New teacher certification exam to be developed at Texas universities

On April 25, the State Board for Educator Certification heard updates on the ongoing development of a new teacher certification exam called the Texas Test of Educator Proficiency, or T-TEP.

For the past few years, SBEC has taken preliminary steps to eliminate the Pedagogy and Professional Responsibilities exam (PPR) that is currently required for teacher certification alongside a content exam and replace it with a more accurate measure of a teacher candidate's pedagogical knowledge. An alternative portfolio-based assessment called edTPA has been piloted in Texas for years, but due to widespread complaints about its quality and the unnecessary strain it places on candidates, SBEC and the State Board of Education soured on the idea of adopting edTPA as the new standard in Texas.

Attempts were made to solicit Texas universities to create a modified version of that assessment, tentatively called TxTPA, but only one university applied to lead development and that application was rejected for various reasons.

With the failure of the TxTPA development process, SBEC, along with the Texas Education Agency, have initiated a new process to solicit applications from more universities to collaboratively develop T-TEP. Six to eight representatives from various nonprofit educator preparation programs will be selected to develop the assessment; those representatives will be announced May 5. After they create initial drafts of T-TEP, other education stakeholders will be invited to offer feedback and help the development team refine the assessment into its final form.

SBEC plans for T-TEP to assess teacher candidates much in the same way a teacher is assessed under T-TESS, preparing teacher candidates for the appraisals they will undergo after they are certified and employed at a school district. 

TCTA has already participated in early steps of stakeholder feedback and will continue to do so as T-TEP takes shape in the next few years.