Janet Napolitano, President of the University of California, has appointed Associate Teaching Professor Andrew Fedders to serve as the UC Representative for the Special Education California Teaching Performance Assessment (CalTPA) Design Team. The team will be involved in a two-year development of the Special Education CalTPA.
CalTPA is one of the approved teaching performance assessment models that requires a teaching candidate to complete performance tasks related to subject-specific pedagogy, designing and implementing instruction and student assessment, video-recording teaching, and reflecting on practice. The CalTPA Design Team is necessary to inform the redevelopment of the CalTPA and review various tasks, rubrics, processes, and materials.
Along with the rest of the Special Education CalTPA Design Team, Fedders will be responsible for developing analytic scoring rubrics, candidate and program materials, the orientation process, the assessor training, the calibration and recalibration processes, pilot and field testing, and final revisions of the performance assessment tasks and materials. He and his fellow team members will also be confirming online candidate registration and developing an online scoring and reporting system for the Special Education CalTPA. The Design Team meetings will commence in February at the Commission on Teacher Credentialing (CTC) office in Sacramento, and the work of the team is projected to be completed by February 2022.
Dr. Fedders is the Interim Director of the Teacher Education Program (TEP) and the coordinator of the Education Specialist Credential (ESC) program in TEP. He started his teaching career as an instructional assistant in 2001, and has worked in special education for over 10 years. Fedders received his teaching credential in 2004, and worked as a special education teacher in Santa Barbara until 2008, teaching students with moderate and severe disabilities. As an instructional assistant and a teacher, he has gained extensive experience teaching students with autism and profound communication needs as well as emotional and behavioral disorders. He received his MA in 2008, and stopped teaching to pursue his Ph.D. in UCSB’s Department of Education with an emphasis in Special Education, Disabilities, and Risk Studies. From 2008 to 2011 he worked as a program supervisor for Koegel Autism Consultants. Fedders completed his Ph.D. in 2011 and became the coordinator of the ESC program.
“Professor Fedders will bring an exemplary research background on issues related to special education,” President Janet Napolitano states in her appointment letter. “The Commission on Teacher Credentialing will benefit from his expert insight on evidence-based practices, systematic instruction, teacher education, beginning teach supports and the use of technology in learning.”