Delivering Well Prepared Teachers Policy
California requires all new teachers to pass a pedagogy test based on its standards.
California requires all elementary and secondary school teachers to pass its own Teaching Performance Assessment, designed to measure "the knowledge, skills, and abilities required of a beginning teacher in California public schools."
Ensure that performance assessments provide a meaningful measure of new teachers' knowledge and skills.
Although California is commended for requiring all new teachers to pass a pedagogy test, the state should continue to collect data about the validity of the Teaching Performance Assessment. Additional research is needed to determine how the TPA compares to other teacher tests as well as whether the test's scores are predictive of student achievement.
California recognized the factual accuracy of this analysis.