Starting during the spring 2020 semester, all Concordia University Nebraska student teachers will complete the edTPA during their first student teaching placement. The edTPA is a performance-based, subject-specific assessment and support system to emphasize, measure, and support the skills and knowledge that all teachers need in the classroom. Developed by the Stanford Center for Assessment, Learning, and Equity (SCALE), the edTPA is currently used by 890 educator preparation programs in 41 states. For more information on the edTPA, see http://www.edtpa.com/Home.aspx.

The edTPA currently includes assessments for 27 different teaching fields. At Concordia, all elementary education students will complete the edTPA during their literacy instruction. Middle and secondary students will select one class period in their content areas for the focus of their edTPA.

3 Tasks of the edTPA

Task 1-Planning: In this task, teacher candidates provide an overview and justification for their instructional planning based on the characteristics of their students.

Task 2-Instruction: Involves teaching a 3-5 day lesson sequence, where the teacher candidates provide evidence of how they engaged their students in learning.  

Task 3-Assessment: Teacher candidates use assessment data from their lesson sequence and provide a rationale for future instructional decisions based on the assessment data.