District Superintendents, University Presidents, Community College Presidents,
John L. Winn
This memorandum is to inform you of several changes in the Florida Teacher Certification Examinations.
It describes changes that will impact the content and/or passing scores on several teacher certification
examinations. All changes will help to support the Florida State Board of Education Strategic Imperative
1: Increase the Supply of Highly Qualified Teachers.
The Department of Education, in consultation with teachers and faculty from colleges of education, has
reviewed the scores needed to pass the Professional Education Test and the Exceptional Student
Education (ESE) Examination. As a result of these reviews, a recommendation to raise the passing scores
for both examinations was adopted by the State Board of Education (SBE) at the meeting held on April
19, 2005. In addition, the SBE adopted a new edition of the competencies and skills from which
examinations are derived. Please make sure that the appropriate individuals understand the implications
of these changes for your institution.
As you may already know, the Department of Education, Office of Assessment and School Performance,
periodically assembles committees to review teacher certification examinations. This is done to make
sure that each certification examination is congruent with contemporary subject area content and that the
score needed to pass is set at an appropriate level. The committees who review these examinations are
selected to be representative of teachers, teacher educators, and educational administrators who work in
the state of Florida. The standard-setting studies, which are conducted by the Office of Assessment and
325 W. GAINES STREET • SUITE 1514 • TALLAHASSEE, FL 32399-0400 • (850) 245-0505 • www.fldoe.org
Memorandum
July 19, 2005
Page Two
School Performance, all follow a set of procedures in which educators rate and take the tests and review
impact data. These procedures are implemented in congruence with Standard 4.19 and 4.20 of the
Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing, which address cut scores.
When reviewing the information on all examinees tested, please keep in mind that an applicant no longer
has to be enrolled in a college of education or have an education degree to take these two teacher
certification examinations. Applicants can sit for the examinations provided they have any baccalaureate
degree. Also, applicants can take these examinations as many times as they wish, providing they wait
more than 30 days between each examination. Examinees who fail may also review their examinations
and write challenges to any questions they feel were not scored correctly. Data are given to universities
that will allow institutional researchers to assess the pass/fail rates at the individual universities.
Professional Education Test
A standard-setting committee was assembled late in 2004 to review the temporary passing score set in
2002 for the Professional Education Test. A temporary passing score, also known as a transitional
passing score, is established when an examination is newly created or revised. The Professional
Education Test was revised in 2002 as a part of a normal cyclic review to make sure the examination
content was current. At the time of the review, a recommendation was made to realign the examination
with Thirteen Accomplished Practices, which was published by the Florida Education Standards
Commission and the Florida Department of Education. These modifications to the content of the
examination were implemented in July 2003. The transitional passing score for this examination was
maintained until adequate data could be gathered on applicant performance and to allow for standard-
setting studies to be conducted. These studies have been completed and a new cut score has been
adopted.
The following table shows the anticipated impact the new passing score will have on the passing rate for
all applicants taking the examination for the first time.
Professional Education Examination
Examinee Group
Current
Passing Rate
New Passing
Rate
All graduates from Florida universities and colleges
96%* 84%*
All examinees tested
92%** 74%***
*
Based on Florida university graduates taking the examination for the first time in the 2004 calendar year.
**
Based on examinees taking the examination for the first time during the 2003 calendar year.
***
Based on examinees taking the examination for the first time during the July and October 2003 regular administrations.
Memorandum
July 19, 2005
Page Three
ESE Subject Area Examination
In late 2004, a separate standard-setting committee was assembled to review the passing score for the
ESE Subject Area Examination, which was originally set in 2003. The passing score was based on a
revision of the examination to realign it with concurrent revisions to ESE certification rules. The new
certification rules collapsed numerous ESE certification specialty areas into a single ESE certification.
However, due to concerns that the passing score was not addressing entry-level qualifications, a new
committee was assembled to readdress the passing score. This committee felt that collapsing certification
areas required a higher passing score to ensure that applicants were truly meeting entry-level
qualifications. Late in 2004, the committee recommended raising the passing score, but did not make any
changes to the competencies and skills.
The following table shows the anticipated impact the proposed passing score will have on the passing rate
for all applicants taking the examination for the first time.
Exceptional Student Education Examination
Examinee Group
Current
Passing Rate
New Passing
Rate
All graduates from Florida universities and colleges
N/A* N/A*
All examinees tested
87%** 83%***
*
Adequate data not available to estimate the passing rates.
**
Based on examinees taking the examination for the first time during the 2002-04 regular administrations.
***
Based on examinees taking the examination for the first time during the July and October 2003 regular administrations.
Reading Enhancements to FTCE
The Office of Assessment and School Performance is in the process of collaborating with the Just Read,
Florida! office and the Florida Center for Reading Research in reviewing the certification examinations
that will most directly impact pedagogical reading skills for teachers of reading and the language arts.
This phase of the process has not required changes to the competencies and skills and thus did not require
State Board of Education approval, but I wanted you to be aware of them. The outcomes from these
meetings include a change to the weighting of the competencies that encompass reading on the
Professional Education Examination. These changes are occurring in several phases. The first phase,
begun in July 2004 and continued until December 2004, involved updating the respective pools of
questions used to create the Professional Education Test and Reading K-12 Examination. These changes
to the Professional Education Test and the Reading Examination are anticipated to occur within the next
eight months.
Memorandum
July 19, 2005
Page Four
In the second phase, the related competencies for the Elementary Education K - 6, Prekindergarten -
Primary - Grade 3, Reading K - 12 Examinations and the Professional Education Test were reviewed in
April 2005. The revised examinations will be administered toward the end of next year. These
modifications required changes to the competencies and skills for the reading-related portions of the
examinations and will be reflected in the eleventh edition of the competencies and skills that will be
submitted for State Board of Education approval in 2006.
This notice of pending changes is symbolic of the Department’s firm commitment to keep our educational
partners informed about changes to improve the qualifications of teacher candidates. Again, please make
sure that the appropriate individuals understand the implications of these changes for your institution.
This notification is not required by statute or rule, but is provided as a courtesy to keep you informed. I
hope the information is helpful to you as a partner in maintaining a qualified teacher workforce for the
state of Florida.
JLW/CO/cas
C: David
Armstrong
Debra Austin
Betty Blue
Beverly Gregory
Michael Jones
Cornelia
Orr
Pam Stewart
James Warford
Deans, College of Education
School District Certification Contacts
