Existing law requires the Commission on Teacher Credentialing to, among other duties, establish standards for the issuance and renewal of credentials. Existing law requires, as a minimum requirement for a preliminary multiple subject, single subject, or education specialist teaching credential, the satisfactory completion of a program of professional preparation that includes a teaching performance assessment that meets specified requirements and has been approved by the commission, as provided. Existing law requires a program of professional preparation to include a teaching performance assessment that is aligned with the California Standards for the Teaching Profession and that is congruent with state content and performance standards for pupils adopted by the State Board of Education. Existing law requires the commission, subject to the availability of funds in the annual Budget Act, to perform specified duties with respect to the performance assessment. Existing law also requires the performance assessment results to be reported so that they may serve as one basis for a recommendation by the program sponsor that the commission award a teaching credential to a candidate who has successfully met the performance assessment standards. Existing law also requires the commission, by July 1, 2025, to ensure that an approved teaching performance assessment for a preliminary multiple subject credential and for a preliminary education specialist credential assesses all candidates for competence in instruction in literacy, including, but not limited to, evidence-based methods of teaching foundational reading skills, as provided.

This bill would, subject to the availability of funds in the annual Budget Act, require the commission to report the number of programs of professional preparation with low pass rates and assist those programs to use evidence-based strategies to support candidates to pass the assessment. The bill would prohibit the charging of fees to candidates for these instructional supports. The bill would additionally require the commission to maintain a secondary passing standard for the performance assessment that may be used, with consideration of other evidence of the candidates performance related to the California Standards for the Teaching Profession, for a program sponsors recommendation of a candidate to the commission for a teaching credential.

The bill would require the commission to convene a workgroup composed of classroom teachers, teacher educators, and performance assessment experts, all selected by the commission, to assess the current design and implementation of the above-described teaching performance assessments, as provided. The bill would require the workgroup to develop recommendations concerning these assessments, as provided, to be presented to the commission by March 1, 2025, and would also require the commission to vote to adopt a set of recommendations by July 1, 2025, and implement the adopted recommendations by July 1, 2028. The bill would require the commission to report to the Legislature annually, beginning on October 15, 2025, and continuing through October 15, 2028, on the progress of the workgroup in making its recommendations and actions taken by the commission to implement the recommendations it adopts.

Existing law establishes the Teacher Credentials Fund in the State Treasury, requires all fees collected by the commission for tests, examinations, or assessments to be deposited in the fund, and requires these funds to be expended, upon appropriation by the Legislature, for the development, agency support, maintenance, or administration of tests or other assessments established, required, or administered by the commission, unless otherwise authorized by the Legislature.

This bill would, for the 202425 fiscal year only, require the commission to submit to the Department of Finance a plan for using existing funds available from the Teacher Credentials Fund to support the operations of the above-described workgroup. The bill would require, upon approval of the plan by the Department of Finance, an amount not to exceed $729,000 to be made available from the Teacher Credentials Fund to the commission for the operations of the workgroup, thereby making an appropriation.

Existing law requires the commission to appoint an executive director of the commission and exempts the executive director from the State Civil Service Act.

This bill would authorize the Governor to appoint one deputy to the executive director. The bill would exempt that deputy from state civil service, as provided.

Existing law requires the Commission on Teacher Credentialing to, among other duties, establish standards for the issuance and renewal of credentials. Existing law requires, as a minimum requirement for a preliminary multiple subject, single subject, or education specialist teaching credential, the satisfactory completion of a program of professional preparation that includes a teaching performance assessment that meets specified requirements and has been approved by the commission, as provided. Existing law requires a program of professional preparation to include a teaching performance assessment that is aligned with the California Standards for the Teaching Profession and that is congruent with state content and performance standards for pupils adopted by the State Board of Education. Existing law requires the commission, subject to the availability of funds in the annual Budget Act, to perform specified duties with respect to the performance assessment. Existing law also requires the performance assessment results to be reported so that they may serve as one basis for a recommendation by the program sponsor that the commission award a teaching credential to a candidate who has successfully met the performance assessment standards. Existing law also requires the commission, by July 1, 2025, to ensure that an approved teaching performance assessment for a preliminary multiple subject credential and for a preliminary education specialist credential assesses all candidates for competence in instruction in literacy, including, but not limited to, evidence-based methods of teaching foundational reading skills, as provided.

This bill would, subject to the availability of funds in the annual Budget Act, require the commission to report the number of programs of professional preparation with low pass rates and assist those programs to use evidence-based strategies to support candidates to pass the assessment. The bill would prohibit the charging of fees to candidates for these instructional supports. The bill would additionally require the commission to maintain a secondary passing standard for the performance assessment that may be used, with consideration of other evidence of the candidates performance related to the California Standards for the Teaching Profession, for a program sponsors recommendation of a candidate to the commission for a teaching credential.

The bill would require the commission to convene a workgroup composed of classroom teachers, teacher educators, and performance assessment experts, all selected by the commission, to assess the current design and implementation of the above-described teaching performance assessments, as provided. The bill would require the workgroup to develop recommendations concerning these assessments, as provided, to be presented to the commission by March 1, 2025, and would also require the commission to vote to adopt a set of recommendations by July 1, 2025, and implement the adopted recommendations by July 1, 2028. The bill would require the commission to report to the Legislature annually, beginning on October 15, 2025, and continuing through October 15, 2028, on the progress of the workgroup in making its recommendations and actions taken by the commission to implement the recommendations it adopts.

Existing law establishes the Teacher Credentials Fund in the State Treasury, requires all fees collected by the commission for tests, examinations, or assessments to be deposited in the fund, and requires these funds to be expended, upon appropriation by the Legislature, for the development, agency support, maintenance, or administration of tests or other assessments established, required, or administered by the commission, unless otherwise authorized by the Legislature.

This bill would, for the 202425 fiscal year only, require the commission to submit to the Department of Finance a plan for using existing funds available from the Teacher Credentials Fund to support the operations of the above-described workgroup. The bill would require, upon approval of the plan by the Department of Finance, an amount not to exceed $729,000 to be made available from the Teacher Credentials Fund to the commission for the operations of the workgroup, thereby making an appropriation.

Existing law requires the commission to appoint an executive director of the commission and exempts the executive director from the State Civil Service Act.

This bill would authorize the Governor to appoint one deputy to the executive director. The bill would exempt that deputy from state civil service, as provided.

Existing law requires the Commission on Teacher Credentialing to, among other duties, establish standards for the issuance and renewal of credentials. Existing law requires, as a minimum requirement for a preliminary multiple subject, single subject, or education specialist teaching credential, the satisfactory completion of a program of professional preparation that includes a teaching performance assessment that meets specified requirements and has been approved by the commission, as provided. Existing law requires a program for professional preparation to include a teaching performance assessment that is aligned with the California Standards for the Teaching Profession and that is congruent with state content and performance standards for pupils adopted by the State Board of Education. Existing law requires the commission, subject to the availability of funds in the annual Budget Act, to perform specified duties with respect to the performance assessment. Existing law also requires the performance assessment results to be reported so that they may serve as one basis for a recommendation by the program sponsor that the commission award a teaching credential to a candidate who has successfully met the performance assessment standards. Existing law also requires the commission, by July 1, 2025, to ensure that an approved teaching performance assessment for a preliminary multiple subject credential and for a preliminary education specialist credential assesses all candidates for competence in instruction in literacy, including, but not limited to, evidence-based methods of teaching foundational reading skills, as provided.

This bill would, subject to the availability of funds in the annual Budget Act, require the commission to report the number of programs of professional preparation with low pass rates and assist those programs to use evidence-based strategies to support candidates to pass the assessment. The bill would prohibit the charging of fees to candidates for these instructional supports. The bill would additionally require the commission to maintain a secondary passing standard for the performance assessment that may be used, with consideration of other evidence of the candidates performance related to the California Standards for the Teaching Profession, for a program sponsors recommendation of a candidate to the commission for a teaching credential.

The bill would require the commission to convene a workgroup composed of classroom teachers, teacher educators, and performance assessment experts, all selected by the commission, to assess the current design and implementation of the above-described teaching performance assessments, as provided. The bill would require the workgroup to develop recommendations concerning these assessments, as provided, to be presented to the commission by March 1, 2025, and would also require the commission to vote to adopt a set of recommendations by July 1, 2025, and implement the adopted recommendations by July 1, 2028. The bill would require the commission to report to the Legislature annually, beginning on October 15, 2025, and continuing through October 15, 2028, on the progress of the workgroup in making its recommendations and actions taken by the commission to implement the recommendations it adopts.

Existing law requires the Commission on Teacher Credentialing to, among other duties, establish standards for the issuance and renewal of credentials. Existing law requires, as a minimum requirement for a preliminary multiple subject, single subject, or education specialist teaching credential, the satisfactory completion of a program of professional preparation that includes a teaching performance assessment that meets specified requirements and has been approved by the commission, as provided. Existing law requires a program for professional preparation to include a teaching performance assessment that is aligned with the California Standards for the Teaching Profession and that is congruent with state content and performance standards for pupils adopted by the State Board of Education. Existing law requires the commission, subject to the availability of funds in the annual Budget Act, to perform specified duties with respect to the performance assessment. Existing law also requires the performance assessment results to be reported so that they may serve as one basis for a recommendation by the program sponsor that the commission award a teaching credential to a candidate who has successfully met the performance assessment standards. Existing law also requires the commission, by July 1, 2025, to ensure that an approved teaching performance assessment for a preliminary multiple subject credential and for a preliminary education specialist credential assesses all candidates for competence in instruction in literacy, including, but not limited to, evidence-based methods of teaching foundational reading skills, as provided.

Existing law requires the Commission on Teacher Credentialing to, among other duties, establish standards for the issuance and renewal of credentials. Existing law requires, as a minimum requirement for a preliminary multiple subject, single subject, or education specialist teaching credential, the satisfactory completion of a program of professional preparation that includes a teaching performance assessment that meets specified requirements and has been approved by the commission, as provided. Existing law requires a program for professional preparation to include a teaching performance assessment that is aligned with the California Standards for the Teaching Profession and that is congruent with state content and performance standards for pupils adopted by the State Board of Education. Existing law requires the commission, by July 1, 2025, to ensure that an approved teaching performance assessment for a preliminary multiple subject credential and for a preliminary education specialist credential assesses all candidates for competence in instruction in literacy, including, but not limited to, evidence-based methods of teaching foundational reading skills, as provided.

This bill would repeal those requirements relating to a the teaching performance assessment, assessment and the reading instruction competence assessment, delete obsolete provisions, and make conforming changes.

Existing law requires the Commission on Teacher Credentialing to, among other duties, establish standards for the issuance and renewal of credentials. Existing law requires, as a minimum requirement for a preliminary multiple subject, single subject, or education specialist teaching credential, the satisfactory completion of a program of professional preparation that includes a teaching performance assessment that meets specified requirements and has been approved by the commission, as provided. Existing law requires a program for professional preparation to include a teaching performance assessment that is aligned with the California Standards for the Teaching Profession and that is congruent with state content and performance standards for pupils adopted by the State Board of Education. Existing law requires the commission, by July 1, 2025, to ensure that an approved teaching performance assessment for a preliminary multiple subject credential and for a preliminary education specialist credential assesses all candidates for competence in instruction in literacy, including, but not limited to, evidence-based methods of teaching foundational reading skills, as provided.

This bill would repeal those requirements relating to a teaching performance assessment, delete obsolete provisions, and make conforming changes.

 UNFINISHED BUSINESS  

Bill No: SB 1263

Author: Newman (D)

Amended: 8/19/24

Vote: 21

SENATE EDUCATION COMMITTEE: 7-0, 4/17/24

AYES: Newman, Ochoa Bogh, Cortese, Glazer, Gonzalez, Smallwood-Cuevas, Wilk

SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE: 4-1, 5/16/24

AYES: Caballero, Ashby, Becker, Bradford

NOES: Wahab

NO VOTE RECORDED: Jones, Seyarto

SENATE FLOOR: 30-8, 5/21/24

AYES: Alvarado-Gil, Archuleta, Ashby, Atkins, Becker, Blakespear, Bradford, Caballero, Cortese, Dodd, Durazo, Eggman, Glazer, Gonzalez, Hurtado, Laird, Limón, McGuire, Menjivar, Min, Newman, Padilla, Roth, Rubio, Skinner, Smallwood-Cuevas, Stern, Umberg, Wahab, Wiener

NOES: Dahle, Grove, Jones, Nguyen, Niello, Ochoa Bogh, Seyarto, Wilk

NO VOTE RECORDED: Allen, Portantino

ASSEMBLY FLOOR: 76-0, 8/28/24 - See last page for vote

SUBJECT: Teacher credentialing: teaching performance assessment: workgroup

SOURCE: California Teachers Association

DIGEST:

This bill requires the Commission on Teacher Credentialing (CTC) to convene a workgroup to assess current design and implementation of the teacher performance assessment (TPA) and report recommendations to the Legislature.

Assembly Amendments

strike the elimination of the TPA and, instead, require the CTC to convene a workgroup to evaluate the current design and implementation of the TPA and submit recommendations to the Legislature.

ANALYSIS:

Existing law:

1. Requires the Commission on Teacher Credentialing (CTC) to establish standards for the issuance and renewal of multiple subject, single subject, or education specialist teaching credential.
2. Requires the CTC to adopt standards for the accreditation of postsecondary teacher preparation programs. Prescribes “clinical practice” as one of the CTC-adopted standards and requires that teaching credential candidates perform 600 hours of clinical practice throughout the candidate’s teacher preparation program.
3. Authorizes the CTC to issue a multiple or single subject teaching credential with a specified concentration in a particular subject based upon the depth of an applicant’s preparation in an important subject of the school curriculum in order to ensure excellence in teaching in specific subjects.
4. Authorizes the CTC to issue credentials for teaching specialties, including bilingual education, early childhood education, and special education (education specialist). Requires education specialist teaching credentials to be based upon a baccalaureate degree from an accredited institution, completion of a program of professional preparation, and standards that the CTC may establish.
5. Requires, commencing July 1, 2008, a program of professional preparation to include a TPA that is aligned with the California Standards for the Teaching Profession and that is congruent with state content and performance standards for pupils adopted by the State Board of Education (SBE).
6. Requires the CTC to implement the TPA in a manner that does not increase the number of assessments required for teacher credential candidates prepared in this state. A candidate shall be assessed during the normal term or duration of the preparation program of the candidate.
7. Requires the CTC to ensure that each TPA is state-approved and aligned with the California Standards for the Teaching Profession and is consistently applied to candidates in similar preparation programs. To the maximum feasible extent, each TPA must be ongoing and blended into the preparation program, and must produce specified benefits for credential candidates, sponsors of preparation programs, and local educational agencies that employ program graduates.
8. Requires the CTC to perform the following duties with respect to the Reading Instruction Competence Assessment (RICA):
9. Develop, adopt, and administer the assessment;
10. Initially and periodically analyze the validity and reliability of the content of the assessment;
11. Establish and implement appropriate passing scores on the assessment;
12. Analyze possible sources of bias on the assessment;
13. Collect and analyze background information provided by first-time credential applicants who are not credentialed in any state who participate in the assessment;
14. Report and interpret individual and aggregated assessment results;
15. Convene a task force to advise the CTC on the design, content, and administration of the assessment, with not less than one-third of the members of the task force classroom teachers with recent experience in teaching reading in the early elementary grades; and
16. Prior to requiring successful passage of the assessment for the preliminary multiple subject teaching credential, certify that teacher education programs offer instruction in the knowledge, skills, and abilities required by the assessment. 
17. Requires the CTC to adopt examinations and assessments to verify the subject matter knowledge and competence of candidates for single subject teaching credentials.
18. Requires the CTC to ensure, by July 1, 2025, that an approved TPA for a preliminary multiple subject credential and a preliminary education specialist credential assesses all candidates for competence in instruction in literacy, revises the definition of literacy instruction for purposes of teacher preparation.

This bill:

1. Requires the CTC to convene a workgroup to assess the current design and implementation of the TPA.
2. Requires the workgroup to develop recommendations to be presented to the CTC by February 2025 and the CTC to vote to adopt a set of recommendations by June 2025.
3. Requires the CTC to report to the Legislature annually, beginning on October 15, 2025, and through October 2028, on the progress of the workgroup in making its recommendations and actions taken by the CTC to implement the recommendations it adopts.
4. Requires the CTC to maintain a secondary passing standard for the TPA.

Comments

1. Need for the bill. According to the author, “The TPA, in its current form, has become an unduly onerous portfolio assessment which has the net consequence of detracting from teacher candidates’ ability to focus on applying the concepts and skills of teacher preparation coursework in real classrooms, supervised by mentor teachers during supervised clinical practice. While well intentioned, the demands currently placed upon teaching candidates in preparing for the TPA have the perverse impact of actually reducing the overall quality of teacher preparation by undermining the capacity of teacher candidates to focus on their clinical practice.

“As a practical matter, the TPA and clinical practice assessments are effectively duplicative. Further, because of the barriers they represent to teaching candidates, recent data shows that the TPA is disproportionately discouraging teacher candidates of color, contributing to a reduction of diversity in the teaching profession. Studies show that aspiring teachers of color perceive the current TPA system as racially biased, and that their demands pose a major barrier to completing the credential and entering the profession. Moreover, there is no clear evidence that the requirement for TPAs contributes to either increased teacher effectiveness or teacher retention.

There is broad-based agreement that California needs to address its persistent teacher shortage. For the 2023-2024 school year, counties reported 24,795 estimated teacher hires needed to fill new or vacated positions. Concurrently, the existing educator pipeline is insufficient to meet demand, as evidenced by the fact that the most recent CTC Teacher Supply Report to the Legislature shows a 16.1% overall decline, to 16,491 credentials issued during the 2021-2022 school year.”

1. Teaching Performance Assessments. According to the Legislative Analyst’s Office (LAO), during the 1990s, the Legislature became concerned with the coherence of the teacher credentialing system, as the state had added credential requirements incrementally over the years without comprehensive evaluation. At the request of the Legislature, the CTC convened a workgroup to review the state’s teacher credential requirements. The workgroup concluded that existing assessments varied considerably across preparation programs and often failed to provide a good measure of teachers’ preparation. At the same time, research and policy organizations such as the National Research Council and the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards were supporting the development of more authentic assessments of teacher candidates. In response, the Legislature required the CTC to develop a new assessment for all general education teachers, now known as the TPA.

As of 2008, California requires all teaching credential candidates to pass an assessment of their teaching performance. This is designed to measure the candidate's knowledge, skills, and ability with relation to California's Teaching Performance Expectations (TPEs), including demonstrating their ability to appropriately instruct all students in the state’s content standards. There are now three teaching performance assessment models available.

A report by the Center for American Progress, “Evaluating Teacher Effectiveness: How Teacher Performance Assessments Can Measure and Improve Teaching,” (Darling-Hammond, 2010), notes that, compared to traditional assessments of teachers, “Performance assessments that measure what teachers actually do in the classroom, and which have been found to be related to later teacher effectiveness, are a much more potent tool for evaluating teachers’ competence and readiness, as well as for supporting needed changes in teacher education…Such assessments have been found to be stronger predictors of teachers’ contributions to student learning gains than traditional teacher tests.”

1. Three Teacher Performance Assessment Models Currently. The CTC adopted TPAs are designed to measure a candidate's knowledge, skills and ability in relation to California's TPEs, including demonstrating their ability to appropriately instruct all students in the state’s content standards. There are now three teaching performance assessment models available: the CalTPA developed by the CTC, the edTPA developed by the Stanford Center for Assessment, Learning, and Equity (SCALE), and the Fresno Assessment of Student Teaching (FAST) developed by CSU, Fresno.

Each of the three approved TPA models requires a candidate to complete performance tasks relating to subject-specific pedagogy, designing and implementing instruction and student assessment, video-recorded teaching, and reflecting on practice. Performance tasks must be completed within a site placement where the candidate is working with supervising teachers, master teachers, and students. Multiple-subject candidates must demonstrate their capacity to teach literacy and mathematics. Candidate performances are scored by trained assessors against multiple rubrics that describe levels of performance relative to each performance task. Each model must also meet and maintain specified standards of assessment reliability, validity, and fairness to candidates. Model sponsors of approved assessments annually report on candidate performance and this data is used to inform program accreditation.

1. Statewide data on the diversity of teacher preparation programs. According to the Learning Policy Institute’s (LPI) March 2023 report Educating Teachers in California, which analyzed teacher credentialing program completer surveys, the number of Latino/a candidates has more than doubled between 2016–17 and 2020–21. As of 2020– 21, 53% of survey respondents were teachers of color, compared to 39% in 2016–17. Nationally, just 27% of recent completers identified as people of color.

The LPI report further noted, “not all completers reported equal access to the preparation experiences associated with higher ratings of program effectiveness and more positive perceptions of preparedness. Notably, access to preservice clinical experiences (i.e., student teaching or residency programs) varied considerably by race/ethnicity and credential type. Only 46% of Black and 50% of Native American completers reported participating in student teaching or residencies, compared to at least two thirds of all other racial/ethnic groups. Fewer than one third of education specialists (i.e., special education teachers) participated in student teaching or residencies, as compared to about 7 in 10 multiple subject completers (i.e., elementary teachers) and single subject completers (i.e., secondary teachers). Education specialists were also more likely to report limited student teaching hours or low levels of clinical support from their TPPs.”

FISCAL EFFECT: Appropriation: Yes Fiscal Com.: Yes Local: No

According to the Assembly Appropriations Committee:

1) One-time special fund costs to the CTC of $145,000 to convene the workgroup. Ongoing special fund costs the CTC of $598,000 in fiscal year 2024-25 and $592,000 ongoing for three staff to implement of the workgroup's recommendations and meet other requirements of the bill.

2) According to CTC, these costs could be covered from funds in the Teacher Credentials Fund but use of these funds requires explicit approval from the Legislature. The Teacher Credential Fund currently has, and is projected to maintain, a healthy reserve that can support this increase in the CTC's appropriation.

SUPPORT: (Verified 8/28/24)

California Teachers Association (source)
Alameda County Office of Education
California Charter Schools Association
California Faculty Association
California Federation of Teachers
Los Angeles County Office of Education
National University
Students for Quality Education at Sacramento State

OPPOSITION: (Verified 8/28/24)

California Family Engagement Network
California Reading Coalition
California State PTA
Decoding Dyslexia CA
Families in Schools
National Council on Teacher Quality
The Education Trust - West
The Reading League California

ASSEMBLY FLOOR: 76-0, 8/28/24

AYES: Addis, Aguiar-Curry, Alanis, Alvarez, Arambula, Bains, Bauer-Kahan, Bennett, Berman, Boerner, Bonta, Bryan, Calderon, Juan Carrillo, Wendy Carrillo, Chen, Connolly, Megan Dahle, Davies, Essayli, Flora, Mike Fong, Friedman, Gabriel, Gallagher, Garcia, Gipson, Grayson, Haney, Hart, Holden, Hoover, Irwin, Jackson, Jones-Sawyer, Kalra, Lackey, Lee, Low, Lowenthal, Maienschein, Mathis, McCarty, McKinnor, Muratsuchi, Stephanie Nguyen, Pacheco, Papan, Jim Patterson, Joe Patterson, Pellerin, Petrie-Norris, Quirk-Silva, Ramos, Rendon, Reyes, Luz Rivas, Rodriguez, Blanca Rubio, Sanchez, Santiago, Schiavo, Soria, Ta, Ting, Valencia, Villapudua, Waldron, Wallis, Ward, Weber, Wicks, Wilson, Wood, Zbur, Robert Rivas

NO VOTE RECORDED: Cervantes, Dixon, Ortega

Prepared by: Ian Johnson / ED. / (916) 651-4105

8/28/24 22:50:01

**** END ****

SENATE THIRD READING

STR Bill Id:SB 1263

Author:(Newman)

As Amended Ver:August 19, 2024

Majority vote

SUMMARY

Requires the Commission on Teacher Credentialing (CTC) to convene a workgroup to assess current design and implementation of the teacher performance assessment (TPA) and report recommendations to the Legislature by February 2025.

Major Provisions

1. Requires the workgroup to develop recommendations to be presented to the CTC by February 2025 and the CTC to vote to adopt a set of recommendations by June 2025.
2. Requires the CTC to report to the Legislature annually, beginning on October 15, 2025, and through October 2028, on the progress of the workgroup in making its recommendations and actions taken by the CTC to implement the recommendations it adopts.
3. Requires the CTC to maintain a secondary passing standard for the TPA.

COMMENTS

Teaching Performance Assessments (TPAs). According to the Legislative Analyst's Office (LAO), during the 1990s, the Legislature became concerned with the coherence of the teacher credentialing system, as the state had added credential requirements incrementally over the years without comprehensive evaluation. At the request of the Legislature, the CTC convened a workgroup to review the state's teacher credential requirements. The workgroup concluded that existing assessments varied considerably across preparation programs and often failed to provide a good measure of teachers' preparation. At the same time, research and policy organizations such as the National Research Council and the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards were supporting the development of more authentic assessments of teacher candidates. In response, the Legislature required the CTC to develop a new assessment for all general education teachers, now known as the TPA.

California requires all teacher candidates for preliminary multiple, single subject, and education specialist teaching credentials to pass a TPA as part of the requirements for earning a preliminary teaching credential.

The CTC-adopted TPAs are designed to measure a candidate's knowledge, skills, and ability in relation to California's Teaching Performance Expectations (TPEs), including demonstrating their ability to appropriately instruct all students in the state's content standards. There are now three teaching performance assessment models available: the CalTPA developed by the CTC, the edTPA developed by the Stanford Center for Assessment, Learning, and Equity (SCALE), and the Fresno Assessment of Student Teaching (FAST) developed by California State University, Fresno.

Each of the three approved TPA models requires a candidate to complete performance tasks relating to subject-specific pedagogy, designing and implementing instruction and student assessment, video-recorded teaching, and reflecting on practice. Performance tasks must be completed within a site placement where the candidate is working with supervising teachers, master teachers, and students. Multiple-subject candidates must demonstrate their capacity to teach literacy and mathematics. Candidate performances are scored by trained assessors against multiple rubrics that describe levels of performance relative to each performance task. Each model must also meet and maintain specified standards of assessment reliability, validity, and fairness to candidates. Model sponsors of approved assessments annually report on candidate performance, and this data is used to inform program accreditation.

What does research say on the TPA? A 2024 Learning Policy Institute report, "How Preparation Predicts Teaching Performance Assessment Results in California," documented the following findings:

1. Passing rates varied considerably across programs. Preparation programs differ in how they structure clinical practice and support candidates through a TPA. Across the 263 preparation programs included in this analysis, nearly two-thirds (63% of those programs) had more than 90% of their tested candidates pass a TPA and 23% had all of their candidates pass a TPA. In contrast, 35 programs (13%) had passing rates under 80%, including 14 programs with pass rates below 67%. Data available for a subset of completers suggests that racial disparities in pass rates appear to vary with overall program performance. While there were disparities in pass rates by candidate race and ethnicity among the low-performing programs, among programs with passing rates above 90%, there were no statistically significant differences in passing rates by race and ethnicity.
2. Passing rates also varied by credential field. Single-subject (i.e., secondary) and educational specialist (i.e., special education) programs had higher passing rates, on average, than multiple subject (i.e., elementary) programs. Notably, elementary candidates must document their teaching skills across two subjects (literacy and math), and each assessment has added elements for these candidates. This added complexity, along with pandemic-era challenges with clinical practice in elementary programs, could partially explain these differences.
3. Preservice candidates were more likely than intern candidates to be successful on a TPA. As of 2021–22, three-quarters of California's preparation program completers were from "traditional" preservice programs in which preparation and clinical practice (i.e., student teaching or residency) occur before teaching candidates become a teacher of record. Over the past 2 years, 77% of the preservice candidates who took the CalTPA or edTPA passed on their first try, and 92% of these candidates passed across all of their TPA attempts. Among candidates in internship programs who served as teachers of record while completing preparation, 67% passed a TPA on their first try and 88% passed across all attempts. Candidates known to be in residency programs had higher TPA pass rates than those in other pathways.
4. Two-thirds of preparation completers reported being well supported by their program to take a TPA, and program-level ratings of support were related to the likelihood of passing. Of 14,709 elementary and secondary program completers who responded to program completer surveys administered by the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing, 66% reported that their programs prepared them well or very well for a TPA, 23% felt adequately prepared, and 11% reported being not at all or poorly prepared. These survey responses were averaged to create program-level ratings on TPA support. The odds of passing a TPA across all attempts were 1.7 times higher for candidates from programs with the highest rating on TPA support compared to candidates from the lowest-rated programs.
5. Elementary and special education candidates from programs where completers reported more opportunities to learn about teaching literacy and math were more likely to be successful on a TPA. The program completer survey asks completers from elementary and special education preparation programs about their opportunities to learn how to teach specific aspects of literacy and math (e.g., learn ways to teach decoding skills and adapt math lessons for students with diverse needs). Program-level ratings on preparation in literacy and math—created from these survey responses—were associated with higher passing rates and higher TPA scores. For example, the odds of passing across all attempts were nearly two times higher for candidates from the highest-rated programs on preparation in literacy compared to candidates from the lowest-rated programs. 
6. Preservice candidates from programs in which completers report sufficient clinical support were more likely to be successful on a TPA. The program completer survey asked completers to report on the quantity of clinical support offered by program faculty (i.e., communication, observations, and feedback about their teaching). For preservice candidates, program-level ratings capturing the percent of completers who received clinical feedback more than five times were predictive of TPA pass rates across all credential areas. Based on these program-level ratings, the odds of passing a TPA across all attempts were more than two times higher for candidates from the programs in which almost all completers reported sufficient clinical feedback, compared to candidates from the programs in which a lower percentage of completers reported such support. Program-level ratings on clinical support were not predictive of internship candidates' success on the TPA.

According to the Author

"SB 1263 would require the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing to convene a working group composed of classroom teachers, teacher educators, and performance assessment experts to review the current Teacher Performance Assessment (TPA), its implementation, and its impacts. The bill would require the workgroup to develop recommendations concerning these assessments by March 1, 2025; for the commission to vote to adopt a set of recommendations by July 1, 2025; and for the recommendations to be adopted and implemented not later than July 1, 2028. There is substantial evidence that the TPA, in its current form, has become an unduly onerous portfolio assessment which has the unintended net impact of detracting from teacher candidates' ability to focus on applying the concepts and skills of teacher preparation coursework in real classrooms while supervised by mentor teachers during supervised clinical practice. Despite its intended purpose, the TPA often does not in fact accurately ascertain whether a candidate is prepared to enter the teaching profession. Through its amended provisions, SB 1263 will provide a better basis for teachers and teacher educators to make meaningful recommendations on how best to improve the TPA."

Arguments in Support

The California Teachers Association states, "The TPA is an onerous portfolio assessment that detracts from teacher candidates' ability to focus on applying the concepts and skills of teacher preparation coursework in real classrooms supervised by mentor teachers during supervised clinical practice.

Furthermore, the TPA measures Teacher Performance Expectations (TPEs) that are already measured through coursework and clinical practice during a candidate's program. While no data exists to support the efficacy of the TPA as it relates to effective preparation, multiple sources identify the negative impact this has on teacher preparation and the disproportionate impact on teachers of color.

The experience of educators throughout the state has shown that instead, TPAs have become a high-stakes, time-consuming, and costly barrier for aspiring teachers. TPAs have also proven ineffective at preparing educators for the realities of the classroom. With more than 10,000 vacancies listed for teaching positions in California, we must focus on investing in programs that are proven to prepare and retain educators – not keep in place ineffective barriers to those looking to enter the profession."

Arguments in Opposition

The Education Trust-West states, "ETW opposes SB 1263 because research has proven that TPAs are a valuable tool for measuring and developing teacher effectiveness and for evaluating and improving educator preparation programs. While significant work must be done to ensure assessments are high quality and not overly burdensome, scoring of rubrics is free of bias, and candidates receive the support needed to demonstrate mastery, we believe that eliminating performance assessments would not be in the best interest of California's students of color and low-income students. These students are most likely to be taught by novice teachers and deserve for those teachers to be adequately prepared for the classroom.

Research on TPAs suggests that candidates' performance is predictive of their students' learning gains as measured by standardized test scores, and that TPAs are less likely to produce disparities in pass rates by teacher candidates' race/ethnicity than traditional multiple choice exams (Darling-Hammond, 2010; Wilson, M., Hallam, P. J., Pecheone, R., & Moss, P.A., 2014; Goldhaber, D., Cowan, J., & Theobald, R., 2017). TPA portfolios collect evidence of teachers' actual instruction through videotapes, curriculum plans, and samples of student work and learning, along with teacher commentaries explaining the basis for teachers' decisions about instructional strategies. They are designed to assess teachers' ability to plan instruction, teach diverse learners, assess student learning, and reflect on and improve their practice."

FISCAL COMMENTS

According to the Assembly Appropriations Committee:

1. One-time special fund costs to the CTC of $145,000 to convene the workgroup. Ongoing special fund costs the CTC of $598,000 in fiscal year 2024-25 and $592,000 ongoing for three staff to implement of the workgroup's recommendations and meet other requirements of the bill.
2. According to CTC, these costs could be covered from funds in the Teacher Credentials Fund but use of these funds requires explicit approval from the Legislature. The Teacher Credential Fund currently has, and is projected to maintain, a healthy reserve that can support this increase in the CTC's appropriation.

VOTES

SENATE FLOOR: 30-8-2

YES: Alvarado-Gil, Archuleta, Ashby, Atkins, Becker, Blakespear, Bradford, Caballero, Cortese, Dodd, Durazo, Eggman, Glazer, Gonzalez, Hurtado, Laird, Limón, McGuire, Menjivar, Min, Newman, Padilla, Roth, Rubio, Skinner, Smallwood-Cuevas, Stern, Umberg, Wahab, Wiener

NO: Dahle, Grove, Jones, Nguyen, Niello, Ochoa Bogh, Seyarto, Wilk

ABS, ABST OR NV: Allen, Portantino

ASM EDUCATION: 7-0-0

YES: Muratsuchi, Addis, Alvarez, Bonta, Flora, Hoover, McCarty

ASM APPROPRIATIONS: 11-0-4

YES: Wicks, Arambula, Bryan, Calderon, Wendy Carrillo, Mike Fong, Grayson, Haney, Hart, Pellerin, Villapudua

ABS, ABST OR NV: Sanchez, Dixon, Jim Patterson, Ta

UPDATED

VERSION: August 19, 2024

CONSULTANT: Chelsea Kelley / ED. / (916) 319-2087 FN: 0003985

Date of Hearing: August 7, 2024

ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS

Buffy Wicks, Chair

SBPCA Bill Id:SB 1263

Author:(Newman) – As Amended Ver:June 17, 2024

Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program: No Reimbursable: No

SUMMARY:

This bill requires the Commission on Teacher Credentialing (CTC) to convene a workgroup to assess the design and implementation of the teacher performance assessment (TPA) and report the workgroup’s recommendations to the Legislature by February 2025.

Specifically, this bill:

1. Requires the CTC to convene a workgroup comprised of classroom teachers, teacher educators, and performance assessment experts and requires the workgroup to develop recommendations to be presented to the CTC by March 1, 2025. The recommendations are to include:
2. An analysis of any modifications needed to current assessments to ensure they are valid and authentic to the work of teaching, reasonable to implement in the wide range of classroom settings across the state, and appropriate for beginning teachers.
3. Recommendations for how programs could embed the assessments into coursework and clinical work to avoid duplicative work for teacher candidates.
4. Suggested questions for program completer surveys to understand candidate experiences of programmatic support for assessment completion.
5. Recommendations to strengthen the accreditation system to ensure programs embed the assessment in coursework and clinical work, offer sufficient clinical and pedagogical support, and support candidates to pass the assessment.
6. Recommendations for how programs can engage in local scoring of the assessment to inform program improvement.
7. Requires CTC to vote to adopt the workgroup’s recommendations by July 1, 2025, and requires the recommendations to be implemented by July 1, 2028.
8. Requires the CTC to report to the Legislature annually, beginning on October 15, 2025, and through October 2028, on the progress of the workgroup in making recommendations and actions taken by the CTC to implement the recommendations.
9. Requires the CTC to report the number of TPA programs with low pass rates and assist these programs in using evidence-based strategies to support candidates, at no cost to the candidate.
10. Requires the CTC to maintain a secondary passing standard for the TPA that may be used to recommend a teacher candidate for a teaching credential.

FISCAL EFFECT:

One-time special fund costs to the CTC of $145,000 to convene the workgroup. Ongoing special fund costs the CTC of $598,000 in fiscal year 2024-25 and $592,000 ongoing for three staff to implement of the workgroup's recommendations and meet other requirements of the bill.

According to CTC, these costs could be covered from funds in the Teacher Credentials Fund but use of these funds requires explicit approval from the Legislature. The Teacher Credential Fund currently has, and is projected to maintain, a healthy reserve that can support this increase in the CTC’s appropriation.

COMMENTS:

1. Purpose. According to the author:

There is substantial evidence that the TPA, in its current form, has become an unduly onerous portfolio assessment which has the unintended net impact of detracting from teacher candidates’ ability to focus on applying the concepts and skills of teacher preparation coursework in real classrooms while supervised by mentor teachers during supervised clinical practice. Despite its intended purpose, the TPA often does not in fact accurately ascertain whether a candidate is prepared to enter the teaching profession. Through its amended provisions, SB 1263 will provide a better basis for teachers and teacher educators to make meaningful recommendations on how best to improve the TPA.

1. Background. Law specifies requirements for becoming a credentialed teacher in California, and the CTC oversees the process. Generally, prospective teachers first must acquire a “preliminary” credential by meeting various requirements. After holding a preliminary credential for five years and meeting several additional requirements, these prospective teachers become fully credentialed teachers, possessing what is known as a “clear” credential.” Typically, to achieve a preliminary credential, a teacher candidate must, amongst other requirements such as holding a bachelor’s degree, satisfactorily complete a teacher preparation program, which requires a teacher to successfully complete a TPA.

A TPA includes defined performance tasks relating to areas such as pedagogy, video-recording teaching, and reflecting on practice. A TPA’s performance tasks must be completed within a site placement where the teacher candidate works with teachers and students. In addition, candidate performance data on the TPAs is to be used to inform teacher program accreditation.

This bill requires the CTC to convene a workgroup and make recommendations related to TPAs. An earlier version of this bill eliminated TPAs entirely.

1. Prior Legislation. SB 488 (Rubio), Chapter 678, Statutes of 2021, requires the CTC to ensure, by July 1, 2025, that an approved TPA for a preliminary multiple subject credential and a preliminary education specialist credential assesses all candidates for competence in instruction in literacy, among other requirements.

Analysis Prepared by: Natasha Collins / APPR. / (916) 319-2081

Date of Hearing: June 26, 2024

ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION

Al Muratsuchi, Chair

SBPCA Bill Id:SB 1263

Author:(Newman) – As Amended Ver:June 17, 2024

[This bill was double referred to the Assembly Higher Education Committee and will be heard by that Committee as it relates to issues under its jurisdiction.]

SENATE VOTE: 30-8

SUBJECT: Teacher credentialing: teaching performance assessment: workgroup.

SUMMARY: Requires the Commission on Teacher Credentialing (CTC) to convene a workgroup to assess current design and implementation of the teacher performance assessment (TPA) and report recommendations to the Legislature by February 2025. Specifically, this bill:

1. Requires the CTC to convene a workgroup to assess the current design and implementation of the TPA.
2. Requires the CTC to select a workgroup with at least one-third of the members as classroom teachers in California public schools; and prohibits the appointment of any person to the workgroup with a financial interest in a teacher licensure assessment.
3. Requires the workgroup to develop recommendations to be presented to the CTC by February 2025 and the CTC to vote to adopt a set of recommendations by June 2025. Requires adopted recommendations to be implemented by July 1, 2028. Requires, at a minimum, the recommendations from the workgroup to include:
   1. An analysis of any modifications needed to current assessments to ensure they are valid and authentic to the work of teaching, reasonable to implement in the wide range of classroom settings across the state, and appropriate for beginning teachers;
   2. Recommendations for how programs might embed the assessments into coursework and clinical work to avoid duplicative work for candidates;

• 1. Suggested questions for program completer surveys to understand candidate experience of programmatic support for assessment completion;
  2. Recommendations to strengthen the accreditation system to ensure programs embed the assessment in coursework and clinical work, offer sufficient clinical and pedagogical support, and support candidates to pass the assessment; and
  3. Recommendations for how programs can engage in local scoring of the assessment to inform program improvement.

1. Requires the CTC to report to the Legislature annually, beginning on October 15, 2025, and through October 2028, on the progress of the workgroup in making its recommendations and actions taken by the CTC to implement the recommendations it adopts.
2. Makes meetings of the workgroup subject to the requirements of the Bagley-Keene Open Meeting Act.
3. Requires the CTC to report the number of programs with low pass rates and assist these programs in using evidence-based strategies to support candidates, at no cost to the candidate.
4. Requires the CTC to maintain a secondary passing standard for the TPA.

EXISTING LAW:

1. Requires, commencing July 1, 2008, a program of professional preparation to include a TPA that is aligned with the California Standards for the Teaching Profession and that is congruent with state content and performance standards for pupils adopted by the State Board of Education (SBE).
2. Requires the CTC to implement the TPA in a manner that does not increase the number of assessments required for teacher credential candidates prepared in the state. Requires a candidate to be assessed during the normal term or duration of the preparation program of the candidate.
3. Requires the CTC to ensure that each TPA is state-approved and aligned with the California Standards for the Teaching Profession and is consistently applied to candidates in similar preparation programs. To the maximum feasible extent, each TPA must be ongoing and blended into the preparation program and must produce specified benefits for credential candidates, sponsors of preparation programs, and local educational agencies (LEAs) that employ program graduates.
4. Requires the CTC to ensure, by July 1, 2025, that an approved TPA for a preliminary multiple subject credential and a preliminary education specialist credential assesses all candidates for competence in instruction in literacy, revises the definition of literacy instruction for purposes of teacher preparation.

FISCAL EFFECT: According to the Senate Appropriations Committee, by eliminating the requirement for the TPA and also removing the Reading Instruction Competence Assessment (RICA), this bill could potentially result in additional, unknown costs to teacher preparation programs to conduct their own performance assessments.

COMMENTS:

Need for the bill. According to the author, “SB 1263 would require the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing to convene a working group composed of classroom teachers, teacher educators, and performance assessment experts to review the current Teacher Performance Assessment (TPA), its implementation, and its impacts. The bill would require the workgroup to develop recommendations concerning these assessments by March 1, 2025; for the commission to vote to adopt a set of recommendations by July 1, 2025; and for the recommendations to be adopted and implemented not later than July 1, 2028. There is substantial evidence that the TPA, in its current form, has become an unduly onerous portfolio assessment which has the unintended net impact of detracting from teacher candidates’ ability to focus on applying the concepts and skills of teacher preparation coursework in real classrooms while supervised by mentor teachers during supervised clinical practice. Despite its intended purpose, the TPA often does not in fact accurately ascertain whether a candidate is prepared to enter the teaching profession. Through its amended provisions, SB 1263 will provide a better basis for teachers and teacher educators to make meaningful recommendations on how best to improve the TPA.”

Teaching Performance Assessments (TPAs). According to the Legislative Analyst’s Office (LAO), during the 1990s, the Legislature became concerned with the coherence of the teacher credentialing system, as the state had added credential requirements incrementally over the years without comprehensive evaluation. At the request of the Legislature, the CTC convened a workgroup to review the state’s teacher credential requirements. The workgroup concluded that existing assessments varied considerably across preparation programs and often failed to provide a good measure of teachers’ preparation. At the same time, research and policy organizations such as the National Research Council and the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards were supporting the development of more authentic assessments of teacher candidates. In response, the Legislature required the CTC to develop a new assessment for all general education teachers, now known as the TPA.

California requires all teacher candidates for preliminary multiple, single subject and education specialist teaching credentials to pass a TPA as part of the requirements for earning a preliminary teaching credential.

The CTC-adopted TPAs are designed to measure a candidate's knowledge, skills and ability in relation to California's Teaching Performance Expectations (TPEs), including demonstrating their ability to appropriately instruct all students in the state’s content standards. There are now three teaching performance assessment models available: the CalTPA developed by the CTC, the edTPA developed by the Stanford Center for Assessment, Learning, and Equity (SCALE), and the Fresno Assessment of Student Teaching (FAST) developed by California State University, Fresno.

Each of the three approved TPA models requires a candidate to complete performance tasks relating to subject-specific pedagogy, designing and implementing instruction and student assessment, video-recorded teaching, and reflecting on practice. Performance tasks must be completed within a site placement where the candidate is working with supervising teachers, master teachers, and students. Multiple-subject candidates must demonstrate their capacity to teach literacy and mathematics. Candidate performances are scored by trained assessors against multiple rubrics that describe levels of performance relative to each performance task. Each model must also meet and maintain specified standards of assessment reliability, validity, and fairness to candidates. Model sponsors of approved assessments annually report on candidate performance, and this data is used to inform program accreditation.

What does research say on the TPA? A 2024 Learning Policy Institute report, “How Preparation Predicts Teaching Performance Assessment Results in California,” documented the following findings:

• Passing rates varied considerably across programs. Preparation programs differ in how they structure clinical practice and support candidates through a TPA. Across the 263 preparation programs included in this analysis, nearly two-thirds (63% of those programs) had more than 90% of their tested candidates pass a TPA and 23% had all of their candidates pass a TPA. In contrast, 35 programs (13%) had passing rates under 80%, including 14 programs with pass rates below 67%. Data available for a subset of completers suggests that racial disparities in pass rates appear to vary with overall program performance. While there were disparities in pass rates by candidate race and ethnicity among the low-performing programs, among programs with passing rates above 90%, there were no statistically significant differences in passing rates by race and ethnicity.
• Passing rates also varied by credential field. Single-subject (i.e., secondary) and educational specialist (i.e., special education) programs had higher passing rates, on average, than multiple subject (i.e., elementary) programs. Notably, elementary candidates must document their teaching skills across two subjects (literacy and math), and each assessment has added elements for these candidates. This added complexity, along with pandemic-era challenges with clinical practice in elementary programs, could partially explain these differences.
• Preservice candidates were more likely than intern candidates to be successful on a TPA. As of 2021–22, three-quarters of California’s preparation program completers were from “traditional” preservice programs in which preparation and clinical practice (i.e., student teaching or residency) occur before teaching candidates become a teacher of record. Over the past 2 years, 77% of the preservice candidates who took the CalTPA or edTPA passed on their first try, and 92% of these candidates passed across all of their TPA attempts. Among candidates in internship programs who served as teachers of record while completing preparation, 67% passed a TPA on their first try and 88% passed across all attempts. Candidates known to be in residency programs had higher TPA pass rates than those in other pathways.
• Two-thirds of preparation completers reported being well supported by their program to take a TPA, and program-level ratings of support were related to the likelihood of passing. Of 14,709 elementary and secondary program completers who responded to program completer surveys administered by the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing, 66% reported that their programs prepared them well or very well for a TPA, 23% felt adequately prepared, and 11% reported being not at all or poorly prepared. These survey responses were averaged to create program-level ratings on TPA support. The odds of passing a TPA across all attempts were 1.7 times higher for candidates from programs with the highest rating on TPA support compared to candidates from the lowest-rated programs.
• Elementary and special education candidates from programs where completers reported more opportunities to learn about teaching literacy and math were more likely to be successful on a TPA. The program completer survey asks completers from elementary and special education preparation programs about their opportunities to learn how to teach specific aspects of literacy and math (e.g., learn ways to teach decoding skills, and adapt math lessons for students with diverse needs). Program-level ratings on preparation in literacy and math—created from these survey responses—were associated with higher passing rates and higher TPA scores. For example, the odds of passing across all attempts were nearly two times higher for candidates from the highest-rated programs on preparation in literacy compared to candidates from the lowest-rated programs. 
• Preservice candidates from programs in which completers report sufficient clinical support were more likely to be successful on a TPA. The program completer survey asked completers to report on the quantity of clinical support offered by program faculty (i.e., communication, observations, and feedback about their teaching). For preservice candidates, program-level ratings capturing the percent of completers who received clinical feedback more than five times were predictive of TPA pass rates across all credential areas. Based on these program-level ratings, the odds of passing a TPA across all attempts were more than two times higher for candidates from the programs in which almost all completers reported sufficient clinical feedback, compared to candidates from the programs in which a lower percentage of completers reported such support. Program-level ratings on clinical support were not predictive of internship candidates’ success on the TPA.

LAO research on TPA. According to the LAO, the evidence linking TPA performance and student outcomes is limited but positive. According to an analysis of the existing literature by the LAO, two small studies evaluated an earlier version of the TPA in California and found that—controlling for other factors—students assigned to teachers who had performed better on the TPA performed somewhat better on math and reading assessments. A third study from 2017 tracked a larger sample of teachers taking a version of the TPA in Washington and found similar results, with TPA scores having a relatively strong association with student performance in mathematics and a moderate association with performance in reading.

A report by the Center for American Progress, “Evaluating Teacher Effectiveness: How Teacher Performance Assessments Can Measure and Improve Teaching” (Darling-Hammond, 2010) notes that, compared to traditional assessments of teachers, “Performance assessments that measure what teachers actually do in the classroom, and which have been found to be related to later teacher effectiveness, are a much more potent tool for evaluating teachers’ competence and readiness, as well as for supporting needed changes in teacher education…Such assessments have been found to be stronger predictors of teachers’ contributions to student learning gains than traditional teacher tests.”

Teacher candidates will be assessed for competency in literacy instruction in the TPA and not through RICA. Existing law, SB 488 (Rubio, Chapter 678, Statutes of 2021), required the CTC to update its literacy and reading standards for the preparation of teaching candidates and their corresponding TPEs. Additionally, the CTC must review teacher preparation programs and certify that they are providing instruction in the updated standards and TPEs, as well as to develop a new literacy performance assessment to replace the RICA. The RICA will be retired as of July 1, 2025, and will no longer be available. Candidates who do not pass either all three subtests of the written examination or the video performance assessment by July 1, 2025, will be required to instead pass the CTC-adopted TPA that includes literacy instruction.

Since the enactment of the RICA statute 25 years ago, the K-12 English Language Arts/English Language Development Framework has been significantly updated and adopted by the SBE. These updates impact candidate preparation for teaching reading and developing literacy, including for students identified as English learners (EL), as well as the assessment of candidate competency in these areas. Additionally, the California Dyslexia Guidelines were published to address teaching reading to students with dyslexia. To meet the needs of all California students, it was necessary to update the program standards and TPEs for teacher preparation with respect to reading and literacy instruction, as well as corresponding candidate assessments. These updates were required by SB 488.

Arguments in support. The California Teachers Association states, “The TPA is an onerous portfolio assessment that detracts from teacher candidates’ ability to focus on applying the concepts and skills of teacher preparation coursework in real classrooms supervised by mentor teachers during supervised clinical practice.

Furthermore, the TPA measures Teacher Performance Expectations (TPEs) that are already measured through coursework and clinical practice during a candidate’s program. While no data exists to support the efficacy of the TPA as it relates to effective preparation, multiple sources identify the negative impact this has on teacher preparation and the disproportionate impact on teachers of color.

The experience of educators throughout the state has shown that instead, TPAs have become a high-stakes, time-consuming, and costly barrier for aspiring teachers. TPAs have also proven ineffective at preparing educators for the realities of the classroom. With more than 10,000 vacancies listed for teaching positions in California, we must focus on investing in programs that are proven to prepare and retain educators – not keep in place ineffective barriers to those looking to enter the profession.”

Arguments in opposition. The Education Trust-West states, “ETW opposes SB 1263 because research has proven that TPAs are a valuable tool for measuring and developing teacher effectiveness and for evaluating and improving educator preparation programs. While significant work must be done to ensure assessments are high quality and not overly burdensome, scoring of rubrics is free of bias, and candidates receive the support needed to demonstrate mastery, we believe that eliminating performance assessments would not be in the best interest of California’s students of color and low-income students. These students are most likely to be taught by novice teachers and deserve for those teachers to be adequately prepared for the classroom.

Research on TPAs suggests that candidates’ performance is predictive of their students’ learning gains as measured by standardized test scores, and that TPAs are less likely to produce disparities in pass rates by teacher candidates’ race/ethnicity than traditional multiple choice exams (Darling-Hammond, 2010; Wilson, M., Hallam, P. J., Pecheone, R., & Moss, P.A., 2014; Goldhaber, D., Cowan, J., & Theobald, R., 2017). TPA portfolios collect evidence of teachers' actual instruction through videotapes, curriculum plans, and samples of student work and learning, along with teacher commentaries explaining the basis for teachers' decisions about instructional strategies. They are designed to assess teachers’ ability to plan instruction, teach diverse learners, assess student learning, and reflect on and improve their practice.”

Related legislation. SB 488 (Rubio), Chapter 678, Statutes of 2021, requires the CTC to ensure, by July 1, 2025, that an approved TPA for a preliminary multiple subject credential and a preliminary education specialist credential assesses all candidates for competence in instruction in literacy, revises the definition of literacy instruction for purposes of teacher preparation and requires the CTC to ensure that its standards for program quality and effectiveness align to this definition, and provides an alternate means of meeting the RICA for some credential candidates affected by COVID-19 test center closures.

REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION:

Support

Alameda County Office of Education
California Charter Schools Association
California Faculty Association
California Federation of Teachers
California School Employees Association
California Teachers Association
Los Angeles County Office of Education
Students for Quality Education At Sacramento State

Opposition

21st Century Alliance

Alliance for A Better Community

Alliance for Children's Rights

California Family Engagement Network (CA-FEN)

California Reading Coalition

California State Pta

Californians for Justice

Children Now

Decoding Dyslexia CA

Innovate Public Schools

Kipp Socal Public Schools

Parent Organization Network

Public Advocates

The Education Trust - West

The Reading League California

National Council on Teacher Quality

Analysis Prepared by: Chelsea Kelley / ED. / (916) 319-2087

 THIRD READING  

Bill No: SB 1263

Author: Newman (D)

Amended: 5/16/24

Vote: 21

SENATE EDUCATION COMMITTEE: 7-0, 4/17/24

AYES: Newman, Ochoa Bogh, Cortese, Glazer, Gonzalez, Smallwood-Cuevas, Wilk

SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE: 4-1, 5/16/24

AYES: Caballero, Ashby, Becker, Bradford

NOES: Wahab

NO VOTE RECORDED: Jones, Seyarto

SUBJECT: Teacher credentialing: teaching performance assessment: reading instruction competence assessment: repeal

SOURCE: California Teachers Association

DIGEST:

This bill eliminates the requirement for a teacher preparation program leading to a preliminary multiple subject, single subject, or education specialist teaching credential to include a teaching performance assessment (TPA).

ANALYSIS:

Existing law:

1. Requires the Commission on Teacher Credentialing (CTC) to establish standards for the issuance and renewal of multiple subject, single subject, or education specialist teaching credential.
2. Requires the CTC to adopt standards for the accreditation of postsecondary teacher preparation programs. Prescribes “clinical practice” as one of the CTC-adopted standards and requires that teaching credential candidates perform 600 hours of clinical practice throughout the candidate’s teacher preparation program.
3. Authorizes the CTC to issue a multiple or single subject teaching credential with a specified concentration in a particular subject based upon the depth of an applicant’s preparation in an important subject of the school curriculum in order to ensure excellence in teaching in specific subjects.
4. Authorizes the CTC to issue credentials for teaching specialties, including bilingual education, early childhood education, and special education (education specialist). Requires education specialist teaching credentials to be based upon a baccalaureate degree from an accredited institution, completion of a program of professional preparation, and standards that the CTC may establish.
5. Requires, commencing July 1, 2008, a program of professional preparation to include a TPA that is aligned with the California Standards for the Teaching Profession and that is congruent with state content and performance standards for pupils adopted by the State Board of Education (SBE).
6. Requires the CTC to implement the TPA in a manner that does not increase the number of assessments required for teacher credential candidates prepared in this state. A candidate shall be assessed during the normal term or duration of the preparation program of the candidate.
7. Requires the CTC to ensure that each TPA is state-approved and aligned with the California Standards for the Teaching Profession and is consistently applied to candidates in similar preparation programs. To the maximum feasible extent, each TPA must be ongoing and blended into the preparation program, and must produce specified benefits for credential candidates, sponsors of preparation programs, and local educational agencies that employ program graduates.
8. Requires the CTC to perform the following duties with respect to the Reading Instruction Competence Assessment (RICA):
9. Develop, adopt, and administer the assessment;
10. Initially and periodically analyze the validity and reliability of the content of the assessment;
11. Establish and implement appropriate passing scores on the assessment;
12. Analyze possible sources of bias on the assessment;
13. Collect and analyze background information provided by first-time credential applicants who are not credentialed in any state who participate in the assessment;
14. Report and interpret individual and aggregated assessment results;
15. Convene a task force to advise the CTC on the design, content, and administration of the assessment, with not less than one-third of the members of the task force classroom teachers with recent experience in teaching reading in the early elementary grades; and
16. Prior to requiring successful passage of the assessment for the preliminary multiple subject teaching credential, certify that teacher education programs offer instruction in the knowledge, skills, and abilities required by the assessment. 
17. Requires the CTC to adopt examinations and assessments to verify the subject matter knowledge and competence of candidates for single subject teaching credentials.
18. Requires the CTC to ensure, by July 1, 2025, that an approved TPA for a preliminary multiple subject credential and a preliminary education specialist credential assesses all candidates for competence in instruction in literacy, revises the definition of literacy instruction for purposes of teacher preparation.

This bill eliminates the requirement for a teacher preparation program leading to a preliminary multiple subject, single subject, or education specialist teaching credential to include a TPA.

Comments

1. Need for the bill. According to the author, “The TPA, in its current form, has become an unduly onerous portfolio assessment which has the net consequence of detracting from teacher candidates’ ability to focus on applying the concepts and skills of teacher preparation coursework in real classrooms, supervised by mentor teachers during supervised clinical practice. While well intentioned, the demands currently placed upon teaching candidates in preparing for the TPA have the perverse impact of actually reducing the overall quality of teacher preparation by undermining the capacity of teacher candidates to focus on their clinical practice.

As a practical matter, the TPA and clinical practice assessments are effectively duplicative. Further, because of the barriers they represent to teaching candidates, recent data shows that the TPA is disproportionately discouraging teacher candidates of color, contributing to a reduction of diversity in the teaching profession. Studies show that aspiring teachers of color perceive the current TPA system as racially biased, and that their demands pose a major barrier to completing the credential and entering the profession. Moreover, there is no clear evidence that the requirement for TPAs contributes to either increased teacher effectiveness or teacher retention.

There is broad-based agreement that California needs to address its persistent teacher shortage. For the 2023-2024 school year, counties reported 24,795 estimated teacher hires needed to fill new or vacated positions. Concurrently, the existing educator pipeline is insufficient to meet demand, as evidenced by the fact that the most recent CTC Teacher Supply Report to the Legislature shows a 16.1% overall decline, to 16,491 credentials issued during the 2021-2022 school year.

1. Teaching Performance Assessments. According to the Legislative Analyst’s Office (LAO), during the 1990s, the Legislature became concerned with the coherence of the teacher credentialing system, as the state had added credential requirements incrementally over the years without comprehensive evaluation. At the request of the Legislature, the CTC convened a workgroup to review the state’s teacher credential requirements. The workgroup concluded that existing assessments varied considerably across preparation programs and often failed to provide a good measure of teachers’ preparation. At the same time, research and policy organizations such as the National Research Council and the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards were supporting the development of more authentic assessments of teacher candidates. In response, the Legislature required the CTC to develop a new assessment for all general education teachers, now known as the TPA.

As of 2008, California requires all teaching credential candidates to pass an assessment of their teaching performance. This is designed to measure the candidate's knowledge, skills, and ability with relation to California's Teaching Performance Expectations (TPEs), including demonstrating their ability to appropriately instruct all students in the state’s content standards. There are now three teaching performance assessment models available.

A report by the Center for American Progress, “Evaluating Teacher Effectiveness: How Teacher Performance Assessments Can Measure and Improve Teaching,” (Darling-Hammond, 2010), notes that, compared to traditional assessments of teachers, “Performance assessments that measure what teachers actually do in the classroom, and which have been found to be related to later teacher effectiveness, are a much more potent tool for evaluating teachers’ competence and readiness, as well as for supporting needed changes in teacher education…Such assessments have been found to be stronger predictors of teachers’ contributions to student learning gains than traditional teacher tests.”

1. Three Teacher Performance Assessment Models Currently. The CTC adopted TPAs are designed to measure a candidate's knowledge, skills and ability in relation to California's TPEs, including demonstrating their ability to appropriately instruct all students in the state’s content standards. There are now three teaching performance assessment models available: the CalTPA developed by the CTC, the edTPA developed by the Stanford Center for Assessment, Learning, and Equity (SCALE), and the Fresno Assessment of Student Teaching (FAST) developed by CSU, Fresno.

Each of the three approved TPA models requires a candidate to complete performance tasks relating to subject-specific pedagogy, designing and implementing instruction and student assessment, video-recorded teaching, and reflecting on practice. Performance tasks must be completed within a site placement where the candidate is working with supervising teachers, master teachers, and students. Multiple-subject candidates must demonstrate their capacity to teach literacy and mathematics. Candidate performances are scored by trained assessors against multiple rubrics that describe levels of performance relative to each performance task. Each model must also meet and maintain specified standards of assessment reliability, validity, and fairness to candidates. Model sponsors of approved assessments annually report on candidate performance and this data is used to inform program accreditation.

1. This bill would eliminate the RICA transition required by recent legislation, resulting in teacher candidates no longer being assessed for competency in literacy instruction. Existing law, SB 488 (Rubio, Chapter 678, Statutes of 2021), required the CTC to update its literacy and reading standards for the preparation of teaching candidates and their corresponding TPEs. Additionally, the CTC must review teacher preparation programs and certify that they are providing instruction in the updated standards and TPEs, as well as to develop a new literacy performance assessment to replace the RICA. The RICA will be retired as of July 1, 2025, and will no longer be available. Candidates who do not pass either all three subtests of the written examination or the video performance assessment by July 1, 2025, will be required to instead pass the CTC-adopted TPA that includes literacy instruction.

Since the enactment of the RICA statute 25 years ago, the K-12 English Language Arts/English Language Development Framework was updated significantly and adopted by the SBE. These updates impact candidate preparation for teaching reading and developing literacy including for students identified as English learners (EL), as well as assessment of candidate competency in these areas. Additionally, the California Dyslexia Guidelines were published to address teaching reading to students with dyslexia. To meet the needs of all California students, it was necessary to update the program standards and TPEs for teacher preparation with respect to reading and literacy instruction, as well as corresponding candidate assessments. These updates are required by existing law.

By eliminating the TPA and not reestablishing the RICA as a standalone assessment, this bill would result in teacher candidates no longer being assessed for competence in literacy instruction.

1. Statewide data on the diversity of teacher preparation programs. According to the Learning Policy Institute’s (LPI) March 2023 report Educating Teachers in California, which analyzed teacher credentialing program completer surveys, the number of Latino/a candidates has more than doubled between 2016–17 and 2020–21. As of 2020– 21, 53% of survey respondents were teachers of color, compared to 39% in 2016–17. Nationally, just 27% of recent completers identified as people of color.

The LPI report further noted, “not all completers reported equal access to the preparation experiences associated with higher ratings of program effectiveness and more positive perceptions of preparedness. Notably, access to preservice clinical experiences (i.e., student teaching or residency programs) varied considerably by race/ethnicity and credential type. Only 46% of Black and 50% of Native American completers reported participating in student teaching or residencies, compared to at least two thirds of all other racial/ethnic groups. Fewer than one third of education specialists (i.e., special education teachers) participated in student teaching or residencies, as compared to about 7 in 10 multiple subject completers (i.e., elementary teachers) and single subject completers (i.e., secondary teachers). Education specialists were also more likely to report limited student teaching hours or low levels of clinical support from their TPPs.”

FISCAL EFFECT: Appropriation: No Fiscal Com.: Yes Local: No

According to the Senate Appropriations Committee, by eliminating the requirement for the TPA and also removing the RICA, this bill could potentially result in additional, unknown costs to teacher preparation programs to conduct their own performance assessments.

SUPPORT: (Verified 5/16/24)

California Teachers Association (source)
Alameda County Office of Education
California Charter Schools Association
California Faculty Association
California Federation of Teachers
Los Angeles County Office of Education
Students for Quality Education at Sacramento State

5 individuals

OPPOSITION: (Verified 5/16/24)

California Reading Coalition

California State PTA

Decoding Dyslexia CA

Families in Schools

National Council on Teacher Quality

The Education Trust – West

The Reading League California

Prepared by: Ian Johnson / ED. / (916) 651-4105

5/18/24 12:28:50

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SENATE COMMITTEE ON

Senator Anna Caballero, Chair

2023 - 2024 Regular Session

SB 1263 (Newman) - Teacher credentialing: teaching performance assessments: repeal

Bill Summary:

This bill eliminates the requirement for a teacher preparation program to include a teaching performance assessment (TPA) leading to teaching credential.

*********** ANALYSIS ADDENDUM – SUSPENSE FILE ***********

The following information is revised to reflect amendments

adopted by the committee on May 16, 2024

Fiscal Impact:

By eliminating the requirement for the TPA and also removing the Reading Instruction Competence Assessment (RICA), this bill could potentially result in additional, unknown costs to teacher preparation programs to conduct their own performance assessments.

Author Amendments:

Eliminate the requirement for the RICA.

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SENATE COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS

Senator Anna Caballero, Chair

2023 - 2024 Regular Session

SB 1263 (Newman) - Teacher credentialing: teaching performance assessments: repeal

Bill Summary:

This bill eliminates the requirement for a teacher preparation program to include a teaching performance assessment (TPA) leading to teaching credential.

Fiscal Impact:

• The Commission on teacher Credentialing (CTC) indicates that this bill would result in one-time General Fund costs of $2 million to update the Reading Instruction Competence Assessment (RICA). While the bill does not explicitly require an update to the RICA, the CTC believes this would be necessary to align it with the new literacy standards and Teaching Performance Expectations (TPEs) if the TPA were to be eliminated.

• The CTC estimates ongoing General Fund costs of $197,000 to hire an additional exams consultant with an expertise in literacy for the increased workload of the development and maintenance of the RICA.

Background:

Existing law requires the CTC to establish standards for the issuance and renewal of multiple subject, single subject, or education specialist teaching credential including all of the following:

1. A baccalaureate degree or higher degree from a regionally accredited institution of higher education;
2. Demonstration of basic skills proficiency; and
3. Satisfactory completion of a program of professional preparation that has been accredited by the Committee on Accreditation on the basis of standards of program quality and effectiveness that have been adopted by the CTC. Programs must include a teaching performance assessment that is aligned with the California Standards for the Teaching Profession.

Existing law requires the CTC to award the following types of credentials to applicants whose preparation and competence satisfy its standards:

1. Basic teaching credentials for teaching in kindergarten, or any of grades 1 to 12, inclusive, in public schools in the state;
2. Credentials for teaching adult education classes and vocational education classes;
3. Credentials for teaching specialties, including, but not necessarily limited to, bilingual education, early childhood education, and special education.

Existing law authorizes the CTC to issue a multiple or single subject teaching credential with a specified concentration in a particular subject based upon the depth of an applicant’s preparation in an important subject of the school curriculum in order to ensure excellence in teaching in specific subjects.

Existing law authorizes the CTC to issue credentials for teaching specialties, including bilingual education, early childhood education, and special education (education specialist). Requires education specialist teaching credentials to be based upon a baccalaureate degree from an accredited institution, completion of a program of professional preparation, and standards that the CTC may establish.

Existing law requires, commencing July 1, 2008, a program of professional preparation to include a TPA that is aligned with the California Standards for the Teaching Profession and that is congruent with state content and performance standards for pupils adopted by the State Board of Education. In implementing this requirement, institutions or agencies may do the following:

1. Voluntarily develop a TPA for approval by the CTC. Approval of any locally developed performance assessment must be based on assessment quality standards adopted by the CTC, which shall encourage the use of alternative assessment methods including portfolios of teaching artifacts and practices; and
2. Participate in an assessment training program for assessors and implement the CTC developed assessment.

Proposed Law:

This bill eliminates the requirement for a teacher preparation program leading to a preliminary multiple subject, single subject, or education specialist teaching credential to include a TPA.

Staff Comments:

SB 488 (Rubio, Chapter 678, Statutes of 2021) requires the CTC to update its literacy and reading standards for the preparation of teaching candidates and their corresponding TPEs. Additionally, the CTC must review teacher preparation programs and certify that they are providing instruction in the updated standards and TPEs, and develop a new literacy performance assessment and incorporate it into TPAs as a replacement for the RICA. The RICA will be retired as of July 1, 2025.

The CTC indicates that passage of this measure would eliminate the language enacted through SB 488 calling for a literacy performance assessment to replace the RICA requirement for elementary (multiple subject), education specialist, and PK-3 early childhood education specialist candidates. Due to its pending “retirement”, the RICA has not yet been updated to align with the new literacy standards and TPEs, steps that the CTC believes would be necessary if the TPA is eliminated.  

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SENATE COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION

Senator Josh Newman, Chair

2023 - 2024 Regular

Bill No: SB 1263 Hearing Date: April 17, 2024

Subject: .

SUMMARY

This bill eliminates the requirement for a teacher preparation program leading to a preliminary multiple subject, single subject, or education specialist teaching credential to include a teaching performance assessment (TPA).

BACKGROUND

Existing law:

1. Requires the Commission on Teacher Credentialing (CTC) to establish standards for the issuance and renewal of multiple subject, single subject, or education specialist teaching credential including all of the following:
   1. A baccalaureate degree or higher degree from a regionally accredited institution of higher education;
   2. Demonstration of basic skills proficiency; and
   3. Satisfactory completion of a program of professional preparation that has been accredited by the Committee on Accreditation on the basis of standards of program quality and effectiveness that have been adopted by the CTC. Programs must include a TPA that is aligned with the California Standards for the Teaching Profession.
2. Requires the CTC to adopt standards for the accreditation of postsecondary teacher preparation programs. Prescribes “clinical practice” as one of the CTC-adopted standards and requires that teaching credential candidates perform 600 hours of clinical practice throughout the candidate’s teacher preparation program.
3. Requires the CTC to award the following types of credentials to applicants whose preparation and competence satisfy its standards:
   1. Basic teaching credentials for teaching in kindergarten, or any of grades 1 to 12, inclusive, in public schools in the state;
   2. Credentials for teaching adult education classes and vocational education classes;
   3. Credentials for teaching specialties, including, but not necessarily limited to, bilingual education, early childhood education, and special education. The CTC may grant credentials to any candidate who concurrently meets the CTC’s standards of preparation and competence for the preliminary basic teaching credential and the preliminary specialty credential; and
   4. Credentials for school services, for positions including, but not necessarily limited to, administrators, school counselors, speech-language therapists, audiologists, school psychologists, library media teachers, supervisors of attendance, and school nurses.
4. Authorizes the CTC to issue a multiple or single subject teaching credential with a specified concentration in a particular subject based upon the depth of an applicant’s preparation in an important subject of the school curriculum in order to ensure excellence in teaching in specific subjects.
5. Authorizes the CTC to issue credentials for teaching specialties, including bilingual education, early childhood education, and special education (education specialist). Requires education specialist teaching credentials to be based upon a baccalaureate degree from an accredited institution, completion of a program of professional preparation, and standards that the CTC may establish.
6. Requires, commencing July 1, 2008, a program of professional preparation to include a TPA that is aligned with the California Standards for the Teaching Profession and that is congruent with state content and performance standards for pupils adopted by the State Board of Education (SBE). In implementing this requirement, institutions or agencies may do the following:
   1. Voluntarily develop a TPA for approval by the CTC. Approval of any locally developed performance assessment must be based on assessment quality standards adopted by the CTC, which shall encourage the use of alternative assessment methods including portfolios of teaching artifacts and practices; and
   2. Participate in an assessment training program for assessors and implement the CTC developed assessment.
7. Requires the CTC to implement the TPA in a manner that does not increase the number of assessments required for teacher credential candidates prepared in this state. A candidate shall be assessed during the normal term or duration of the preparation program of the candidate.
8. Requires, subject to the availability of funds in the annual Budget Act, the CTC to perform all of the following duties with respect to the TPA:
   1. Assemble and convene an expert panel to advise the CTC about performance standards and developmental scales for teaching credential candidates and the design, content, administration, and scoring of the assessment. At least one-third of the panel members must be classroom teachers in California public schools;
   2. Design, develop, and implement assessment standards and an institutional assessor training program for the sponsors of professional preparation programs to use if they choose to use the CTC developed assessment;
   3. Establish a review panel to examine each assessment developed by an institution or agency in relation to the standards set by the CTC and advise the CTC regarding approval of each assessment system;
   4. Initially and periodically analyze the validity of assessment content and the reliability of assessment scores;
   5. Establish and implement appropriate standards for satisfactory performance in assessments;
   6. Analyze possible sources of bias in the performance assessment and act promptly to eliminate any bias that is discovered;
   7. Collect and analyze background information provided by candidates who participate in the performance assessment, and report and interpret the individual and aggregated results of the assessment;
   8. Examine and revise, as necessary, the institutional accreditation system for the purpose of providing a strong assurance to teaching candidates that ongoing opportunities are available in each credential preparation program that is offered for candidates to acquire the knowledge, skills, and abilities measured by the assessment system; and
   9. Ensure that the aggregated results of the assessment for groups of candidates who have completed a credential program are used as one source of information about the quality and effectiveness of that program.
9. Requires the CTC to ensure that each TPA is state-approved and aligned with the California Standards for the Teaching Profession and is consistently applied to candidates in similar preparation programs. To the maximum feasible extent, each TPA must be ongoing and blended into the preparation program, and must produce the following benefits for credential candidates, sponsors of preparation programs, and local educational agencies that employ program graduates:
   1. The TPA must be designed to provide formative assessment information during the preparation program for use by the candidate, instructors, and supervisors for the purpose of improving the teaching knowledge, skill, and ability of the candidate;
   2. The TPA results must be reported so that they may serve as one basis for a recommendation by the program sponsor that the CTC award a teaching credential to a candidate who has successfully met the performance assessment standards; and
   3. The formative assessment information and the TPA results must be reported so that they may serve as one basis for the individual induction plan of the new teacher.
10. Requires the CTC to perform the following duties with respect to the Reading Instruction Competence Assessment (RICA):
11. Develop, adopt, and administer the assessment;
12. Initially and periodically analyze the validity and reliability of the content of the assessment;
13. Establish and implement appropriate passing scores on the assessment;
14. Analyze possible sources of bias on the assessment;
15. Collect and analyze background information provided by first-time credential applicants who are not credentialed in any state who participate in the assessment;
16. Report and interpret individual and aggregated assessment results;
17. Convene a task force to advise the CTC on the design, content, and administration of the assessment, with not less than one-third of the members of the task force classroom teachers with recent experience in teaching reading in the early elementary grades; and
18. Prior to requiring successful passage of the assessment for the preliminary multiple subject teaching credential, certify that teacher education programs offer instruction in the knowledge, skills, and abilities required by the assessment. 
19. Requires the CTC to adopt examinations and assessments to verify the subject matter knowledge and competence of candidates for single subject teaching credentials.
20. Requires the CTC to ensure, by July 1, 2025, that an approved TPA for a preliminary multiple subject credential and a preliminary education specialist credential assesses all candidates for competence in instruction in literacy, revises the definition of literacy instruction for purposes of teacher preparation.

ANALYSIS

This bill eliminates the requirement for a teacher preparation program leading to a preliminary multiple subject, single subject, or education specialist teaching credential to include a TPA.

STAFF COMMENTS

1. Need for the bill. According to the author, “The TPA, in its current form, has become an unduly onerous portfolio assessment which has the net consequence of detracting from teacher candidates’ ability to focus on applying the concepts and skills of teacher preparation coursework in real classrooms, supervised by mentor teachers during supervised clinical practice. While well intentioned, the demands currently placed upon teaching candidates in preparing for the TPA have the perverse impact of actually reducing the overall quality of teacher preparation by undermining the capacity of teacher candidates to focus on their clinical practice.

As a practical matter, the TPA and clinical practice assessments are effectively duplicative. Further, because of the barriers they represent to teaching candidates, recent data shows that the TPA is disproportionately discouraging teacher candidates of color, contributing to a reduction of diversity in the teaching profession. Studies show that aspiring teachers of color perceive the current TPA system as racially biased, and that their demands pose a major barrier to completing the credential and entering the profession. Moreover, there is no clear evidence that the requirement for TPAs contributes to either increased teacher effectiveness or teacher retention.

There is broad-based agreement that California needs to address its persistent teacher shortage. For the 2023-2024 school year, counties reported 24,795 estimated teacher hires needed to fill new or vacated positions. Concurrently, the existing educator pipeline is insufficient to meet demand, as evidenced by the fact that the most recent CTC Teacher Supply Report to the Legislature shows a 16.1% overall decline, to 16,491 credentials issued during the 2021-2022 school year.

1. Teaching Performance Assessments. According to the Legislative Analyst’s Office (LAO), during the 1990s, the Legislature became concerned with the coherence of the teacher credentialing system, as the state had added credential requirements incrementally over the years without comprehensive evaluation. At the request of the Legislature, the CTC convened a workgroup to review the state’s teacher credential requirements. The workgroup concluded that existing assessments varied considerably across preparation programs and often failed to provide a good measure of teachers’ preparation. At the same time, research and policy organizations such as the National Research Council and the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards were supporting the development of more authentic assessments of teacher candidates. In response, the Legislature required the CTC to develop a new assessment for all general education teachers, now known as the TPA.

As of 2008, California requires all teaching credential candidates to pass an assessment of their teaching performance. This is designed to measure the candidate's knowledge, skills, and ability with relation to California's Teaching Performance Expectations (TPEs), including demonstrating their ability to appropriately instruct all students in the state’s content standards. There are now three teaching performance assessment models available.

A report by the Center for American Progress, “Evaluating Teacher Effectiveness: How Teacher Performance Assessments Can Measure and Improve Teaching,” (Darling-Hammond, 2010), notes that, compared to traditional assessments of teachers, “Performance assessments that measure what teachers actually do in the classroom, and which have been found to be related to later teacher effectiveness, are a much more potent tool for evaluating teachers’ competence and readiness, as well as for supporting needed changes in teacher education…Such assessments have been found to be stronger predictors of teachers’ contributions to student learning gains than traditional teacher tests.”

1. Three Teacher Performance Assessment Models Currently. The CTC adopted TPAs are designed to measure a candidate's knowledge, skills and ability in relation to California's TPEs, including demonstrating their ability to appropriately instruct all students in the state’s content standards. There are now three teaching performance assessment models available: the CalTPA developed by the CTC, the edTPA developed by the Stanford Center for Assessment, Learning, and Equity (SCALE), and the Fresno Assessment of Student Teaching (FAST) developed by CSU, Fresno.

Each of the three approved TPA models requires a candidate to complete performance tasks relating to subject-specific pedagogy, designing and implementing instruction and student assessment, video-recorded teaching, and reflecting on practice. Performance tasks must be completed within a site placement where the candidate is working with supervising teachers, master teachers, and students. Multiple-subject candidates must demonstrate their capacity to teach literacy and mathematics. Candidate performances are scored by trained assessors against multiple rubrics that describe levels of performance relative to each performance task. Each model must also meet and maintain specified standards of assessment reliability, validity, and fairness to candidates. Model sponsors of approved assessments annually report on candidate performance and this data is used to inform program accreditation.

According to the LAO, the evidence linking TPA performance and student outcomes is limited but positive. According to an analysis of the existing literature by the LAO, two small studies evaluated an earlier version of the TPA in California and found that—controlling for other factors—students assigned to teachers who had performed better on the TPA performed somewhat better on math and reading assessments. A third study from 2017 tracked a larger sample of teachers taking a version of the TPA in Washington and found similar results, with TPA scores having a relatively strong association with student performance in mathematics and a moderate association with performance in reading.

1. How does this bill impact the RICA transition required by recent legislation? Existing law, SB 488 (Rubio, Chapter 678, Statutes of 2021), requires the CTC to update its literacy and reading standards for the preparation of teaching candidates and their corresponding TPEs. Additionally, the CTC must review teacher preparation programs and certify that they are providing instruction in the updated standards and TPEs, as well as to develop a new literacy performance assessment to replace the RICA. The RICA will be retired as of July 1, 2025, and will no longer be available. Candidates who do not pass either all three subtests of the written examination or the video performance assessment by July 1, 2025, will be required to instead pass the CTC-adopted TPA that includes literacy instruction.

Since the enactment of the RICA statute 25 years ago, the K-12 English Language Arts/English Language Development Framework was updated significantly and adopted by the SBE. These updates impact candidate preparation for teaching reading and developing literacy including for students identified as English learners (EL), as well as assessment of candidate competency in these areas. Additionally, the California Dyslexia Guidelines were published to address teaching reading to students with dyslexia. To meet the needs of all California students, it was necessary to update the program standards and TPEs for teacher preparation with respect to reading and literacy instruction, as well as corresponding candidate assessments. These updates are required by existing law.

By eliminating the TPA, this bill would result in teacher candidates continuing to be required to pass the RICA as a standalone assessment. The author should consider how to maintain the Legislature’s commitment to eliminate the RICA.

1. Statewide data on the diversity of teacher preparation programs. According to the Learning Policy Institute’s (LPI) March 2023 report Educating Teachers in California, which analyzed teacher credentialing program completer surveys, the number of Latino/a candidates has more than doubled between 2016–17 and 2020–21. As of 2020– 21, 53% of survey respondents were teachers of color, compared to 39% in 2016–17. Nationally, just 27% of recent completers identified as people of color.

The LPI report further noted, “not all completers reported equal access to the preparation experiences associated with higher ratings of program effectiveness and more positive perceptions of preparedness. Notably, access to preservice clinical experiences (i.e., student teaching or residency programs) varied considerably by race/ethnicity and credential type. Only 46% of Black and 50% of Native American completers reported participating in student teaching or residencies, compared to at least two thirds of all other racial/ethnic groups. Fewer than one third of education specialists (i.e., special education teachers) participated in student teaching or residencies, as compared to about 7 in 10 multiple subject completers (i.e., elementary teachers) and single subject completers (i.e., secondary teachers). Education specialists were also more likely to report limited student teaching hours or low levels of clinical support from their TPPs.”

1. Arguments in support. The California Teachers Association, co-sponsors of this measure, writes, “The TPA is an onerous portfolio assessment that detracts from teacher candidates’ ability to focus on applying the concepts and skills of teacher preparation coursework in real classrooms supervised by mentor teachers during supervised clinical practice.”

“CTA conducted a survey of current teachers in Fall 2023 on their TPA experiences in teacher preparation. CTA presented findings to the CTC during the October 2023 meeting1. Survey results indicated that:

• 78% of teachers disagreed or strongly disagreed that completing a Teacher Performance Assessment helped prepare them to meet the needs of students in California.
• 89% of teachers indicated that the TPA had a negative or strong negative impact on their personal life.
• 81% of teachers agreed or strongly agreed that the Teacher Performance Assessment should be eliminated.”

“Furthermore, the TPA measures Teacher Performance Expectations (TPEs) that are already measured through coursework and clinical practice during a candidate’s program. CTA believes that any assessment of candidates shall reflect current standards, subject matter and be non-duplicative. Candidates shall not be required to complete additional subject matter coursework if they have verified subject matter competence by examination. While no data exists to support the efficacy of the TPA as it relates to effective preparation, multiple sources identify the negative impact this has on teacher preparation and the disproportionate impact on teachers of color. CTA believes that any assessment of teacher candidates should be free of bias and that removing the TPA would increase the effectiveness of clinical practice and lead to a better prepared, more diverse teaching workforce.”

1. Arguments in opposition. The Education Trust – West writes, “Research on TPAs suggests that candidates’ performance is predictive of their students’ learning gains as measured by standardized test scores, and that TPAs are less likely to produce disparities in pass rates by teacher candidates’ race/ethnicity than traditional multiple choice exams (Darling-Hammond, 2010; Wilson, M., Hallam, P. J., Pecheone, R., & Moss, P. A., 2014; Goldhaber, D., Cowan, J., & Theobald, R., 2017). TPA portfolios collect evidence of teachers' actual instruction through videotapes, curriculum plans, and samples of student work and learning, along with teacher commentaries explaining the basis for teachers' decisions about instructional strategies. They are designed to assess teachers’ ability to plan instruction, teach diverse learners, assess student learning, and reflect on and improve their practice.

“We believe that rather than eliminating all performance assessments, the state can and should streamline and improve the administration and scoring of TPAs to ensure they are an additive, constructive experience for candidates, and that they do not have a disparate impact for candidates of color. Doing so is critical for both addressing the state’s shortage of teachers of color and providing all students with teachers who are fully prepared to teach.”

SUPPORT

California Teachers Association (co-sponsor)

California Faculty Association (co-sponsor)

California Charter Schools Association
California Federation of Teachers
Los Angeles County Office of Education

OPPOSITION

California Reading Coalition
California State PTA
Decoding Dyslexia CA
Families in Schools
The Education Trust - West
The Reading League California

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