Performance Assessment for California Teachers

PACT PACT is a consortium of teacher

preparation programs that have joined together to develop a teacher performance assessment. Successful completion of the teaching performance assessment is required to earn a California Multiple Subject or Single Subject Teaching Credential.

There are 3 CCTC approved teaching performance assessments in California; PACT, CalTPA, FAST. 1

PACTSome important language to know.

• Teaching Event: 3-5 hours of instruction—except art 8-10 hours

• Teaching Event Handbook: Contains the instructions to complete the Teaching Event.

• Learning Segment: A set of lessons that build one upon another toward a central purpose, with a clearly defined beginning and end.

• Central Focus of Learning: The target of the student learning that the standards, learning objectives, instructional tasks, and assessments within a learning segment are intended to produce. A central focus can be expressed by a theme, overarching concept, or essential question.

• Academic Language: the language needed by students to understand and communicate in the academic disciplines; includes specialized vocabulary, conventional text structures within a field (e.g., essays, lab reports) and other language-related activities typical of classrooms, (e.g., expressing disagreement, discussing an issue, asking for clarification). Academic language includes both productive and receptive modalities (see glossary in Teaching Event Handbook).

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Teaching Event TasksThis is what needs to be completed:

Task 1: Context for Learning

Task 2: Planning Instruction & Assessment

Task 3: Instructing Students & Supporting Learning

Task 4: Assessing Student Learning

Task 5: Reflecting on Teaching & Learning

• Complete each of these tasks directly from the Teaching Event Handbook.

• E-mail the completed tasks as attachments to 373B instructor to receive feedback

• Final responses to tasks will be put into TaskStream3

Task 1: Context for Learning

1. Context Form: Basic information about the ONE class selected for your Teaching Event.

2. Context Commentary (commentary are questions (prompts) to be answered.)

• These prompts request information about your students such as their levels of academic, social and language skills; and any family/community factors.

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Task 2: Planning Instruction & Assessment

1. Lesson Plans for Learning Segment

2. Instructional Materials (handouts, PPT’s assessments or any other materials used in the Learning Segment)

3. Planning Commentary which explains your lesson plans, why you think the lesson plans should work.

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Task 3: Instructing Students & Supporting Learning

1. Video Clips (the exact instructions for what to video are explained in the Teaching Event Handbook in Task 3 and should be followed.

2. Video Label Form

3. Instruction Commentary, an analysis of your video clips.

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Task 4: Assessing Student Learning

1. Copies of student work (could be photographs)

2. Evaluative criteria or rubric used to evaluate the ONE assessment that you are focusing your descriptions for Task 4.

3. Assessment Commentary describing how well the assessment worked.

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Task 5: Reflecting on Teaching & Learning

1. Daily Reflections: What worked, what didn’t work, what you changed from lesson to lesson of the Learning Segment. This should be completed daily while you are teaching the learning segment.

2. Reflection Commentary

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Rubrics are used to score your PACT

• 3 Planning rubrics covering tasks 1 & 2

• 2 Instruction rubrics covering task 3

• 3 Assessment rubrics covering task 4

• 2 Reflection rubrics covering task 5

• 2 rubrics covering Academic Language. Academic Language should be evident throughout tasks 1-5

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Academic Language should be evidenced in every task.

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Criteria for selecting a class for the Teaching Event

1. English Language Learners

2. Classroom Management

3. Learning

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Identify Learning Segment for Tasks 1-5

1. Identify a concept that will be taught not a standard.

2. Discuss with CT and supervisor”• What will be your Learning Segment.• When the Learning Segment will be taught.

3. The Learning Segment can be part of a larger unit, but will not be the entire unit of study.

4. The Learning Segment does not necessarily need to be sequential, but it must have a central focus of learning.

5. Learning Segment instructions are described on p. 1 in the Teaching Event Handbook under the sub-heading “Select a learning segment.”

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