The Child Development Permit Workgroup was established by the Commission on Teacher Credentialing in August 2023 to reassess and modernize the state’s Child Development Permit system, ensuring it aligns with current educational standards and workforce needs. The workgroup’s efforts concluded in July 2024, marking the culmination of a nine-year collaborative initiative aimed at enhancing quality, competency-based preparation, and professional development for the early childhood workforce. With the implementation of the newly approved CDP Matrix, the workgroup recommended refreshing the existing school-age authorization and introducing a new infant/toddler authorization that reflects specialized training aligned with workforce needs and Title 22 licensing regulations.

ACSA Legislative Advocate Serette Kaminski wrote a letter to the commission on behalf of ACSA members expressing concern that the development of an added authorization or specialization would lead to the narrowing of the workforce and make it more difficult for schools to staff the Expanded Learning Opportunities Program (ELO-P). The purpose of ELO-P is for school districts and charter schools to offer and provide access to afterschool and summer school enrichment programs for grades kindergarten through six. These programs have been highly successful in re-engaging students post-pandemic, combating chronic absenteeism, and helping families in a multitude of ways. Programming has been transformative; schools have partnered with community-based organizations to provide innovative camps, programs with local zoos, and art, music, and cooking academies. ACSA’s position is that creating additional regulations around staffing would change the intent of the program and hinder these enrichment programs. Ultimately, it would restrict students’ access to these vital enrichment opportunities, diminishing the joy and engagement they currently experience through these transformative programs.

Staff recommended and the commission approved allowing additional time for analysis to fully assess the feasibility and complexity of developing added authorizations. Further exploration will help ensure any future recommendations are effectively aligned with existing credential requirements, address workforce demands and maintain coherence within the broader ECE system.

Draft Teaching Performance Assessments In August 2024, the CTC adopted a charge for a workgroup to review the design and implementation of commission-adopted Teaching Performance Assessments, aligning with Senate Bill 1263. The following are an edited summary of the draft recommendations due to the extensive compilations of the total workgroup recommendations.

Focus area 1 recommendations: 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. The RDI-TPA Workgroup recommends:

• Streamlining the TPA exam so that candidates can focus on demonstrating their competencies without navigating unnecessary complexity.
• That the TPA be broken into multiple segments, with TPEs specified, that are contained within existing coursework and reflected in the program standards.
• That candidates have opportunities to submit evidence for the TPA using multiple modalities and collect multiple points of evidence for their teaching.
• That the lessons required for the TPAs be centered around culturally responsive/sustaining and equity-focused pedagogy within the tasks.
• That the CTC develop a continuum of practice from preservice through in-service that integrates Teaching Performance Expectations and California Standards for the Teaching Profession.

Focus area 2 recommendations: Recommendations for how programs might embed the assessments into coursework. The RDI-TPA Workgroup recommends:

• Embedding formative and final experiences with the TPA in both coursework and clinical work.
  
• That programs must support candidates with reflective activities based on the feedback received on the TPA to further the candidate’s ongoing growth and development, regardless of pass or fail.
• That all individuals involved in supporting candidates in their development as teachers, including course instructors, coaches/university supervisors, and mentor teachers, learn the specifics of the program’s adopted TPA model, including understanding the specific tasks, rubrics and evidence.

Focus area 3 recommendations: 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. The RDI-TPA Workgroup recommends:

• That the CTC develop and support a system of shared accountability between preparation programs, CTC and TPA model sponsors to address disproportionate TPA success rates.
• That Program Standard 3D be revised to include professional development for LEA stakeholders and district employed supervisors/mentor teachers specific to the program’s TPA model and required and acceptable forms of support.
• Requiring institutions to submit documentation on how they will support credential candidates (cost-free?) that have not successfully completed the performance assessment.

Focus area 4 recommendations: Recommendations for how programs can engage in local scoring of the assessment to inform program improvement. The RDI-TPA Workgroup recommends:

• That programs should engage in a method of local scoring that aligns to program improvement needs and candidate needs for support.
• That any additional costs related to inter-rater reliability, validity, collaboration, scoring re-submissions, or calibration training be provided through funding from the state.
• That a TPA Model Sponsor shall be an accredited institution, group of accredited institutions, or the state commission.

Focus area 5 recommendations: Suggested questions for program completer surveys to understand candidate experience of programmatic support for assessment completion. The RDI-TPA Workgroup recommends:

• That the existing CalTPA survey be reviewed and revised to ensure that it gathers relevant and meaningful data about each of the RDI-TPA Workgroup Focus Areas.

In responding to this agenda item, Doug Gephart, ACSA’s liaison to the CTC, provided a public comment commending the workgroup for its work to address a complex and challenging issue.

Gephart also noted another critical step in the draft recommendations, as noted in focus area 3, is specific guidelines and expectations for program providers.

“Program providers are commended for their efforts to prepare teachers in their pursuit of a teaching credential. However, there are instances when some program providers do not meet high standards of ensuring teacher candidates pass Teacher Performance Assessments and/or ensure teacher candidates are provided essential support as they complete the teacher credential requirements,” Gephart said. “Failure of program providers to develop internal standards and procedures to ensure teacher candidates are fully prepared to pass essential assessments does not meet commission’s expectations to fully prepare teachers to earn their credential.”

ACSA asked the commission to refine and adopt standards and expectations through the workgroup recommendations that will ensure program providers are held to the same high standards and expectations in their programs as the teacher candidates are held in earning their teaching credential.

Impact of transitioning from RICA to LPA The CTC previously adopted a transition plan from the Reading Competence Instruction Assessment to the new Literacy Performance Assessment that is being field tested this academic year. As part of the transition plan from the RICA to the LPA, staff provided notice to program sponsors and candidates that both the RICA: Written and the RICA: Video Performance Assessment would be retired as of June 30, 2025.

Two candidate groups will be particularly affected by the timeframe for transitioning to the new LPA as of June 30, 2025:

1. Teachers who earned a Preliminary Multiple Subject or Education Specialist credential during the pandemic who were given a deferral for the RICA requirement because testing centers were closed or had limited capacity.

2. Currently enrolled Multiple Subject and Education Specialist candidates who will have completed all other credential requirements except for passing the RICA or the LPA pilot by June 30, 2025. These candidates will have a limited amount of time compared with previous candidate cohorts to attempt and pass the RICA before it is retired.

These two groups of candidates need a way to meet the reading instruction competency requirement even after RICA is retired. In addition, examinees who are prepared out of the country and others who are not enrolled in a commission-approved teacher preparation program will need an ongoing way to meet the reading instruction competency requirement.

Update on the development of the CalTPA Math Cycle Field Test Current law requires individuals seeking a California teaching credential to complete a Teaching Performance Assessment, in addition to successfully completing coursework and clinical practice through a commission-approved program. The TPA measures candidates’ proficiency on Teaching Performance Expectation elements observable through a performance assessment prior to being recommended for a preliminary credential.

In developing the field test version of the Math Cycle, experts in each of their respective fields used CalTPA Cycle 1: Getting to Know Students and Planning Instruction, as the foundational document to begin their work. In addition to adjustments to the evidence candidates submit, several innovative changes were incorporated from the positive feedback received during the Literacy Performance Assessment:

Commission staff will provide an analysis of the full Math Cycle field test at the June commission meeting and propose a passing standard for 2025-26.