Setting Test and Score Requirements

ETS does not set passing scores for those assessments. Each state education agency sets the operational passing score. Various stakeholders, including (but not limited to) educators, legislators, and school board members should be consulted during the decision-making process of this important policy decision. We can group factors that shape passing-score decisions into two broad categories:

• the judgments of qualified experts regarding the level of knowledge and skills that beginning teachers should demonstrate
• the informed projections about the makeup of the resulting teaching force if a particular passing score is established

• Qualified experts must consider several variables and make choices regarding which material needs to be tested as well as what tests to use. The teaching standards for the licensure area, the aspects of the standards that need to be tested (e.g., content or pedagogy), grade level, and the test's potential use for licensure or endorsement factor among these considerations.
• ETS provides blueprints for the Praxis tests that are aligned with state and/or national standards and that may meet state needs. ETS also conducts a formal test review of appropriate tests to determine which one best fulfills all criteria for state stakeholders.

• Planning is crucial to determine if resulting passing scores are acceptable and defensible. Each of the passing-score decisions made during planning must have a justifiable and well-documented rationale. The state, in consultation with ETS, outlines its requirements, including when the test must be in place with a passing score and what needs to be done within that time frame.

• Each authorized licensing agency must conduct a documented, passing-score study (a standard-setting study) for each test that requires a passing score. The agency may use ETS's services, conduct its own study, or use the services of another organization.

• A passing score is the minimum test score that a test taker needs to pass a particular licensure test and be awarded a teaching license. Decision makers set an operational passing score after considering important information such as test-score distributions, supply-and-demand surveys, measurement error, cost-benefit analyses, diversity in the teaching force, and the relative harm of passing an unqualified candidate versus the possibility of failing a qualified candidate.

• Licensing agencies must file adoption paperwork with ETS. Once received and processed, the test and score requirements post to both the Praxis website as well as to the operational scoring system for implementation.

• Licensing agencies should conduct periodic reviews of their requirements. On occasion, they may feel that an adjustment is appropriate to either the selection of tests or the passing score requirement. Learn more about changing requirements.