WGU C874: MA, Mathematics Education (5-12) Teacher Performance Assessment

WGU's C874, listed on your degree plan as MA, Mathematics Education (5-12) Teacher Performance Assessment, is the culminating course of the Master of Arts in Mathematics Education (Secondary) program. It is not a test you sit at a computer. Instead, it asks you to plan, teach, and document a multi-week, standards-based mathematics unit in a real 5-12 classroom, then analyze how your students learned and reflect honestly on your own practice. In other words, this is where everything you studied about pedagogy, assessment, and mathematics content comes together as evidence that you can actually teach.

Direct answer: You "pass" C874 by completing a well-documented Teacher Performance Assessment that clearly addresses all seven required components and hits every point on the scoring rubric with specific, classroom-grounded evidence. Read the task rubric before you write a single lesson plan, build your unit around it, and give yourself weeks of lead time rather than days, because this is a portfolio you assemble over an entire placement.

Most students reach C874 alongside or just after their Demonstration Teaching (student teaching) experience, since the assessment depends on having a live classroom of learners to plan for and teach. If you are anxious about this course, that is normal and reasonable: it carries real weight, it is graded against a detailed rubric by trained evaluators, and it cannot be rushed. But it is also fair and predictable. Nothing on the rubric is a secret, and the students who do well are simply the ones who treat the rubric as a checklist and back up every claim with concrete detail.

The seven components you must document

WGU's Teacher Performance Assessment is built around a multi-week instructional unit organized into seven required components. Your submission should show clear, deliberate work in each one:

• Contextual factors — describe your school, classroom, and learners, including the differences and needs that will shape your instruction.
• Learning goals — set clear, standards-aligned mathematics objectives for the unit.
• Assessment plan — design pre-, formative, and summative assessments that measure those goals.
• Design for instruction — build a coherent sequence of lessons, strategies, and resources that move students toward the goals.
• Instructional decision making — show how you adjusted teaching in response to what students did and understood.
• Analysis of student learning — use your assessment data to show what students actually learned, including subgroups and individuals.
• Self-evaluation and reflection — evaluate your own effectiveness and identify concrete next steps for professional growth.

Underneath those components, the course is graded against competencies covering planning for differentiated instruction, aligning instruction and assessment with standards, developing academic language, using assessment data to guide teaching, and demonstrating the ethical dispositions expected of a WGU teacher candidate.

How demanding is it, and how long does it take

C874 is worth 6 competency units, which signals a substantial, term-length effort rather than a quick module. Many students report that the hardest part is not intellectual difficulty but the sheer volume of documentation and the fact that the timeline is tied to a real classroom, so you cannot simply grind through it in a weekend. Expect the work to stretch across the weeks of your teaching placement.

Because it is a performance assessment, there is no memorization to cram. The challenge is coordination: capturing evidence while you teach, keeping student work and data organized, and writing analysis that is specific rather than vague. Students who struggle usually underestimate how long the writing and evidence assembly take after the teaching is done. Build in a full buffer before your intended submission date for drafting, evidence formatting, and review with your course instructor.

A practical plan for building your submission

Treat C874 as a project you manage, not an exam you study for. These tactics keep the work honest and the rubric front and center:

• Reverse-engineer from the rubric. Before planning your unit, read each rubric aspect and write, in your own words, what "meets" versus "does not meet" looks like. Every lesson and paragraph you produce should map to a rubric point.
• Use retrieval on the components themselves. Close the task instructions and try to list all seven components and what each requires from memory. Fill the gaps you missed. Doing this a few times means you will never accidentally leave a component thin.
• Draft in passes, spaced out. Write the contextual factors and learning goals early, then revisit them after teaching to make sure your later analysis actually connects back to them. Spacing your revisions catches inconsistencies a single sitting hides.
• Collect evidence as you teach, not after. Save student work samples, keep a short daily log of instructional decisions, and record assessment scores in a simple table. Reconstructing this from memory later is where quality drops.
• Practice the analysis section on a small scale first. Take one formative assessment and write a mini analysis of what the data show and what you would change. This rehearses the exact reasoning the largest, most heavily weighted component demands.
• Lean on your course instructor and cohort. Submit questions early and ask for feedback on a draft component before you finish everything. WGU faculty are there to keep you aligned to the rubric.

If your content knowledge feels shaky in places, this is a good moment to revisit earlier program work. Guides like C884 Statistics and Probability for Secondary Mathematics Teaching and D184 Standards-Based Assessment connect directly to the planning and assessment reasoning C874 expects. For the broader unit-building mindset, D630 Designing Curriculum and Instruction I is closely related.

Common mistakes to avoid

The pitfalls in C874 are predictable, which means they are avoidable:

• Writing generic descriptions. "My students are diverse learners" earns nothing. Name specific factors, specific accommodations, and specific mathematics tasks.
• Letting components drift apart. Your assessment must measure your stated learning goals, and your analysis must reference those same goals. Graders look for a through-line.
• Skimping on the analysis of student learning. This is the heart of the work. Show the data, break it down, and explain what it means for individual and subgroup learning.
• Treating reflection as filler. Strong reflection is specific and forward-looking: what worked, what did not, and exactly what you would do differently.
• Ignoring formatting and evidence requirements. Mislabeled attachments and missing artifacts can send an otherwise solid submission back for revision. Follow the task's structure precisely.
• Starting too late. Because it is tied to real teaching, a rushed C874 shows. Give the writing and evidence assembly the weeks they need.

C874 Submission Readiness Checklist

Before you submit, confirm that you can honestly answer yes to each of these:

• Can you name all seven components of the Teacher Performance Assessment and explain what each requires?
• Can you point to specific contextual factors and show how they shaped your instructional and assessment choices?
• Are your learning goals clearly aligned to appropriate 5-12 mathematics standards?
• Does every assessment in your plan actually measure a stated learning goal?
• Can you show, with data, what students learned, including how different learners or subgroups performed?
• Have you documented at least one concrete instructional decision you made in response to student learning?
• Is your reflection specific, evidence-based, and tied to next steps for your own growth?
• Have you checked every required artifact and attachment against the task's formatting instructions?
• Have you reviewed a draft with your course instructor and addressed their feedback?

C874 FAQ

Is C874 an objective assessment or a performance assessment?

It is a performance assessment. There is no multiple-choice exam. You build and submit a documented, multi-week instructional unit that is scored against a rubric by trained evaluators.

How many competency units is C874 worth?

According to WGU's program guidebook for the MA in Mathematics Education (Secondary), C874 carries 6 competency units, which reflects its status as a substantial, capstone-level requirement.

Do I need my own classroom to complete it?

You need access to a real 5-12 classroom of learners, which is why C874 is typically completed during or right after your Demonstration Teaching placement. The assessment depends on planning for, teaching, and assessing actual students.

What is the single most important part of the submission?

Alignment and analysis. Graders want to see that your goals, assessments, instruction, and reflection all connect, and that your analysis of student learning uses real data rather than general impressions. Keeping that through-line is what separates a passing submission from one sent back for revision.

How long should I expect it to take?

Plan for it to span the weeks of your teaching placement. Many students report that assembling and writing up the evidence takes considerably longer than expected, so building in extra time before your submission date is wise rather than optional.

Where can I find related WGU study guides?

You can browse the full library of WGU course guides or visit the School of Education hub for more teacher-preparation courses. For official requirements, always confirm details on WGU's program page.