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The Professional Standards Commission (PSC) has developed
a new educator assessment program called the Georgia Assessments for the
Certification of Educators® (GACE™). These new Georgia assessments
are fully aligned with national standards, Georgia educator certification
requirements, Georgia educator preparation standards, and the new Georgia
Performance Standards (GPS) for P-12 students now being implemented by the
Georgia Department of Education. To assist in the development and administration
of the assessments, the PSC contracted with National Evaluation Systems,
Inc. The first administration of the new assessments was on November 18,
2006. Click
here for full 2006-2007 and 2007-2008 GACE™ testing schedules.
The Praxis series is no longer the officially accepted educator testing program in Georgia.
An exception to this new testing plan is the field
of Speech and Language Pathology. Georgia will continue to
accept Praxis (ASHA Exam) scores for candidates in this field.
Two other exceptions are Educational Leadership and Latin.
GACE assessments in Latin will be deferred until Fall 2007, and
the PSC will continue to accept passing Praxis scores for Latin assessments through the end of August 2007.
The PSC will not accept Praxis II scores for Educational Leadership assessments that reflect a score report date of after March 15, 2008. If a person has a passing score on his/her score report that is dated on or before March 15, 2008, that passing score will be accepted for the appropriate content assessment if that person completes any approved Georgia Educational Leadership program on or before September 30, 2009. The GACE assessment in Educational Leadership, which has replaced the Praxis, will begin with the GACE test administration of June 14, 2008. For GACE testing information and registration, go to http://www.gace.nesinc.com/
Additionally the GACE™ Paraprofessional Assessment is available in the current testing schedule,
and the PSC is no longer accepting scores on the ETS ParaPro assessment taken after June 30, 2007.
Many Georgia educators assisted
in validating the content for the new GACE™ testing framework.
The PSC is very appreciative of this professional assistance, for it has helped provide a smooth implementation
for this new testing program.
Points to Remember
- Certification field content assessments passed in either the Praxis II or
the former TCT testing program are still "good" - educators will not need to
take them again.
- In the GACE™ program there will be no broad
field social studies test. Instead separate tests will be available for
History, Economics, Geography, and Political Science. However the GACE™
program will include a middle grades social studies test to support
Middle Grades Social Studies (4-8) certification.
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Almost all Georgia educators are required to pass a rigorous test covering the subject matter content in their field(s)
of certification.
Click here to see the full list of tests required
and the related certification fields.
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