All individuals seeking an initial Wisconsin State teacher's license after August 31, 2004, will be required to take an approved content examination. These tests, the Praxis II: Subject Assessments/Specialty Area Tests, are offered through the Educational Testing Service (ETS). Teacher education students at the University of Wisconsin-Madison must pass the required content examination in their area(s) of certification before they enter their final semester of student teaching. Passing the content examination is required for program completion and no candidate may be waived from taking the required Praxis II test for their license area(s). Students who have already taken the content examination prior to being admitted to one of UW-Madison's teacher education programs must request ETS to send an official score report to Education Academic Services.
Find the list of tests, the test numbers, and minimum passing scores at this Web site. Students must also register online through the ETS Web site. Questions about registration may be directed to 609-771-7395 or praxis@ets.org. Important: Be sure to indicate the correct "Attending Institution Recipient Code" for UW-Madison School of Education. This is RA1846. Using the wrong recipient code will prevent scores from reaching EAS and may require students to pay ETS to re-send their scores.
Students completing multiple licensing areas—either as a major or a minor—must take a test in each licensing area. For example, a student completing a Secondary Math major and a Physics minor must test in both subjects. In general, Elementary Education students are not required to take a content test in their minor area except (1) when students are completing a foreign language minor for certification, or (2) when students completing the Middle Childhood through Early Adolescence program option wish to be certified in their minor area of Health, Theatre, or English as a Second Language (ESL).
Elementary Education students will be tested on their content knowledge in Language and Literature Studies, History/Social Studies, Mathematics, and Science. Students completing the Early Childhood through Middle Childhood program option in Elementary Education will take a different test than those students completing the Middle Childhood through Early Adolescence program option; test questions reflect the intended licensing level. As mentioned above, students in the Elementary Education program are not usually required to take a specific test in their minor subject area.
Students completing any of the licensing program options in Special Education will be tested on their content knowledge in Language and Literature Studies, History/Social Studies, Mathematics, and Science. Students in Special Education will take the same test required of students in the Middle Childhood through Early Adolescence option in Elementary Education.
Secondary Education students must pass the content knowledge test in their certification subject area. This is also true for students completing programs that license in Early Childhood through Adolescence, such as Art or Music. Students seeking certification in more than one subject area must pass the content knowledge exam in each area. However, students completing any of the Science licensing programs must pass a single, comprehensive Science examination in five categories with the approximate percentage of the examination distributed as follows: Scientific Methodology, Techniques, and History, 10%; The Physical Sciences, 40%; The Life Sciences, 20%; The Earth Sciences, 20%; Science, Technology, and Society, 10%.
Similarly, Secondary Education students completing any of the Social Studies licensing programs must pass a single test divided in this manner: United States History, 22%; World History, 22%; Government/Civics/Political Science, 16%; Geography, 15%; Economics, 15%; Behavioral Sciences (Sociology, Anthropology, Psychology), 10%.
Students completing a licensing program in the less frequently taught foreign languages (e.g., Chinese or Japanese) are also exempt from the testing requirement at this time.