The edTPA is a performance-based, subject-specific assessment portfolio required for initial-level licensure in the following states with Relay campuses: Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, New Jersey, New York, and Tennessee. It is meant to assess a notice teacher's readiness to teach in the classroom in the areas of Planning, Instruction, and Assessment.

Stanford University faculty and staff at the Stanford Center for Assessment, Learning, and Equity (SCALE) developed edTPA. They received substantive advice and feedback from teachers and teacher educators and drew from experience gained from over 25 years of developing performance-based assessments of teaching (including the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS), the Interstate Teacher Assessment and Support Consortium (InTASC) Standards portfolio, and the Performance Assessment for California Teachers.

The design and review teams have included hundreds of university faculty, national subject-matter organization representatives (e.g., NCTM, NCTE, NSTA, etc.), and K–12 teachers. Stanford University is the exclusive author and owner of edTPA.

edTPA requires teachers to demonstrate readiness to teach through lesson plans designed to support their students' strengths and needs; engage real students in ambitious learning; analyze whether their students are learning, and adjust their instruction to become more effective. Teacher candidates submit unedited video recordings of themselves at work in a real classroom as part of a portfolio that is scored by highly trained educators. edTPA builds on decades of teacher performance assessment development and research regarding teaching skills and practices that improve student learning.

Source: http://www.edtpa.com/PageView.aspx?f=GEN_AboutEdTPA.htm