Resident Educators should review their Lesson Reflection responses and videos alongside their RESA Score Reports. You can view the evidence that you submitted, by navigating to the “What I Need to Submit” section of your TeachForward account. Assessors provided feedback statements for each of the seven domains, so it will be most helpful to have the evidence you submitted for each domain available for your review, when reading your score report. Once you access these materials, we recommend that you arrange a time to meet with your mentor, facilitator, or Program Coordinator to review these materials and discuss areas for growth.
If you were unsuccessful, please contact support@teachforward.com within 30 days of receiving your score report if you would like to meet with a virtual instructional coach to discuss your results, improvement strategies, and professional development. This support is funded by the Ohio State Board of Education.
RESA assessors receive extensive training on the RESA Lesson Reflection. Their training covers recognizing and minimizing bias, in addition to each of the seven evaluation domains in the Lesson Reflection. Once assessors pass the certification test, they are assigned submissions to score.
Assessors are prohibited from scoring submissions of candidates they might know, and they are asked to defer submissions of candidates whom they recognize.
For quality assurance purposes, a scoring administrator conducts reviews of the assessors’ scoring. Assessors who do not meet a minimum accuracy standard are not permitted to score.
Program Coordinators can find resources available in support of serving Resident Educators here.
No. The teaching evidence and analysis submitted as part of this Lesson Reflection must be your work and yours alone. Please contact support@teachforward.com if you need technical support.
You must have at least one student in your class to record your lesson for your RESA submission.
Yes. Resident Educators may use lessons that they recorded anytime during their experience in the Resident Educator Program.
Resident Educators must select a video segment of up to 20 minutes in length. There is no minimum amount of time for your video submission. If your video is significantly shorter than 20 minutes, please keep in mind that your assessor can only see the segment that you have selected and must depend on the evidence you have provided.
Yes. These teachers are exempt from participating in the local Resident Educator Program and the RESA. The district’s Program Coordinator does not register these teachers in CORE.
As you begin to examine the Lesson Reflection Domains and Criteria in the RESA Guidebook, focus on the Criterion section. What the assessor will be looking for is described in this section for each domain. Then, review the continuum of performance, which provides a spectrum of strong to weak evidence. Focus performance toward the strong evidence of the continuum. After completing your work, you may wish to go back to the domains/criteria and the performance continuum to review the quality of your work before submission.
On the Teaching and Learning Context form, the term "Exceptionalities" includes the following categories:
developmental delays
emotional and behavioral disorders
communication disorders
hearing disabilities
visual impairments
physical disabilities
Your score report will be available within 30 calendar days of submitting the RESA. To access your score report, log in to your TeachForward account by clicking Log In on the homepage of this website.
You should download their score report and save both an electronic and paper copy.
If you have trouble accessing your report, the TeachForward Help Desk (support@teachforward.com) provides assistance with the technical aspects of accessing your score report, viewing your submitted materials, and logging into the TeachForward system.
After submitting, you do not have the option to recall your submission, revise your submission, or submit new materials.
You may retake the Lesson Reflection before the submission deadline.
When retaking the Lesson Reflection, you may not resubmit evidence from a prior RESA submission.
If you were unsuccessful, please contact support@teachforward.com within 30 days of receiving your score report if you would like to meet with a virtual instructional coach to discuss your results, improvement strategies, and professional development. This support is funded by the Ohio State Board of Education.
Also, you should work with your mentor, facilitator, and/or Program Coordinator to review materials and discuss areas for growth.
If a submission initially receives a failing score, it is automatically rescored by another assessor who is unaware the submission has already been scored. The score and feedback statements from the second round of scoring are final. Requests for a third round of scoring will not be granted.
Upon successful completion of the two-year Resident Educator Program and the RESA, you may be eligible to apply for the five-year professional educator license. Learn more about Ohio educator licensure here. If you hold an Alternative Resident Educator license, you may have additional requirements. Please contact the Office of Educator Licensure at educator.licensure@education.ohio.gov to ensure that all requirements have been met to qualify to advance to the professional license.
RESA assessors are all current or former educators from the state of Ohio with at least ten years of teaching experience. They undergo extensive training for the RESA Lesson Reflection before they take a rigorous certification test. TeachForward recruits and assigns assessors to train and score submissions based on the subjects they have taught and the context of the schools where they have worked.
For the 2023-2024 RESA, submission materials and score reports will be accessible online until June 15, 2024. After June 15, TeachForward will not be able to provide a copy of your score report or submission materials.
There are no specific technology requirements. Candidates should record online classes directly through the platform (e.g. click the record button on Zoom) or use screen recording software. The important thing is that candidates preview the video and ensure it is possible to hear and see the candidate and students and the evidence is legible. If the evidence is not legible, then the candidate should use a higher resolution and record another lesson.
If it is difficult to understand a student when they are speaking, we recommend that the candidate repeat what the student says, so the other students can understand what the student said, as well as the assessor reviewing the video. When reviewing the videos, assessors are looking for trends, and it is okay if it is not possible or very difficult to hear some of the student comments and responses.
If the candidate would like to explain something that is difficult to hear/understand in the video, they can do so within the full-page answer box on page 7 of the Video Commentary and Reflection Form. The question on page 7 is an unnumbered (between questions 3 and 4) and unscored question that allows candidates to provide context to the assessor. On the Video Commentary and Reflection Form, each response should not exceed 250 words. As always, candidates should not attempt to add pages to either form since this will cause an error during the uploading process that could make the entire form appear blank.
Candidates should not attempt to add closed captioning or submit a transcript of the video.
The assessors will give candidates every benefit of the doubt when reviewing evidence, especially for Domains 4 and 5.
For virtual classes, candidates can show evidence of student engagement (Domain 4) and intellectual engagement (Domain 5) in many of the same ways as they would for in-person classes. For example, candidates can ask questions and have students respond verbally or they can have students respond in a chat box, write on a Google document, or answer online survey question(s). Candidates and/or other students can then provide feedback either verbally or in writing.
Candidates should complete the context form based on the group of students who is participating in the recorded lesson.
The chat function does not need to be shown, especially if it is not being used. If the chat function is used, candidates are encouraged, but not required, to make it visible.
RESA Candidates must submit the Lesson Reflection by 11:59 pm ET on Friday, April 5, 2024. No deadline extension requests will be granted.
Resident Educators are assigned Program Coordinators and Program Coordinators register them as RESA candidates in the CORE database by November 15. For more information, see the Resident Educator Program website.
There is no cost to the RESA candidate. The Ohio State Board of Education is supporting the following costs of implementing the RESA: use of software platform, site licenses, assessors, facilitation training, and other related resources.
Resident Educators begin preparing for the RESA on the first day of their teaching experience. This preparation continues until the submission of the RESA in year 2 of the Resident Educator Program. Educators may begin collecting instructional evidence for the RESA Lesson Reflection as soon as they begin their experience in the Resident Educator Program.
The RESA Guidebook will guide candidates through the RESA submission process by providing detailed directions on how to complete the Lesson Reflection and outlining the domains that will be used to score it.
Go to the “Contact Us” page of this website for support information.
Your RESA Program Coordinator will confirm that you are eligible to take the RESA, will manage your registration in the CORE system, provide helpful guidance, and will monitor and report on your submission process.
The Resident Educator Program website: The RESA website provides a clearinghouse of information about the RESA. For information about the Resident Educator Program in general and specifically about eligibility for taking the RESA, please visit the the Resident Educator Program website here.
The following essential resources can be found on the Resources page at www.ohioresa.com:
Videos from RESA submissions will be used in assessor training as exemplars that have been edited to illustrate particular levels of candidate performance. Candidate submissions are confidential and will only be viewed by assessors, master coders, TeachForward staff and contractors, and other individuals necessary to score the RESA tasks. Any individual, including all master coders and assessors, who views candidate video submissions must sign a non-disclosure agreement that ensures the privacy of candidates, students, and parents.
Further, TeachForward asks candidates to grant permission to use their entire submission, including videos, for educator training and professional development purposes. Candidates may elect not to grant TeachForward permission to use their submissions for these purposes.
Your program coordinator will first need to register you to take the RESA in the CORE database. CORE Registration for the RESA opens on August 1 and closes on November 15.
Beginning on October 3, Resident Educators will be able to register on the TeachForward platform by clicking the Log In button in the upper-right corner on the homepage of this website. For additional information, please refer to the RESA Guidebook.
If you require a modification because recording is not permitted or possible in your current teaching environment, please review and complete the RESA Modification Request Form, which is posted on the Resources page of this website, with your program coordinator and submit it for approval to REProgram@education.ohio.gov by February 1, 2024.
Because the RESA is an untimed assessment, consisting of one task, that is conducted online over the course of four months, most candidates with disabilities will not need special accommodations. However, if you feel that your medical condition prevents you from accessing materials or completing the RESA online, please review and complete the ADA Accommodations Request Form and submit it to support@teachforward.com by February 1, 2024.
In the Lesson Reflection, you are asked to record a single lesson that demonstrates your ability to teach meaningful content to your students. You will analyze your planning decisions for this lesson, illustrate your actual teaching in a video segment that is up to 20 minutes long, and reflect on the success of the entire lesson.
The commentary you provide and video segment you choose will give you an opportunity to:
The full Lesson Reflection instructions and forms can be found in the RESA Guidebook.
The RESA is a performance assessment that requires Resident Educators to demonstrate their knowledge and skills, as revealed in their day-to-day teaching. Performance assessments provide direct evidence, supported by written commentary, of what teachers do in the classroom.
The RESA consists of one task, the Lesson Reflection. Resident Educators are asked to provide evidence of how they implement the Teaching and Learning Cycle to support important learning outcomes for all students. As participants in the assessment, Resident Educators are prompted to reflect upon and synthesize what they have learned throughout the Resident Educator Program.
RESA candidates will need access to a computer with broadband Internet connection and a video recording device that captures digital files (such as a digital camcorder or mobile device with a high-quality video camera and microphone).
Candidates are not required to keep a copy of their completed tasks. However, while the task is “in progress,” candidates are strongly encouraged to keep a copy of all video evidence and draft responses. Candidates retaking the RESA will not be able to view or otherwise access their submissions in the submission system from the prior year.
RESA candidates may use lessons and evidence from any time during their experience in the Resident Educator Program. Candidates retaking the RESA are not permitted to resubmit evidence from prior RESA submissions.
Yes, if a candidate has legal copies of copyrighted material to use in his or her class, then including it in a RESA submission does not violate copyright laws because it is considered “fair use.” The fair use doctrine allows for duplication of these materials for the purposes of non-profit educational use, such as the RESA.
Detailed information on uploading video and PDF evidence can be found in the Lesson Reflection Technical Reference Guide section of the RESA Guidebook. In addition, a video tutorial is available within the submission system.
Review the Lesson Reflection in the RESA Guidebook thoroughly and make sure that you follow the directions. Particularly review the “Check your Work before you Submit” section of the instructions.
According to the updated PII policy, candidates are allowed to use students’ first and last names when recording a lesson. When possible, candidates are encouraged to avoid using last names, but a submission's score will not be affected by the inclusion of last names.
Candidates are not graded on grammar and punctuation in their RESA submissions; however, assessors may have difficulty understanding submissions with poor grammar and punctuation. Candidates should treat the RESA as they would any professional communication by proofreading and submitting their best work.
Each response should be complete and concise. Each answer (that is, each box) should not exceed 250 words. If you choose, your response may be in a bulleted list, in whole or in part. Be brief and specific. You are encouraged to spell check your answers before you upload your final form for submission.
No. The teaching evidence and analysis submitted as part of this Lesson Reflection must be your work and yours alone. Please refer to the Guidelines for Supporting RESA Candidates.