The New Jersey Department of Education had selected edTPA as a summative, performance assessment that all candidates for initial licensure in New Jersey must complete and achieve a passing score on an edTPA as part of the new licensure requirements detailed in N.J.A.C 6a. “edTPA is designed to assess a teacher candidate’s readiness to teach. During field experiences, candidates are trying out what they have learned, and they receive feedback on their performance from supervisors, cooperating teacher and other support providers. These activities and formative experiences provide opportunities for candidates to ‘practice the activities of edTPA’ and to synthesize their learning from the program.” (edTPA, edTPA Guidelines for Acceptable Candidate Support, Revised April 2014, https://www.edtpa.com/content/docs/guidelinesforsupportingcandidates.pdf ) What do candidates need to do?Teacher candidates must submit a portfolio of work that consists of at least three tasks focused on a learning segment of three to five lessons in one class; collected artifacts such as lesson plans, student work samples, assessments, video recording (required); and written commentaries in response to subject-specific prompts. The following links have important information to support teacher candidates in understanding, completing and submitting an edTPA assessment. Overview of edTPA Tasks edTPA Handbooks What Do You Do? Video Recording edTPA Resources and Supports
