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.
GACE® assessments in Educational Leadership will be deferred until June 2008,
and the PSC will continue to accept passing Praxis scores for Educational Leadership
assessments administered on or before March 15, 2008 until July 31, 2008."
After July 31, 2008 the GACE® Leadership assessment will be required to support
applications for Georgia Educational Leadership certification.
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.
- 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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