Completing and Submitting the edTPA

Jade Diaz

Jul 31, 2026

The edTPA is a teaching portfolio assessment built around three interconnected tasks. Each task requires you to submit specific artifacts along with written commentary explaining your choices and analyzing your teaching. Some Elementary Education candidates complete a fourth task as well.

This article walks you through the key requirements for completing each task and explains how to submit your finished portfolio for official scoring.

Tasks Overview
Completing Task 1: Planning for Instruction and Assessment
Completing Task 2: Instructing and Engaging Students in Learning
Completing Task 3: Assessing Student Learning
Completing Task 4: Re-engagement Lesson (Elementary Education Only)
Submitting Your edTPA
After Your edTPA Has Been Submitted
If You Need More Help

Tasks Overview

The three edTPA tasks represent a cycle of effective teaching. Task 1 documents your intended teaching, Task 2 documents your enacted teaching, and Task 3 documents the impact of that teaching on student learning. Each task is scored on five rubrics, with each rubric scored on a five-level scale.

Task 1 – Planning for Instruction and Assessment

You’ll describe and justify your plans for a learning segment — a sequence of 3–5 connected lessons built around a central focus for student learning. Your submission includes lesson plans and written commentary addressing your knowledge of your students, the academic language demands of your lessons, and how your assessments align to your learning objectives.

Task 2 – Instructing and Engaging Students in Learning

You’ll submit unedited video clips of yourself teaching your learning segment, along with written commentary explaining what the video demonstrates about your instruction. Your clips should capture meaningful interactions between you and your students that reflect your subject-specific teaching approach. Your learning segment can be taught in-person or synchronously in a virtual learning environment.

Task 3 – Assessing Student Learning

You’ll analyze student learning by examining whole-class performance on one assessment from your learning segment, selecting three individual student work samples for closer analysis, providing written feedback to those students, and proposing next instructional steps based on your findings.

Task 4 – Re-engagement Lesson (Elementary Education Only)

Note: Task 4 applies only to candidates using specific four-task Elementary Education handbooks (Literacy with Mathematics and Mathematics with Literacy.)

In this task, you design and teach a re-engagement lesson in response to what you learned about student learning in Task 3. Task 4 is scored on three rubrics rather than five.

If you're unsure whether your handbook includes Task 4, check with your advisor or Relay's edTPA coordinator.

Completing Task 1: Planning for Instruction and Assessment

Task 1 requires clear lesson plans, properly cited materials, and commentary that gives your scorer enough context to evaluate your work. Here are some things to keep in mind as you prepare to complete this task.

Your Lesson Plans

Your lessons should be new to your students. You don't need to write original lesson plans if your school requires a specific curriculum, but you should make adjustments to address individual student needs — for example, task accommodations for students with IEPs. Explain any adjustments in your Context for Learning and cite all sources.

You may use lesson plans provided by your school or network, as long as you provide appropriate citations. In your Context for Learning — the section of your portfolio where you describe your classroom setting and students — explain that you are required to use network-provided plans. When citing your lesson plans, use the unpublished manuscript format below:

Author's name. (Year published). Title of the lesson plan. Unpublished manuscript, School and/or Network name, City, State.

When formatting your commentary and written materials, use Arial, 11-point font with one-inch margins. These formatting requirements do not apply to lesson plans.

See the Artifacts and Commentary Specification sections in your handbook for requirements specific to each deliverable.

Writing Your Commentary

When drafting, assume your scorer knows nothing — because they don't know you, your students, or your school. Pearson uses a national network of scorers, so it's highly unlikely your portfolio will be reviewed by someone from your state. When discussing state-specific curriculum, assessments, or testing programs — for example, a Regents exam — be as specific as possible in your Context for Learning.

There is a page limit, but not a page minimum. What matters most is that you provide a clear lens for your reader. A concise, well-focused commentary will serve you better than one padded to hit a page limit.

Citations

Cite the source of any material you did not create — published texts, websites, materials from other educators, and lesson plans you didn't write. List all citations by lesson number at the end of your Literacy Planning Commentary.The edTPA is strict about citations.

For guidance on correct citation formatting, refer to LIB-101 on Canvas.

Completing Task 2: Instructing and Engaging Students in Learning

Task 2 centers on video evidence of your teaching. Before you film, make sure you understand who must appear in the video, how to set up your classroom, and what you can and cannot do when editing your clips.

Student and Classroom Requirements

The minimum number of students who need to be in your video varies by handbook area. The required minimum of students must be visible in your video at some point. If they aren't, you may receive a condition code — an administrative flag that may require you to resubmit Task 2 and pay an additional fee. Check the "What Do I Need to Do?" section at the beginning of each Task description in your handbook for the specific number.

Student Confidentiality

You’ll have strict student confidentiality guidelines to abide by, so make a note of them before you begin filming.

You may not include any student last names in your work samples
You may only refer to students by first name in your videos.
Students who appear in your video must have parental permission to be filmed. Your Relay video permissions satisfy this requirement — you do not need to submit them with your edTPA portfolio materials.

Note: See the 'Professional Responsibilities' section in your handbook for more information about how to respect student confidentiality while you complete Task 2

Recording Your Learning Segment

Position your camera so that your face is visible, the required minimum number of students can be seen, and both you and your students can be clearly heard.

Recording best practices:

Collect all required consent forms from guardians before filming
Use a tripod
Practice recording with your camera ahead of time
If you're using an iPhone or iPod, use the back-facing camera — it has significantly higher resolution
Avoid filming with bright backgrounds such as windows behind you
Plan where to position any student who doesn't have permission to be filmed so they can still participate off-camera
Make sure your camera is fully charged and has sufficient storage for the full lesson
Plan to record the entire learning segment, not just the portions you intend to submit
Back your videos up in multiple locations — for example, Google Drive and your computer's hard drive

For detailed guidance on filming setup, refer to the Making Good Choices guide.

Learn what acceptable video file types and technical specifications are required here.

Selecting Your Video Clips

Depending on your handbook area, you'll submit one or two video clips for Task 2. Check your handbook carefully for clip length and quantity requirements before selecting your footage.

When reviewing your recordings, look for evidence of the following in the clips you choose:

Positive interactions between you and your students
Students actively engaged in practicing the lesson's strategies and skills
You eliciting student responses that promote understanding and application
Your support in helping students use and apply the lesson's strategies and skills
Student use of Academic Language — the language function and one or more language demands from your learning segment

Video Editing Tools

You'll need to trim your raw footage to select your final clips. Free or low-cost options are available for both Windows and Mac users.

Windows users — Windows Movie Maker:

Open Windows Movie Maker
Click the arrow next to "Save Movie" in the upper right
Scroll to "Create custom setting" and click it
Title the setting "edTPA"
Enter these settings: 853 (w) x 480 (h) — 256 KB bit rate, audio at 96 kbps, 48 kHz
Save and close custom settings
Import your video
Play until you reach the beginning of the portion you want to keep, then click the Edit menu
Click "Set Start Point"
Click "Set End Point"
Return to the Home menu
Click the arrow next to Save Movie, then select "edTPA"
Title your clip and click Save

Mac and iOS users — iMovie:

Open iMovie
Make sure Projects is selected
Tap the + symbol and select Movie
Select your recording and tap "Create Movie"
Tap your recording and use the yellow bars at either end of the filmstrip to trim it to the desired time frame
Tap "Done" in the upper left
Tap the box with the upward arrow and choose "Save Video"
Once exported, tap OK and close iMovie — the clip will appear in your Photos app

Blurring faces or other identifying information:

If you need to blur a student's face or other identifying details — for example, last names visible on desks — the following tools can help. Movavi

OpenShot — free and open-source
Filmora (formerly Filmora9)

Note that some options include a free trial version rather than a fully free product.

Video Editing Restrictions

Video editing is not permitted and will result in a condition code and an overall Incomplete score. The only permissible edits are:

Facial blurring or muting for students you don't have permission to film
Captioning to clarify dialogue that's difficult to hear
Cosmetic edits such as adding a title card or redacting identifying information
Footage interrupted by a camera malfunction, provided the interruption is explained on video and/or in your commentary

Completing Task 3: Assessing Student Learning

Your Focus Students

For Tasks 1 through 3, you'll work with one focus class, and your group of students should remain the same throughout.

Completing Task 4: Re-engagement Lesson (Elementary Education Only)

If you're using one of the four-task Elementary Education handbooks, you may use a different focus class for Task 4 than the one you used in Tasks 1–3. For guidance on designing your re-engagement lesson, refer to the Making Good Choices: Task 4 Addendum.

You can also find this information directly from the edTPA website:

Submitting Your edTPA

Before uploading, confirm that your files follow the naming conventions required for each deliverable. You can find these in the Artifacts and Commentary Specification sections of your handbook.

Submit your completed portfolio — including all documents and video clips — through the Pearson ePortfolio system, the online platform where all edTPA portfolios are uploaded and submitted for official scoring. Follow the platform's instructions for uploading files by task.

After your edTPA has been submitted

You’ll find the edTPA scoring criteria for your state and handbook area on the edTPA Scores page.

Each task is scored on five rubrics — except Elementary Education Task 4, which has three — and each rubric is scored on a five-level scale. Your total score is the sum of all rubric scores.

If You Don't Pass

Candidates who don't meet their program's or state's minimum score requirement may retake part or all of the assessment.

Retake fees are as follows:

Full assessment retake: $300
3-task retake (Elementary Education only): $300
2-task retake: $200
Single-task retake: $100

Before registering for a retake, consult with your Manager of Student Success. They can walk you through the Guidelines for edTPA Retake Decision-making and Support.

When you're ready to register, review the Instructions for edTPA Retake first. This guide covers important registration and submission information.

If You Need More Help

Questions about your specific situation? Here's who to contact:

Your Manager of Student Success
The edTPA candidate FAQ page: edtpa.com

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