Re: Praxis II Survey

Posted by Walt on 10/16/04

More | Report Post

On 1/06/03, Dan wrote:
> Hi and Happy New Year,
>
> I'm conducting a one question survey. If you have
> taken the Praxis II Content Knowledge Exam in your
> discipline, did you find the exam valid?
>
> Thanks for your help,
> Dan

The best report I've seen on this is from The Education Trust
called "Not Good Enough - A Content Analysis of Teacher
Licensing Exams." I provide a link at the bottom of this
message. I largely agree with their analysis, although I think
their citations of "per cent correct answers" should have been
adjusted downward to compensate for the fact that the Praxis
II exams do not penalize for wrong answers, allowing test
takers to guess without risk. A monkey would get 25% correct.

I have taken four of the Praxis II subject exams.
Mathematics (10061), Physics (10261), Chemistry (20241) and
General Science Part 1 (10431). All have scaled scores in the
range 100-200.

All test mostly high school level material. Therefore any high
school teacher with subject area competance should score in
the 190's on these exams. The sad fact is that probably less
than 5% actually score this high.

The mathematics exam was by far the most challenging. Any
teacher scoring above a 190 knows mathematics at the high
school level.

The other three exams were much less challenging. In my
opinion high scores on these exams are not proof of
competancy, but low scores (less than 180) are proof of a lack
of sufficient content knowledge.




A Content Analysis of Teacher Licensing Examinations

Posts on this thread, including this one

• Praxis II Survey, 1/06/03, by Dan.
• Re: Praxis II Survey, 6/12/04, by Jess.
• Re: Praxis II Survey, 10/16/04, by Walt.