What is CAP?

The Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) defines the Candidate Assessment of Performance (CAP) as a cycle that "assesses a teacher candidate's readiness in relation to the Professional Standards for Teachers (PSTs). CAP parallels the Massachusetts Educator Evaluation system in order to better prepare teacher candidates and ensure that they are ready to be effective on day one. It measures teacher candidates' practice across a range of key indicators as outlined in the Guidelines for the Professional Standards for Teachers and supports them in improving their practice based on the results"(Candidate Assessment of Performance (CAP) - Educator Preparation, n.d.).

Essential Elements of CAP

CAP comprises five steps: Pre-Cycle, Step 1 - Self-Assessment, Step 2 - Goal Setting and Plan Development, Step 3 – Plan Implementation, Step 4 – Formative Assessments, Step 5 – Summative Assessment, and Post Cycle. While cycling through the CAP process, student teachers are assessed and couched based on the following five elements: Well Structured Lesson Plans, Safe Learning Environments, Meeting Diverse Needs, Adjustment to Practice, High Expectations, and Reflection Practices. These are the elements that student teachers must achieve proficiency in to obtain an initial teaching license from Massachusetts. To aid in student-teacher success and progression, they are teamed with a program supervisor (PS) and supervising practitioner (SP). Teacher candidates meet with all team members during/after their self-assessment, finalized goals and implementation plans, announced observations one and two, unannounced observations one and two, formative assessments, and summative assessments. Successful completion of CAP is required to complete all teacher preparation programs. Sponsoring Organizations are required to send to DESE all formative and summative ratings for all CAP participants by uploading their data to the CAP Online Platform." (Candidate Assessment of Performance (CAP) - Educator Preparation, n.d.). Feel free to click on any of the sections below to read how I managed to progress to proficiency and above in the six CAP elements during my student-teaching experience.