Please see the Ohio Department of Education RESA webpage for information on the Resident Educator Program.
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.
There is no cost to the RESA candidate. The Ohio Department 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 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.
Resident Educators begin preparing for the RESA on the first day of their teaching experience. This preparation continues throughout years 1 and 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.
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.
Yes. Those individuals who were registered for the RESA for the 2016-2017 school year and were unsuccessful may continue to attempt the RESA in subsequent years, subject to current requirements in Ohio Administrative Code section 3301-24-04. If these individuals choose not to continue the RESA, they will need to complete a performance-based assessment that an institution of higher education will verify.
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. After you review these, 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.
Questions related to licensure, RESA eligibility, and the Resident Educator Program, should be sent to the Ohio Department of Education by your Program Coordinator at OhioRESA@education.ohio.gov. Candidates can also find information at the Ohio Department of Education RESA webpage.
Questions about registering for the RESA or technical assistance in submitting forms and evidence should be directed to the RESA Help Desk. The RESA Help Desk is available by email at resa@teachforward.com to provide technical assistance during the submission window and when score reports are released. In addition, the RESA Help Desk is available by phone in December, January, and the beginning of February. Click “Contact us” in the footer of this website to view the RESA Help Desk schedule.
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
No. All Resident Educators taking the RESA will receive their score report at the same time regardless of when they submitted their Lesson Reflection in the submission window.
The 2022–2023 RESA Score Reports will be released to the Score Report section of the Resident Educator’s TeachForward account on Tuesday, April 4, 2023, and will be accessible online until June 15, 2023.
Resident Educators should download their score report and save both an electronic and paper copy.
If you have trouble accessing your report, the TeachForward Help Desk (resa@teachforward.com) provides assistance with the technical aspects of accessing your score report, viewing your submitted materials, and logging into the TeachForward system.
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.
You will be eligible to retake the Lesson Reflection if you have not exhausted all possible attempts to take the RESA and you remain eligible for the Resident Educator Program.
If you must retake the Lesson Reflection for any reason, you may not resubmit evidence from a prior year’s RESA.
If you were unsuccessful, you should work with your mentor, facilitator, 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. It is Ohio Department of Education policy that the score results and feedback statements provided on your RESA Score Report be considered final.
Upon successful completion of the four-year Resident Educator Program and the RESA, you may be eligible to apply for the five-year professional educator license. Learn more about Ohio teacher licensure on the Ohio Department of Education webpage. If you hold an Alternative Resident Educator license, you may have additional requirements.
Your RESA Program Coordinators will confirm that you are eligible to take the RESA, will manage your registration in Ohio’s CORE system, provide helpful guidance, and will monitor and report on your submission process.
The Ohio Department of Education’s 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 Ohio Department of Education’s webpage on the Resident Educator Program here.
The following essential resources can be found on the Resources page at www.ohioresa.com:
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.
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.
Starting with the 2017-2018 RESA, the scoring methodology was redesigned based on feedback from the field. Prior RESA candidates, educators, mentors, Program Coordinators, and administrators called for the score report to contain more targeted feedback for Resident Educators to assist them in their professional development. Thus, the RESA is now scored in a manner, which provides more personalized and comprehensive feedback to teachers. You may view the continuum for each domain in the RESA Guidebook.
Your program coordinator will first need to register you to take the RESA in the Ohio Department of Education CORE database. CORE Registration for the RESA opens on August 1 and closes on November 15.
Beginning on October 12, TeachForward will send account activation links to all candidates registered to take the RESA. Newly registered candidates after that date will be sent activation links on a weekly basis. Urge your program coordinator to register you as early as possible so that you have the most time to work in the submission system prior to the Lesson Reflection deadline.
For the 2022-2023 RESA, submission materials and score reports are accessible online from April 4, 2023, until June 15, 2023. After June 15, TeachForward will not be able to provide a copy of your score report or submission materials.
If you do not receive an account activation email from TeachForward by November 1, you should first check all email folders to see if your email provider automatically filed TeachForward’s email in your spam or junk mail folder. Next, you should also add the following email domains to your contacts or safe sender list: @teachforward.com, @mailchimp.com.
You should then contact your Program Coordinator to confirm that you have been registered as a RESA candidate with the Ohio Department of Education and that the correct email address was used. If you have confirmed that you have been accurately registered with the Ohio Department of Education and still not received an account activation email from TeachForward, you should contact the RESA Help Desk by emailing resa@teachforward.com.
For assistance with additional questions about the Resident Educator Program and RESA, please contact: OhioRESA@education.ohio.gov.
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 October 25, 2022.
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 resa@teachforward.com by October 25, 2022.
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.
RESA Candidates must submit the Lesson Reflection by 11:59 pm ET on Friday, February 3, 2023. No deadline extension requests will be granted.
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 anytime 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. There are also detailed instructions 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.
Yes. You may recall your submission up until the day of the deadline. Simply click on the button on the right side of the "What I Need to Submit" page. Please remember to resubmit your task before the deadline. After the deadline, the Lesson Reflection cannot be unlocked or recalled. Please make sure you check your work thoroughly before you press the submit button for the final time.
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 resa@teachforward.com if you need technical support.
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.
The RESA assessors understand that masks may make it harder to hear what is being said, and this will not affect the submission’s score.
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 add closed captioning or a transcript of the video.
The health and safety of the candidate and their students is the top priority. Candidates should not alter their social distancing plans for the RESA. The RESA assessors, all of whom are experienced Ohio educators, are aware that candidates are required to implement social distancing, so candidates do not need to state this. Social distancing, which we understand will look very different depending on the district and classroom, will not impact RESA scoring.
If the candidate would like to explain something to the assessors, they can do so within the 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.
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.
Unlike past years, there will not be a requirement that more than half the students are active participants. Candidates should complete the context form based on the group of students who is participating in the recorded lesson.
For the RESA, candidates should use the platform that they normally use. If the platform allows it, we encourage candidates and students to prevent their last names from appearing. If the platform does not allow it, candidates should still use the platform and submit the recording with the names visible. According to the updated PII policy, the submission's score will not be affected by the inclusion of the first and/or last names.
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.
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.
Resident Educators are assigned Program Coordinators and Program Coordinators register them as RESA candidates in the Ohio Department of Education’s CORE database by November 15. For more information, see the Ohio Resident Educator Program Page on the Ohio Department of Education website.
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.
Have a question for the Help Desk? Click RESA Help Desk to contact the support team directly via email.
Have a question for the Help Desk? Click RESA Help Desk to contact the support team directly via email.