Content Assessments

The following individuals are required to pass or exempt a designated content assessment in their field of certification:
  • Applicants for the Provisional, 5-Year Induction or Professional certification;
    • Provisional certificates in Special Education fields may be granted before the applicant has passed or exempted the appropriate content assessment. However, this requirement must be fulfilled before conversion of the certificate.
  • 5-Year Induction or Professional certificate holders applying to add a field;
  • Applicants seeking an initial Permit in a foreign language field;
  • Art or Music Permit holders seeking to extend their permit;
  • Some applicants for Adjunct licenses.
Complete content assessment scores do not expire. If the GaPSC has your passing content assessment scores on file, you do not need to retake the assessment or resubmit the scores.

Exemptions

There is no designated content assessment for the following fields, and therefore no content assessment is required:
  • Audiology;
  • Classical Greek;
  • Dance;
  • Drama;
  • Physical and Health Disabilities;
  • School Nutrition Director;
  • School Social Work;
  • Speech;
  • Special Education Preschool;
  • Career and Technical Specializations;
  • Visual Impairment.
*Requirements for the field of Career and Technical Education vary by area of specialization. Some areas may require passing an industry licensure exam. Please see Certification Rule 505-2-.90 for more information about qualifying for this field. The following applicants may exempt a designated content assessment:
  • Out-of-state educators who have taught full-time in the same certificate field for 5 years at any time in their career;
  • Educators holding a valid National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS) certificate in the field sought;
  • Out-of-state educators who were required to pass a content assessment in order to qualify for their out-of-state certificate.
Most GaPSC content assessments are GACE assessments, but for some fields other assessments have been designated. Please see the sections below for more information about each type of content assessment.

GACE Assessments

GACE content assessments have two passing levels: Induction and Professional. All passing scores earned on GACE assessments will be treated as Professional level scores even if the official score report reflects an Induction level score. Attaining a passing score at the Professional level on a GACE content assessment also satisfies any requirement to pass at the Induction level.

Before registering for a GACE assessment, you must create a MyPSC account and request testing eligibility in the Assessments tab. If you are not enrolled in a Georgia educator preparation program, your testing eligibility will be automatically granted. If you are currently enrolled in a Georgia educator preparation program, please click here for more information about testing eligibility.

Once you see the indication in your MyPSC account that your eligibility has been transferred, you may continue to gace.ets.org to complete the registration process. GACE scores are transmitted electronically to the GaPSC, so you do not need to submit the paper score report with your application.

For more information about GACE content assessments, please click here.

Praxis Exams

The Praxis exam was the designated GaPSC content assessment for most certificate fields until September 1, 2006. Praxis scores earned before that date may be accepted. The Praxis Educational Leadership exam was accepted until March 15, 2008.

Currently, Speech and Language Pathology is the only field for which the Praxis exam is the designated content assessment. For more information on this assessment, please click here.

ACTFL Foreign Language Assessments

GACE assessments are available for several foreign language fields: French, German, Latin, Spanish, and American Sign Language. The field of Classical Greek does not require a content assessment. For all other foreign language fields, the designated content assessments are the Oral Proficiency Interview (OPI) and the Writing Proficiency Test (WPT) developed by the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL).

Applicants for Permits in the five foreign language fields for which a GACE assessment is available may choose to take the OPI and WPT instead of the GACE.


For more information on these assessments, please see section 9 of Certification Rule 505-2-.26.