson plans and assessments.
- Instruction and Engaging Students in Learning. Candidates provide evidence of their ability to engage students in meaningful learning tasks and demonstrate how they facilitate students’ developing understanding of the content. Artifacts include video of teaching and written commentary.
- Assessment of Student Learning. Candidates demonstrate how they analyze their students’ learning and use assessment information to plan future instruction. Artifacts include classroom assessments of the whole class and cases of individual student learning over time.
- Analyzing Teaching. Candidates reflect on and analyze evidence of the effects of instruction on student learning.
- Academic Language. Candidates demonstrate their ability to expand students’ language repertoire for the content domain.
