The State Board of Education (SBOE) Committee on School Initiatives voted 3 to 1 to recommend approval of a rule that would operationalize the edTPA assessment in Texas. 

SBOE members LJ Francis (R–Corpus Christi) and Rebecca Bell-Metereau (D–San Marcos) initially voted to veto the rule proposal, with Julie Pickren (R–Pearland) and Staci Childs (D–Houston) voting against the veto. On a second vote, Bell-Metereau joined Pickren and Childs in voting to advance the rule to the full board. Committee Chair Will Hickman (R–Houston) did not vote. 

The proposed rule would remove the pilot status from edTPA and allow the agency to implement cut scores for applying edTPA results to the Accountability System for Educator Preparation (ASEP). It would also establish the framework for a teacher residency program. 

The Texas Coalition for Educator Preparation, of which ATPE is a member, opposed the rule for several reasons. The rule would effectively operationalize edTPA, which was developed by Stanford University in California and is aligned to prohibited Common Core standards without the availability of a Texas-developed alternative. 

The rule would also allow residency candidates to complete their certification without having taken the pedagogy and professional responsibilities (PPR) exam, which is required in nearly all other certification pathways and includes testing on the Educator Code of Ethics. 

The committee heard invited testimony from State Board for Educator Certification (SBEC) Chair Jean Streepey and SBEC member Scott Muri, both of whom emphasized that edTPA would not become a mandatory certification exam until a Texas alternative is developed. 

Streepey said currently only seven out of 123 educator preparation programs (EPP) are implementing edTPA and argued the change is needed to include these programs in the ASEP. 

Francis moved to veto the rule after expressing concern over the lack of a pilot study or any data or analysis that might shed light on the effectiveness of edTPA. Francis also questioned the harm caused by not removing the program’s pilot status. 

Under questioning by Pickren, Texas Education Agency (TEA) staff said that as many as 40 programs have piloted edTPA at one time or another. Most of them are no longer using edTPA. One EPP provider who testified acknowledged that their program had abandoned edTPA because of its cost, which is roughly double that of PPR. 

Dr. Stacey Edmonson of Sam Houston State University (SHSU) testified that the institution had developed and presented a proposal through the Region 13 Education Service Center (ESC) for a Texas-developed performance assessment but that the proposal was rejected without any explanation or feedback. Staff acknowledged that SHSU was the only applicant and that none were chosen. 

Hickman expressed support for the rule and urged SBEC members and agency staff to work more collaboratively with SHSU and provide helpful feedback. 

Childs suggested partnering with SHSU to create a Texas TPA pilot program and asked agency staff to commit to a development timeline. Staff declined to offer a timeline but suggested the initial target had been the 2026-27 school year. 

The rule will go to the full board Friday with the committee’s recommendation that it be passed. A two-thirds vote of the board, or 10 members, is required to veto the rule.