New TEA Rules for Teacher Certification

Starting January 2020

The Texas Education Agency has proposed new rules to admission criteria for candidates applying to Educator Preparation Programs (EPPs).

The proposed changes to be implemented on January 1, 2020, are that all teachers in Texas must demonstrate subject matter knowledge in a certification area prior to being admitted into an EPP. This is referred to as the PACT method or Pre-Admission Content Test.

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To be admitted you must have a 2.5 GPA or higher, as well as 12-15+ hours of college credits in a specific subject area that correlates with a content exam OR pass a content-specific exam (PACT). These new content exams pertain to candidates who PACT into an EPP, and are outlined in the proposed changes here. The TExES exams will still be valid content exams prior to going on the initial certificate.

These are not huge changes, BUT if you do not have 12-15+ college credit hours you will need to take 2 exams, doubling your testing cost. Candidates will be required to take and pass the new content exam prior to admission, and later on the content-specific pedagogy exam (PPR) prior to receiving their intern certificate. It is in the candidates’ best interest to apply and enroll in a program before December 31, 2019, to avoid additional costs.

New exams will not be offered for all certification areas, for example, Special Education and Elementary Education. This simply refers to the initial PACT exam to be admitted. Future teachers will still be able to take these exams once admitted in order to pursue certification. Special Education does not lend itself to a specific test subject matter, and due to broad content knowledge required for elementary education, a basic skills assessment will be used. Due to the low number of participants for certain language assessments, the current content TExES exam will still be used as the PACT exam.

The main thing to remember is that these TEA rule changes will go into effect on January 1, 2020. Texas Teachers is the largest Alternative Certification Program in Texas and has certified 58,000+ teachers. Get on the right path to teacher certification with Texas Teachers of Tomorrow.

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