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Pennsylvania Teacher Preparation Program Pass Rates

A service to all those considering a career as a teacher in Pennsylvania and beyond . It allows users to compare the performance of teacher candidates at Pennsylvania's teacher preparation programs by comparing pass rates on the tests required for certification as a teacher in Pennsylvania.

To receive certification in Pennsylvania, candidates are required to take a series of subject specific and general content tests known as PRAXIS. Approximately 36 other states have similar requirements. Candidates taking these tests are customarily enrolled in a college/university teacher preparation program.

Because institutional affiliation is self-reported on the Praxis exams, the data presented here may also include test scores for individuals who may not have attended a PA teacher preparation program, but who have taken the test in Pennsylvania or coded "Pennsylvania" as a test score recipient. Similarly, the candidates choose to identify their attending institution, although this is not verified with the college/university. All of the data on this website has been provided by the Educational Testing Service (ETS).

Users can search this website by college/university or by the program area in which a candidate seeks certification. This type of searching will identify a specific college/university's candidate performance on the tests required for a specific subject area.

Please note that the test data provided on this website was not collected nor is it intended to be used for the purpose of evaluating individual teacher preparation programs, as there are many factors that affect test score data. This website is provided as a service to Pennsylvania citizens and represents only one of many sources of information that should be carefully considered when making college application decisions. Additionally, there are other criteria to consider when applying to an institution of higher education such as financial resources expended by the institution, curriculum offered, and the experience and number of advanced degrees of the faculty just to name a few. Parents and students should consider a variety of these and other factors when making application decisions.

Consid​erations in Pass Rate Calculations

  1. Some fields are blank for privacy concerns. Pass rates for any group or test in which there were fewer than 5 annual examinees are not reported to protect candidate privacy.
  2. If no teacher preparation attending institution is identified by the test taker, the examinee's pass rates will be listed as "Other" and not included in a specific institution's pass rates.
  3. National Highest Cut Score - the highest passing score required among any of the states using Praxis tests.
  4. 3 Year Data - 1 year data and the two preceding year data (example: from September 2003 - August 2006). The three - year aggregated data is calculated by determining each examinee's pass/fail status at the time his/her score was reported. The data is not an average of three one - year accumulations of data.
  5. The Pre-Professional Skills Tests (PPST) are taken by all Pennsylvania candidates attending the college/university for teacher preparation. The pass rates currently displayed on this website for each subject area are the aggregate pass rates for all candidates for the identified institution, not just the candidates in the program identified. The pass rates for a given college/university should be the same for all subject areas listed for that institution, as the PPST scores are not currently disaggregated by subject area.
  6. The Pre-Professional Skills Tests (PPST) can be successfully completed in one of two ways. First, the PPST test can be passed by meeting the required cut score listed for each test in the website for each PPST test. Second, the PPST tests can be passed by use of a "composite score" which requires a candidate to obtain a minimum score in each of the three tests (R-171, W-170, M-171), but the total of the three scores must be equal to a composite cute score of 521 for all three tests.
  7. Definitions of data elements are available in the Glossary.​

​Title II Pro​gram Completer Pass Rates

The pass rate results of students who have completed their teacher education program at a Pennsylvania college or university and have taken Praxis assessments required to gain a Pennsylvania instructional certificate are available at the Title II website.