|
Strange that we don't have PRAXIS out here... Illinois has a Basic Skills test that you're supposed to pass before you get into a specific education-major program, though if you don't take ed classes until grad school I think you can take it your first semester of classes.
Then there's a content area test that you're supposed to take for your major area of concentration. I think the elementary people had an "elementary" one if they're going for a K-9 certificate, but there's got to be a content area if you're going for a 6-12 "secondary" certificate. (I'm not sure how that's changed given the new pedagogical test.)
There's also a pedagogical test that's new for people who didn't get their certificate applied for by last July. I don't recall if you have to take it before or after student teaching. Of the pedagogical and content areas, one must be taken before and the other can be taken after.
SO glad I got my K-12 Library Media Specialist cert taken care of last year. I would *not* want to have to take a third set of tests!
I do think it's nice to have a pedagogical test to make sure you have some clues about teaching... if you're in classes that are covering what's going to be on the test! Lots of ed. schools have seemed to say the same thing with different terminology, which makes it just a smidge harder to figure out which item on a test is closest to the answer that you'd say.
Is the PRAXIS like that with three sets of tests-- basics, content, and pedagogy? It kind of looks like the PRAXIS is our Basic Skills, and the PRAXIS II is the pedagogical and the content rolled into one...
|