To become a teacher in Texas, you must pass the required Texas teacher certification exams. Each grade level and subject area has its own “certificate,” which allows you to teach in the grade level and subject area you want. To receive a teaching certificate, you must pass all the required exams (content and pedagogy) for your chosen area of study.
There are various teaching certificates and exams in Texas. To make things easier, we created a list of each certification area along with its required exams.
First, let’s take care of some housekeeping to make sure you can understand everything in the tables below:
Certification Area: The certification areas are the subjects and grade levels you can teach in Texas using that specific teaching certificate.
Required Content Exam(s): these are the exam(s) you must take and pass in order to receive your teaching certificate. Content exams test your knowledge of the actual subject matter or “content” for your certificate (i.e. Art, History, Math, Science, etc.).
Required Pedagogy Test(s): In addition to the content exam(s), anyone who is trying to receive their first Texas teaching certificate for a specific classroom teaching area is required to pass a Pedagogy test. If you are looking to add a supplemental certificate to an existing certificate, get certified in additional areas through examination, or become certified in non-teaching areas such as Reading Specialist or School Librarian, you may not be required to take another pedagogy test.
Abbreviations:
AAFCS – American Association of Family and Consumer Sciences
ACTFL – American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages
ETS – Educational Testing Services
OPI – Oral Proficiency Interview
PASL – Performance Assessment for School Leaders
PPR – Pedagogy and Professional Responsibilities
STR – Science of Teaching Reading
TExES – Texas Examinations of Educator Standards
WPT – Writing Proficiency Test.
List of Texas Teacher Certification Tests
Below is a list of all the current certification areas and the required content and pedagogy exams for each certification area.
Tip: You can use the table of contents to the left to quickly jump to the certification area you are interested in.
TExES PPR EC-12 (160) or TExES PPR for Trade and Industrial Education 6–12 (370) or edTPA: Business Education (2102)
Technology Education: 6-12
TExES Technology Education 6–12 (171)
TExES PPR EC-12 (160) or TExES PPR for Trade and Industrial Education 6–12 (370) or edTPA: Technology and Engineering Education (2143)
Trade and Industrial Education: 6-12
None
TExES PPR for Trade and Industrial Education 6–12 (370)
Trade and Industrial Workforce Training: 6-12
None
TExES PPR for Trade and Industrial Education 6–12 (370)
You can pass on your first try. Here’s how.
45%. That’s the average first-time pass rate for states with strong testing systems, so you’re not alone if you’re concerned about passing your exam. CEO Scott Rozell founded 240 Tutoring after his own struggle passing his exams. Since then, we’ve helped over 200,000 teachers and future teachers achieve their goals. His advice is simple: Take that first step today.
