California Teacher Performance Expectations

  1. Applying knowledge of students, including their prior experiences, interests, and social emotional learning needs, as well as their funds of knowledge and cultural, language, and socioeconomic backgrounds, to engage them in learning.
  2. Maintaining ongoing communication with students and families, including the use of technology to communicate with and support students and families, and to communicate achievement expectations and student progress.
  3.  Connecting subject matter to real-life contexts and provide active learning experiences to engage student interest, support student motivation, and allow students to extend their learning.
  4. Using a variety of developmentally and ability-appropriate instructional strategies, resources, and assistive technology, including principles of Universal Design of Learning (UDL) and Multi-Tiered System of Supports (MTSS) to support access to the curriculum for a wide range of learners within the general education classroom and environment.
  5. Promoting students' critical and creative thinking and analysis through activities that provide opportunities for inquiry, problem solving, responding to and framing meaningful questions, and reflection.
  6. Providing a supportive learning environment for students' first and/or second language acquisition by using research-based instructional approaches, including focused English Language Development, Specially Designed Academic Instruction in English (SDAIE), scaffolding across content areas, and structured English immersion, and demonstrating an understanding of the difference among students whose only instructional need is to acquire Standard English proficiency, students who may have an identified disability affecting their ability to acquire Standard English proficiency, and students who may have both a need to acquire Standard English proficiency and an identified disability.
  7. Providing students with opportunities to access the curriculum by incorporating the visual and performing arts, as appropriate to the content and context of learning.
  8. Monitoring student learning and adjust instruction while teaching so that students continue to be actively engaged in learning.

  1. Promoting students' social-emotional growth, development, and individual responsibility using positive interventions and supports, restorative justice, and conflict resolution practices to foster a caring community where each student is treated fairly and respectfully by adults and peers.
  2. Creating learning environments (i.e., traditional, blended, and online) that promote productive student learning, encourage positive interactions among students, reflect diversity and multiple perspectives, and are culturally responsive.
  3. Establishing, maintaining, and monitoring inclusive learning environments that are physically, mentally, intellectually, and emotionally healthy and safe to enable all students to learn, and recognizing and appropriately addressing instances of intolerance and harassment among students, such as bullying, racism, and sexism.
  4. Knowing how to access resources to support students, including those who have experienced trauma, homelessness, foster care, incarceration, and/or are medically fragile.
  5. Maintaining high expectations for learning with appropriate support for the full range of students in the classroom.
  6. Establishing and maintaining clear expectations for positive classroom behavior and for student to- student and student-to-teacher interactions by communicating classroom routines, procedures, and norms to students and families.

  1. Demonstrating knowledge of subject matter, including the adopted California State Standards and curriculum frameworks.
  2. Using knowledge about students and learning goals to organize the curriculum to facilitate student understanding of subject matter, and makes accommodations and/or modifications as needed to promote student access to the curriculum.
  3. Planning, designing, implementing, and monitoring instruction consistent with current subject-specific pedagogy in the content area(s) of instruction, and designing and implementing disciplinary and cross-disciplinary learning sequences, including integrating the visual and performing arts as applicable to the discipline.
  4. Individually and through consultation and collaboration with other educators and members of the larger school community, planning for effective subject matter instruction and uses multiple means of representing, expressing, and engaging students to demonstrate their knowledge.
  5. Adapting subject matter curriculum, organization, and planning to support the acquisition and use of academic language within learning activities to promote the subject matter knowledge of all students, including the full range of English learners, Standard English learners, students with disabilities, and students with other learning needs in the least restrictive environment.
  6. Using and adapting resources, standards-aligned instructional materials, and a range of technology, including assistive technology, to facilitate students' equitable access to the curriculum.
  7. Modeling and developing digital literacy by using technology to engage students and support their learning, and promote digital citizenship, including respecting copyright law, understanding fair use guidelines and the use of Creative Commons license, and maintaining Internet security.
  8. Demonstrating knowledge of effective teaching strategies aligned with the internationally recognized educational technology standards.

  1. Locating and applying information about students' current academic status, content- and standards-related learning needs and goals, assessment data, language proficiency status, and cultural background for both short-term and long-term instructional planning purposes. 
  2. Understanding and applying knowledge of the range and characteristics of typical and atypical child development from birth through adolescence to help inform instructional planning and learning experiences for all students.
  3. Designing and implementing instruction and assessment that reflects the interconnectedness of academic content areas and related student skills development in literacy, mathematics, science, and other disciplines across the curriculum, as applicable to the subject area of instruction.
  4. Planning, designing, implementing and monitoring instruction, making effective use of instructional time to maximize learning opportunities and provide access to the curriculum for all students by removing barriers and providing access through instructional strategies that include: appropriate use of instructional technology, including assistive technology; applying principles of UDL and MTSS; use of developmentally, linguistically, and culturally appropriate learning activities, instructional materials, and resources for all students, including the full range of English learners; appropriate modifications for students with disabilities in the general education classroom; opportunities for students to support each other in learning; and use of community resources and services as applicable.
  5. Promoting student success by providing opportunities for students to understand and advocate for strategies that meet their individual learning needs and assist students with specific learning needs to successfully participate in transition plans (e.g., IEP, IFSP, ITP, and 504 plans.)
  6. Accessing resources for planning and instruction, including the expertise of community and school colleagues through in-person or virtual collaboration, co-teaching, coaching, and/or networking.
  7. Planning instruction that promotes a range of communication strategies and activity modes between teacher and student and among students that encourage student participation in learning.
  8. Using digital tools and learning technologies across learning environments as appropriate to create new content and provides personalized and integrated technology-rich lessons to engage students in learning, promote digital literacy, and offer students multiple means to demonstrate their learning.

  1. Applying knowledge of the purposes, characteristics, and appropriate uses of different types of assessments (e.g., diagnostic, informal, formal, progress-monitoring, formative, summative, and performance) to design and administer classroom assessments, including use of scoring rubrics.
  2. Collecting and analyzing assessment data from multiple measures and sources to plan and modify instruction and document students' learning over time.
  3. Involving all students in self-assessment and reflection on their learning goals and progress and provide students with opportunities to revise or reframe their work based on assessment feedback.
  4. Using technology as appropriate to support assessment administration, conduct data analysis, and communicate learning outcomes to students and families.
  5. Using assessment information in a timely manner to assist students and families in understanding student progress in meeting learning goals.
  6. Working with specialists to interpret assessment results from formative and summative assessments to distinguish between students whose first language is English, English learners, Standard English learners, and students with language or other disabilities.
  7. Interpreting English learners' assessment data to identify their level of academic proficiency in English as well as in their primary language, as applicable, and use this information in planning instruction.
  8. Using assessment data, including information from students' IEP, IFSP, ITP, and 504 plans, to establish learning goals and to plan, differentiate, make accommodations and/or modify instruction.

  1. Reflecting on their own teaching practice and level of subject matter and pedagogical knowledge to plan and implement instruction that can improve student learning.
  2. Recognizing their own values and implicit and explicit biases, the ways in which these values and implicit and explicit biases may positively and negatively affect teaching and learning, and works to mitigate any negative impact on the teaching and learning of students. Exhibits positive dispositions of caring, support, acceptance, and fairness toward all students and families, as well as toward their colleagues.
  3. Establishing professional learning goals and makes progress to improve their practice by routinely engaging in communication and inquiry with colleagues.
  4. Demonstrating how and when to involve other adults and to communicate effectively with peers and colleagues, families, and members of the larger school community to support teacher and student learning.
  5. Demonstrating professional responsibility for all aspects of student learning and classroom management, including responsibility for the learning outcomes of all students, along with appropriate concerns and policies regarding the privacy, health, and safety of students and families. Conducts oneself with integrity and model ethical conduct for oneself and others.
  6. Understanding and enacting professional roles and responsibilities as mandated reporters and comply with all laws concerning professional responsibilities, professional conduct, and moral fitness, including the responsible use of social media and other digital platforms and tools.
  7. Critically analyzing how the context, structure, and history of public education in California affects and influences state, district, and school governance as well as state and local education finance.

  1. Plan and implement evidence-based literacy  instruction (and integrated content and literacy instruction) grounded in an understanding of applicable literacy-related academic standards3 and the themes of the California English Language Arts/English Language Development Framework (Foundational Skills, Meaning Making, Language Development, Effective Expression, and Content Knowledge) and their integration.
  2. Plan and implement evidence-based literacy instruction (and integrated content and literacy instruction) grounded in an understanding of Universal Design for Learning; California’s Multi-Tiered System of Support (Tier 1–Best first instruction, Tier 2–Targeted, supplemental instruction, and Tier 3–Referrals for intensive intervention); and the California Dyslexia Guidelines, including the definition and characteristics of dyslexia and structured literacy (i.e., instruction for students at risk for and with dyslexia that is comprehensive, systematic, explicit, cumulative, and multimodal and that includes phonology, orthography, phonics, morphology, syntax, and semantics).
  3. Incorporate asset-based pedagogies, 4 inclusive approaches, and culturally and linguistically affirming and sustaining practices in literacy instruction (and in integrated content and literacy instruction), recognizing and incorporating the diversity of students’ cultures, languages, dialects, and home communities. Promote students’ literacy development in languages other than English in multilingual (dual language and bilingual education) programs.
  4. Provide literacy instruction (and integrated content and literacy instruction) for all students that is active, motivating, and engaging; responsive to students’ age, language and literacy development, and literacy goals; reflective of family engagement, social and emotional learning, and trauma-informed practices; and based on students’ assessed learning strengths and needs, analysis of instructional materials and tasks, and identified academic standards. 
  5. Foundational Skills.6 Multiple Subject Candidates: Develop students’ skills in print concepts, including letters of the alphabet; phonological awareness, including phonemic awareness; phonics, spelling, and word recognition, including letter-sound, spelling-sound, and sound-symbol correspondences; decoding and encoding; morphological awareness; and text reading fluency, including accuracy, prosody (expression), and rate (as an indicator of automaticity), through instruction that is structured and organized as well as direct, systematic, and explicit and that includes practice in connected decodable text. Multiple Subject and Single Subject English Candidates: Provide instruction in text reading fluency that emphasizes spelling and syllable patterns, semantics, morphology, and syntax. Multiple Subject and Single Subject Candidates: Advance students’ progress in the elements of foundational skills, language, and cognitive skills that support them as they read and write increasingly complex disciplinary texts with comprehension and effective expression. 
  6. Meaning Making. Engage students in meaning-making by building on prior knowledge and using complex literary and informational texts (print, digital, and oral), questioning, and discussion to develop students’ literal and inferential comprehension, including the higher-order cognitive skills of reasoning, perspective-taking, and critical reading, writing, listening, and speaking across the disciplines. Engage students in reading, listening, speaking, writing, and viewing closely to draw evidence from texts, ask and answer questions, and support analysis, reflection, and research.
  7. Language Development. Promote students’ oral and written language development by attending to vocabulary knowledge and use, grammatical structures (e.g., syntax), and discourse-level understandings as students read, listen, speak, and write with comprehension and effective expression. Create environments that foster students’ oral and written language development, including discipline-specific academic language. Enhance language development by engaging students in the creation of diverse print, oral, digital, and multimedia texts. Conduct instruction that leverages students’ existing linguistic repertoires, including home languages and dialects, and that accepts and encourages translanguaging.
  8. Effective Expression. Develop students’ effective expression as they write, discuss, present, and use language conventions. Engage students in a range of frequent formal and informal collaborative discussions, including extended conversations, and writing for varied purposes, audiences, and contexts. Teach students to plan, develop, provide feedback to peers, revise using peer and teacher feedback, edit, and produce their own writing and oral presentations in various genres, drawing on the modes of opinion/argumentation, information, and narration. Develop students’ use of keyboarding, technology, and multimedia, as appropriate, and fluency in spelling, handwriting, and other language conventions to support writing and presentations. Teach young children letter formation/printing and related language conventions, such as capitalization and punctuation, in conjunction with applicable decoding skills.
  9. Content Knowledge. Promote students’ content knowledge by engaging students in literacy instruction, in all pertinent content areas, that integrates reading, writing, listening, and speaking in discipline-specific ways, including through printed and digital texts and multimedia, discussions, experimentation, hands-on explorations, and wide and independent reading. Teach students to navigate increasingly complex literary and informational texts relevant to the discipline, research questions of interest, and convey knowledge in a variety of ways. Promote digital literacy and the use of educational technology, including the ability to find, evaluate, use, share, analyze, create, and communicate digital resources safely and responsibly, and foster digital citizenship
  10. Multiple Subject and Single Subject English Candidates: Monitor students’ progress in literacy development using formative assessment practices, ongoing progress monitoring, and diagnostic techniques that inform instructional decision-making.8 Understand how to use screening to determine students’ literacy profiles and identify potential reading and writing difficulties, including students’ risk for dyslexia and other literacy-related disabilities. Understand how to appropriately assess and interpret results for English learner students. If indicated, collaborate with families and guardians as well as with teachers, specialists, other professionals, and administrators from the school or district to facilitate comprehensive assessment for disabilities in English and as appropriate in the home language; plan and provide supplemental instruction in inclusive settings; and initiate referrals for students who need more intensive support.
  11. Multiple Subject and Single Subject Candidates: Provide instruction in English language development (ELD) for students identified as English learner students based on an understanding of comprehensive ELD, which includes both integrated and designated ELD and is part of Tier 1 instruction. Understand how integrated and designated ELD are related and how designated ELD is taught in connection with (rather than isolated from) content areas and topics. Use ELA/literacy standards (or other content standards) and ELD standards in tandem to plan instruction that attends to students’ literacy profiles, levels of English language proficiency, and prior educational experiences. Provide ELD instruction that builds on students’ cultural and linguistic assets and develops students’ abilities to use English purposefully, interact in meaningful ways, and understand how English works across disciplines.