Pennsylvania requires assessment of candidates in General Knowledge, Professional Knowledge, and Subject Area Knowledge prior to issuance of a certificate.
Educators who hold Instructional certification in PA may obtain certification through testing alone through the Instructional Add-On process.
As indicated under Testing Requirement Exceptions on the Testing Requirements page, full and partial testing requirement exceptions are available to applicants who meet specific requirements. All others must successfully complete Pennsylvania’s required testing. Testing requirement exception determinations are made at the time of application review.
No. Unless a testing requirement exception applies, all applicants must successfully complete Pennsylvania's required testing. No other tests can be substituted or exceptions made.
See Assessment Requirements in Certification and Staffing Policy Guideline (CPSG) 21.
Test scores are submitted electronically to the Pennsylvania Department of Education (PDE) by the test administrator.
See Assessment Submission in Certification and Staffing Policy Guideline (CSPG) 21.
Links to the testing administrators can be found on the Testing Requirements page.
See Testing Requirement Exceptions, Testing Guidelines, and/or Certification Test and Score Requirements on the Testing Requirements page.
All modules are required except for Grades 4-8 Core Assessment: Pedagogy (5153) , which will be removed at the time the application is evaluated.
No. Once a provider has official results in hand, they may complete the affirmation/recommendation.
No. See the Important Note on the Testing Requirements page.
The GPA Allowance/Sliding Scale Policy developed by PDE enables an applicant to use their preparation program GPA to meet a qualifying score for their content, and, if applicable, general knowledge assessment.
The GPA of the degree in which the preparation program was completed applies. If the preparation program is a certificate only program for which no degree was conferred, the preparation program GPA is used instead. Experience-Based certificate (EBC) and Instructional Add-On applicants should review the applicable section below.
GPA scores and corresponding GPA spans are outlined in the Certification Test and Score Requirements (Excel) spreadsheet.
The GPA Allowance does not change the passing score(s) or pass/fail result(s) but allows the acceptance of GPA qualifying score(s) for certificate issuance.
No. This policy is not applicable to Special Education Expansions.
You can find additional information in Certification and Staffing Policy Guideline (CSPG) 21 and on the Testing Requirements page of our website.
GPA Allowance for Experience-Based Certificates
November 3, 2025
EBC applicants may use their highest degree GPA or most recent GPA to meet the qualifying score for their content, and, if applicable, general knowledge assessment, which is to be provided by the Educator Preparation Program (EPP) at the time of recommendation for certification. PDE reserves the right to request additional information from the applicant for verification when needed.
An official degree transcript on which the applicable GPA is indicated may be requested.
Yes. Test scores must either be passing or qualify based on the EBC program GPA.
GPA Allowance for Instructional Add-Ons
November 3, 2025
Instructional Add-On applicants may use their highest degree GPA or most recent matriculated degree/program GPA, which may be found in TIMS, to meet the qualifying score for their content assessment. PDE reserves the right to request additional information from the applicant for verification when needed.
An official degree or most recent matriculated degree/program transcript on which the applicable GPA is indicated may be requested.