Educative Teacher Performance Assessment (edTPA) Practice Test 2026 - Free edTPA Practice Questions and Study Guide

Aligning instruction and assessment means creating a direct link from what students are supposed to learn to the evidence that shows they have learned it. In Task 1, the strongest approach is to map each learning target to specific assessment evidence and describe exactly how each task will measure that target. This makes the connection explicit: you can see which part of the assessment corresponds to which target, and you can judge whether students demonstrated the intended learning. It also supports clear feedback and planning, because you know which target each task is assessing and what counts as evidence of mastery.

Listing standards the lesson references doesn’t show how you will verify mastery of those targets; it documents coverage rather than evidence. Focusing only on student self-assessment overlooks objective, externally observable evidence tied to the targets. Designing assessments that do not connect to targets breaks the alignment entirely, making it impossible to claim that the assessment demonstrates progress toward the learning goals.