U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan (2009) underscored the need for better assessments of the pedagogical skills of new teachers when he identified the efforts of the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education (AACTE) and its 800 colleges and universities to improve student learning through developing a national assessment of teacher candidate readiness, a performance-based assessment modeled after the Performance Assessment for California Teachers (PACT). The PACT, a teaching performance assessment, is designed to measure effective teaching through assessing five domains (with rubrics covering Assessment, Reflection, Academic Language, Planning, and Instruction). The purpose of this study was to examine what teacher candidates made visible about their practices and understandings of the teaching and learning process in constructing their performance assessments. This study was designed to examine the kinds of teaching practices teacher candidates utilized in the classroom, specifically examining how candidates who scored highest on certain PACT rubrics (in the domains of Assessment, Reflection, and Academic Language) planned instructional supports, assessed, and reflected in ways significantly different than those who scored lowest on PACT rubrics. For this study, the authors examined 12 performance assessments completed by preservice teachers from a Central Coast California Teacher Education Program. Although various types of assessments are required during this program, PACT offers the most comprehensive evidence of how teacher candidates engage in the practice of teaching and learning after having participated in variety of teacher preparation courses and while completing their fieldwork. This study adds much to the literature on what performance assessments make visible about whether teacher candidates can engage in effective teaching practices and what elements of the teacher education program design need to be further revised and/or developed to strengthen preservice candidates' ability to plan engaging and effective lessons.