Bill > S3888

Introduced Session

This bill prohibits the Commissioner of Education from approving certain tests for teacher certification candidates with extended retake waiting periods. Under current State Board of Education regulations, a candidate for teacher certification is required to demonstrate basic skills proficiency through the achievement of a minimum score on a commissioner-approved test of basic reading, writing, and mathematics. Currently, the Department of Education uses the Praxis Core Academic Skills for Educators test (Praxis) as the sole commissioner-approved measure of basic skills proficiency. The test provider of the Praxis mandates that a teacher candidate wait at least 28 days after the previous test to be eligible to retake the test. Pursuant to the test provider's policy, any teacher candidate that violates the retake policy will have his or her test scores canceled without reimbursement of test fees. This bill prohibits the commissioner from approving any assessment of basic skills and any subject matter test for a candidate for teacher certification that mandates a retake waiting period of more than 14 days. Alternatively, the regulations provide that a candidate for teacher certification may meet the basic skills testing requirement by demonstrating a score on the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT), ACT Assessment (ACT) or Graduate Record Examination (GRE) at or above the cut score for the year in which the exam was taken. The provisions of the bill do not affect the retake waiting periods for the SAT, ACT, and GRE.

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Shirley Turner (D)*, 

Introduced in the Senate, Referred to Senate Education Committee (on 05/22/2023)

Official Document