One of the few areas of consensus among education policy makers, practitioners and the general public today is that improving teacher quality is one of the most direct and promising strategies for improving public education outcomes in the United States. However, existing federal, state and local policies for defining and measuring teacher quality rely almost exclusively on classroom observations by principals that differentiate little among teachers and offer little useful feedback, on the one hand, or teachers' course-taking records plus paper-and-pencil tests of basic academic skills and disciplinary subject matter knowledge that are poor predictors of later effectiveness in the classroom, on the other. It has become clear that new strategies for evaluating teacher competence and effectiveness are needed.

The American Association of Colleges of Teacher Education (AACTE) and Stanford University have formed a partnership to develop the Teacher Performance Assessment (TPA), a 25-state initiative involving more than 180 teacher preparation programs. The TPA will create a body of evidence of teaching competence, offer a vehicle for systematically examining the assessment data to improve teacher preparation programs, provide professional development to practicing teachers, and inform decisions about tenure of individual teachers.

From experience gained over 25 years of history developing performance-based assessments of teaching – including the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards, the Interstate Teacher Assessment and Support Consortium (InTASC) Standards portfolio, and the Performance Assessment for California Teachers – Stanford University faculty and staff at SCALE developed the TPA with substantive advice and feedback from teachers and teacher educators. The design and review team was comprised of more than 100 university faculty, national subject matter organization representatives (e.g., NCTM, NCTE, NSTA, etc.) and K-12 teachers. This instrument will be made available to all states and teacher preparation programs that wish to improve the consistency with which teacher licensure and accreditation decisions are made, including the rapidly expanding number and variety of "alternative routes" to licensure.

Development of a nationally accessible teaching performance assessment will allow states, school districts and teacher preparation programs to share a common framework for defining and measuring a set of core teaching skills that form a valid and robust vision of teacher competence. As states reference data generated from this tool to inform teacher licensure, recruitment and tenure, they will establish a national standard for relevant and rigorous practice that advances student learning.

TPAC Resources

• TPA Questions & Answers: A brief review of some of the basic history, development, and purpose of the assessment.
• TPAC Prospectus: A more in-depth look at the assessment and the Teacher Performance Assessment Consortium (TPAC).
• TPAC Overview Slides: Used in orientation presentations, this includes information on the key competencies that are measured, as well as the rubric levels in the assessment.
• TPAC Map: Map of states participating in the national assessment.

If you have more questions about the TPA, please feel free to leave a comment in the field below, or to contact Rachel Popham in the AACTE Programs & Development department at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .