Keeping Test Content Current

ETS commitment to updating Praxis

Tests are reviewed annually. We involve stakeholders in this process by asking them to nominate teachers and teacher educators who can serve on Test Development Standing Committees and National Advisory Committees (NACs).

In terms of organizational representation, ETS actively recruits teachers, educators from educational preparation programs, and other stakeholders with appropriate content and teaching backgrounds from across the nation. If you are interested in serving as an outside item writer, advisory committee member, or reviewer, please complete the application.

Reviewing specifications

Every year, the Test Development Standing Committees review the specifications for each Praxis test title to determine whether or not circumstances require revision of the test specifications or regeneration of the test. The questions that the Standing Committees answer include the following:

• Do the test specifications represent knowledge and/or skills important for competent, beginning-level practice?
• Are certain areas of knowledge and/or skill not included but are still critical for competent, beginning-level practice?
• Do content categories in the test specifications need to be updated to reflect current practice?
• Do the current proportions among the content categories in the test specifications still reflect current practices?
• Will changes on the horizon potentially impact these specifications in the future, either at the national level or within a particular state?

Assessment regeneration

The results of these specification reviews determine the plan for regeneration of a test or test series. ETS researchers, psychometricians, and test developers analyze the reviewers' answers and comments and then use expert judgment to determine a path forward for each test or test series.

The group would typically choose one of three options, depending on the answers to the questions provided by the Standing Committee:

• Internal and external experts validate the test specifications, and no National Advisory Committee (NAC) meeting is necessary; test specifications remain unchanged.
• When updates are straightforward, we use in-house content experts to draft updated test specifications to improve alignment; external experts then validate the specifications via a virtual meeting. We make these updates when the test specifications don’t match current professional standards in the field.
• When updates are not straightforward, a NAC convenes to update the test specifications to improve alignment, and ETS performs a job analysis confirmation survey. These updates are necessary when test specifications don’t match current professional standards if they exist, or if internal and external experts determine the specifications are outdated.

When a NAC is convened, the Praxis client states help ETS recruit 12–15 licensed practicing professionals who are close to the beginning of their teaching practice, as well as college faculty who prepare teachers for that specific licensure area.

The NAC works closely with ETS assessment specialists to define the content domain and later to develop test-blueprint and test-content specifications. NAC meetings typically take place on the ETS campus in Princeton, New Jersey.

After the NAC meets to define the test domains, a job analysis survey is conducted to confirm these domains. A job survey is conducted for new tests and for existing tests that are being significantly revised. The job analysis survey enables relatively large numbers of practitioners from across the country to judge the importance of the knowledge and/or skills defined by the NAC for beginning-level practice.

The practitioners' judgments serve as an independent source of validation evidence. Once the results of the survey have been analyzed, the NAC is reconvened to develop the test blueprint and test specifications.

After the NAC develops the test blueprint and test specifications, ETS convenes panels of licensed practicing educators and college faculty from user states to conduct standard-setting studies.

Each standard-setting panel confirms that the knowledge and/or skills represented in the test content specifications are important for entry-level practice and recommends a passing score for each state to consider when setting its own passing score.

New tests for 2023–2024

The Praxis program is launching several new assessments for the 2023–2024 testing year in September 2023.

States will want to consider the recommended passing scores from the standard-setting studies when they set passing scores for their jurisdictions. See the following table for more information about each of these tests.

Contact your Client Relations Director at PraxisClientRelations@ets.org if you have questions or if you wish to review the new forms of these tests.

A Multistate Standard Setting Study has been conducted for each of the following tests: