Tk20 Frequently Asked Questions

What is Tk20?

Tk20 stands for “Technology in Kindergarten through age 20.” It is required for all students working towards a recommendation for Iowa license through the Iowa State University Educator Preparation Program. It is a comprehensive online data management system specifically tailored to track our candidates throughout their college instruction, field experiences, and sharing of assessment data.

Why Do I Need Tk20?

Tk20 is required to:

  • Apply to the Teacher Education Program
  • Apply for student teaching
  • Apply for and access licensure information
  • Participate in practica field experiences
  • Participate in student teaching field experiences

In addition, it provides you access to:

  • Your current and past class schedules
  • Your transcript and GPA information
  • Your test score information (ACT, SAT, GRE, Praxis Core, Praxis Subject Assessment, and PPAT)
  • All of your field experience assignments/artifacts and field experience observations and evaluations
  • All of your materials for 2-3 years after graduation
    • This can support both the job-seeking process and the initial teacher evaluation for many districts
  • Your field experience assignments and feedback for all field experience assignments, observations, and evaluations

What Does Tk20 Cost?

Tk20 currently costs $130.00 which is a one-time payment for a 7-year subscription.

How Do I Buy/Activate My Tk20 Subscription?

When needed, Tk20 can be purchased by Students via the University Bookstore. Directions can be found here. It can take up to four days to activate your account after purchase. 

When Do I Need to Buy/Activate My Tk20 Subscription?

You will need to purchase Tk20 in order to participate in field experiences, to apply to the Educator Preparation Program, apply for student teaching. A course requiring Tk20 will identify the requirement in its syllabus. You may need to speak with your advisor or ask your instructor if Tk20 is required for your field experience course if it is unclear in the syllabus. If Tk20 is not required for any current field experience courses, we recommend purchasing Tk20 when you are sure you are going to apply to the Educator Preparation Program.

You only need to purchase Tk20 once.

What if After I Purchase My Subscription I Still Cannot Log In To Tk20? 

While every effort is made to ensure students are preloaded into Tk20 so the account can be activated; scenarios exist where a student may not be preloaded into the system. If you go through the account activation process and Tk20 will still not let you access it please email eboro@iastate.edu to look into your account status.

How Do I Log Into Tk20?

Students – after your account is activated you will use your NetID and the password you have associated with it. This is the same credentials you’d use for Canvas, Cybox, or Cymail.

Alumni – after graduation you will use your University ID number and the password you had when you were a Student.

What If I Bought Tk20 By Mistake?

Tk20s parent company, Watermark Insights, does not offer refunds on the activation kit that completed the activation process. With this being the case the Bookstore cannot refund a used activation kit.

Where Do I Find the Admission/Student Teaching/Other Application?

Once logged in look to the left-hand side and click “Applications.” When the page loads look for the green “+ Create New” button. When you click it you’ll be able to see a list of applications to choose from in a drop-down menu. Find the one you need to compete and select it.

Why Won’t My Application Submit?

In most cases this is because of one of two things:

  1. If your application does not submit you may get a pop up indicating that a text/word entry has a “leading or trailing” space. This means somewhere in the application there is a space before the first letter of a text/word you entered or that there is a space after the last letter of a text/word you entered. The pop-up will often tell you what word contains the spacing error. 
  2. There is a field that is required and was not filled out. Please review your application.    

Why Won’t My Field Experience Binder Submit in Tk20?

In most cases this is because of one of two things:

  1. In most binders assignments worked on will always say “Not submitted” until the binder is submitted as a whole. If you can see the assignment or document in blue that means it’s been uploaded (think submitted) and is visible to anyone listed as an assessor on the binder. Once all the required assignments are “blue” you’ll be able to press the “Submit” button and the entire binder it submitted.
  2. If you are all done with the assignments and still getting the pop up about the binder being incomplete there is probably a required item that has not been clicked into. Even if you have nothing to upload into a particular you will still need to click into everything the binder indicates is required.

Need More Information?

Eduardo Boro

133 MacKay Hall
2302 Osborn Dr.
Ames, Iowa 50011-1041

515-294-7603

eboro@iastate.edu