Educator Teaching Performance Assessment (EdTPA)
As a new teacher in Ohio, you will be expected to participate in the Resident Educator Summative Assessment (RESA) program for the first five years of your career. It involves personal reflection, videotaping lessons and submission of curriculum plans. Findlay prepares students for this additional requirement by having students complete the EdTPA. The EdTPA is a teacher preparation program that is very similar to the assessment programs you will go through during RESA.
Our faculty helps you build the EdTPA portfolio requirements starting freshman year. In your courses, learn about assessment activities and practice recording your teaching so that you have four years of records by the time you need to submit your EdTPA. The lesson plans you create for your student teaching also factor into your portfolio. As you start your student teaching early in the curriculum, you will have the time and experience necessary for creating flawless lesson plans. Our faculty is available for 1-on-1 sessions for EdTPA preparation to make sure you feel comfortable before submitting your work.
Once Findlay graduates begin teaching after graduation, they find the RESA relatively easy to complete since they have the experience performing the work during EDTPA.
“I am so thankful for the Findlay faculty for pushing my classmates and myself to use the lesson plan outline they provided us. I actually went to Findlay's COE website and downloaded the lesson plan outline to write the lesson I will be recording for RESA. It aligns so well with the rubrics provided in the Ohio RESA handbook, that my lesson reflection will be seamless because I have already used the language, almost verbatim, for which the RESA evaluators are looking.
I have sat in RESA meetings and have talked to colleagues who were never required to write lesson plans with such breadth and complexity, and now they are teachers in the field who are struggling to complete this portion of the task. I have never once had a second thought about my decision to go to the University of Findlay, where I received topnotch preparation for this challenging profession."
-Abbie Boggs (Demas) '16
Licensure Preparation
In most states, there are several requirements that students must meet before receiving their teaching license and navigating it on your own can be a stressful, complicated experience. At the University of Findlay College of Education, we are here to help. Our licensure coordinators work with each student to make sure they have met every requirement necessary to become a teacher upon graduation.
Ohio Teaching License is accepted in all 50 states.
To receive a teaching license, you must have:
- Bachelor's Degree
- Coursework completed at a state-approved program of preparation
- Passage of state test relating to your area of licensure
How Findlay Helps You Succeed
All majors offered through the College of Education are state-approved programs of preparation. That means you will graduate with two of the four requirements completed. With a student to teacher ratio of 16:1, our teachers can work closely with students to make sure they can take what they are learning and apply it to the classroom.
Classes offered at Findlay will are formed around test preparation. Our faculty will incorporate short answer questions similar to those asked on the state test into your classwork tests to ensure you are prepared on all subject matters. They also review the test each year and explore all topics that will be tested on in their classes.