New York State Teacher Certification Examinations (NYSTCE) Test Development Participation Opportunities
The New York State Teacher Certification Examinations (NYSTCE) are developed in accordance with professional standards for educational testing and follow national industry standards. They are designed to assess the knowledge, skills, and abilities needed for the area of the certificate sought. Information about the tests is available on the NYSTCE website.
Upcoming NYSTCE Test Development Activities
The New York State Education Department (NYSED) is seeking educators to participate in the following committees. Currently, all committees meet virtually (online). The descriptions of the different types of committees are provided below.
- Standard Setting for the Multi-Subject: Teachers of Early Childhood (Birth-Grade 2), Part Two: Mathematics test
- Standard Setting for the new School Counselor Content Specialty Test (CST)
- Item Review for the new Computer Science CST
- Item Review for the School Building Leader Assessment
- Bias Review for all exam work
Who Is Eligible to Participate?
The following educators are eligible to participate in NYSTCE test development activities:
- New York State teachers, educational leaders, and pupil personnel services professionals who hold certification; and/or
- Educator preparation program faculty and content area faculty at New York State institutions of higher education who are preparing teachers, educational leaders, and pupil personnel services professionals.
Application Form
Eligible educators can apply to participate in NYSTCE test development activities by completing the brief NYSTCE Test Development Recruitment Form. NYSED staff will contact educators who are selected for a committee.
Honorarium and Continuing Teacher and Leader Education (CTLE)
Committee participants are eligible to receive an honorarium. They can also receive CTLE clock hours for engaging in committee work.
Test Development Committees
NYSTCE test development committee work includes the following test development activities. Applicants may be selected and invited to participate in one or more committees.
- Bias Review: Participants review test materials for potential sources of bias according to established review criteria pertaining to test content, language, offense, stereotypes, fairness, and diversity.
- Framework Review: Participants review the test framework's competencies and performance indicators according to established criteria.
- Item Review: Participants review test items for content, accuracy, freedom from bias, and job relatedness.
- Marker Response:Participants review and identify anchor responses for constructed-response items that are used in exam scoring.
- Standard Setting: Participants provide recommendations for the passing score (cut score) for the exam.