The Early Childhood Education: Foundational Knowledge (5533) test is designed to measure the professional knowledge and skills of prospective teachers of young children (from birth to age six). The content of the test was drawn up by experts in the field of early childhood education. A group of teachers, teacher educators, and administrators determined that mastery of the content necessary for safe and effective practice and needed at the time of entry into the profession.

The test is aligned closely with the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) Standards for Early Childhood Professional Preparation Programs and the Initial Practice-Based Standards for Early Interventionists/Early Childhood Special Educators.

The test is 125 minutes long and contains 125 selected-response questions. The test may contain questions that do not count toward the test taker’s score.

The questions are designed to assess the test taker’s knowledge of pedagogy and content, the relationship between theory and practice, and the ways that theory can be applied in the educational setting. The questions also cover multicultural influences; diversity; variations in development, including atypical development, and the effects they have on child development and learning. Most of the questions are related to children from birth through age six, but some questions may require knowledge of development at later ages to assess the test taker’s understanding of the full development range that may be found among children in this age group.