The researcher analyzed data from two online cohorts of preservice teachers at a university in Washington State. Teacher education policies vary from state to state, with varying requirements for basic skills and standardized performance tests for teacher licensure. At the time of this study, Washington State required minimum scores for both basic writing skills and teacher performance to earn state residency certification (licensure). The researcher conducted a correlational analysis to determine if standardized writing scores upon admission to the program predicted performance on the national Educative Teacher Performance Assessment (edTPA). Contrary to the researcher's hypothesis, academic writing ability did not have a predictive positive relationship with edTPA performance, r = -0.004, p = 0.98.