California Teaching Performance Assessment (CalTPA)

Overview

All elementary and secondary teacher candidates are required by the State of California to pass an approved teacher performance assessment prior to applying for their preliminary Multiple Subject or Single Subject Credential.

The Teacher Education Department at SJSU has adopted the California Teacher Performance Assessment (CalTPA) for our programs. Within your coursework and student teaching you will have many opportunities to engage in practice opportunities to prepare you for the CalTPA, and more importantly, classroom teaching.

Instructional Cycles

CalTPA is structured around two full instructional cycles based on the pedagogical sequence:

  • Plan
  • Teach
  • Assess
  • Reflect
  • Apply

Each performance assessment is conducted within a school placement. The complete sequence will be addressed by each instructional cycle, with candidates providing evidence of instructional practice for each step. Teacher candidates will submit evidence of their work in a variety of forms, including annotated video clips and written narrative.

As the CalTPA is designed to address subject-specific teaching and learning, candidates will be asked to respond to the instructional cycles within the context of their teaching assignments:

  1. Instructional Cycle 1: Completed within phase 1 of student teaching placement and focuses on teacher candidates' ability to plan and teach
  2. Instructional Cycle 2: Completed within phase 2 of student teaching placement and focuses on a teacher candidates' ability to design assessments and apply what is learned in those assessments in their subsequent lessons

Together, these instructional cycles and the related rubrics will assess a range of the Teacher Performance Expectations. In both Phase 1 and Phase 2 of student teaching, candidates will be asked to record and analyze video samples of their teaching.

Equipment Request

If you are in need of technical equipment, such as a camera, tripod, or microphone, to complete your performance assessment, complete our Lurie College of Education CalTPA Equipment Request form.

Cost

Teaching candidates submit their CalTPA using the CTC/Pearson web-based platform. The cost is $150 per cycle submission for a total of $300. The cost may exceed $300 if additional submissions are needed. 

Contact Us

For additional support, contact our Multiple Subject and Single Subject Credential Program CalTPA Lead, Kristy Cross. kristy.cross@sjsu.edu