About Education Specialist CalTPA

The CTC developed the state-sponsored teaching performance assessment, the Education Specialist California Teaching Performance Assessment (EdSp CalTPA). Pursuant to Education Code Section 44320.2, this assessment meets one of the requirements for earning a Preliminary Education Specialist Teaching Credential. The Commission recently updated its Preliminary Education Specialist Teaching Credential Preconditions, Program Standards, and Teaching Performance Expectations (TPEs) opens in a new window and developed the EdSp CalTPA to reflect these recent changes.


The development effort included the following main steps:

CTC Forms Preliminary Education Specialist Credential Workgroup
Fall 2016
Workgroup develops Teaching Performance Expectations (TPEs) for the Preliminary Education Specialist Credentials
October 2016–August 2017
CTC Adopts Revised Education Specialist credential structure
February 2018
CTC affirms subject matter requirements, TPEs, program standards, and authorization statements
June 2018–April 2019
Assessment and Scoring Rubric Development
February 2020–June 2022
Pilot Test
October 2020–April 2021
Field Test
October 2021–April 2022
MMSN and ESN Standard Setting Study
May 2022
CTC Adoption of MMSN and ESN Passing Standards
June 2022
MMSN and ESN Operational Administration
October 2022
graphic illustrating the EdSp CalTPA cycle of plan teach reflect apply

EdSp CalTPA Design

The EdSp CalTPA is structured around two full instructional cycles based on the pedagogical sequence of plan, teach and assess, reflect, and apply, each conducted within a classroom or non-classroom environment. The complete sequence is addressed by each instructional cycle, with candidates providing evidence of instructional practice for each step. Acceptable evidence may be in a variety of forms, including annotated video clips and written narrative. As the EdSp CalTPA is designed to address subject-specific teaching and learning, candidates are asked to respond to the instructional cycles within the context of their teaching assignments.

Together, these instructional cycles and the related rubrics assess a range of the TPEs.


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