PassProfessor’s TExES program is part of the expanding PassProfessor catalog. We are building a practice program mapped to the official frameworks for the TExES exams — content exams, the PPR EC–12 (160), and the Science of Teaching Reading (293). Join the notify list and we will email you when enrollment opens — then use this guide to plan your path to certification.
This program is part of the expanding PassProfessor catalog — join the notify list and we’ll email you when enrollment opens.
The TExES exams, in one paragraph
TExES — the Texas Examinations of Educator Standards — is the set of certification exams for Texas public-school educators, established under the Texas Education Agency (TEA) and administered by Pearson through the Texas Educator Certification Examination Program (tx.nesinc.com). There is no single “TExES test”: each Texas certificate requires its own exam or exams, most often a content exam in the subject and grade level you will teach plus the Pedagogy and Professional Responsibilities EC–12 exam (160), which tests how you teach. Five elementary and middle-grades reading-related certificates also require the Science of Teaching Reading exam (293). Every TExES exam is scored on a 100–300 scale, and 240 is the passing standard. You do not register on your own for initial certification — your educator preparation program approves you for your exams.
Who can take the TExES exams?
Texas certification runs through a preparation program, and the exams sit inside that pathway — not in front of it. TEA publishes five requirements to become a certified classroom teacher:
- Obtain a bachelor’s degree from an accredited college or university. Texas rules require the degree to come from an institution accredited by an accrediting agency recognized by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board. (TEA notes that Health Science Technology and Trades & Industrial Education certifications are exempt from the bachelor’s-degree requirement.)
- Complete an approved educator preparation program (EPP). If you do not yet hold a degree, that means a university program. If you already hold a degree, you may use an alternative certification program or a post-baccalaureate program instead. Only a TEA-approved program can carry you through to certification.
- Pass the appropriate certification exams — the TExES exams for your certificate. TEA’s instruction on this step is direct: contact your program for exam approval. Your EPP confirms which exams your certificate requires and approves you to test; candidates affiliated with an EPP must also obtain the program’s approval to retest after a failed attempt.
- Submit a state application for certification after all requirements are met — TEA advises verifying with your program that you are eligible before applying.
- Complete fingerprinting as part of a national criminal background check. All first-time applicants must be fingerprinted.
Two further pathways, stated honestly:
- Adding an area by examination. An educator who already holds a valid Texas standard classroom teaching certificate and a bachelor’s degree may add many classroom certification areas by passing the appropriate examination. Passing the exam alone does not add the area — the new certification issues against the active standard certificate, and some areas (Early Childhood PK–Grade 3 and initial certification among them) cannot be added this way.
- Pre-admission content testing. Texas also uses content tests for program admission in defined circumstances (the TX PACT route), which is separate from the certification exams themselves. If you are not yet in a program, your prospective program — not a testing website — is the right place to confirm which route applies to you.
The exams, piece by piece
Think of TExES as three layers. Most candidates meet the first two; the third applies to a defined set of certificates.
Layer 1: Content exams — what you will teach
Your content exam matches your certificate’s subject and grade level: a single-subject exam for most secondary certificates (mathematics, science, English language arts and reading, and so on), or a combined Core Subjects exam for elementary and middle-grades generalists. Each content exam has its own official preparation manual on the Texas Educator Certification Examination Program site, with its own framework of domains and competencies — that framework is the syllabus for the exam.
The Core Subjects exams have one structural feature every candidate must understand:
- Core Subjects EC–6 (391) is made up of five subject exams; Core Subjects 4–8 (211) is made up of four subject exams (English Language Arts and Reading, Mathematics, Social Studies, and Science).
- You must score 240 on each subject exam. The overall result is reported as Passed or Not Passed — there is no total passing score for the overall exam that could let a strong subject carry a weak one.
- If you do not pass exactly one subject exam, you may retake that single subject exam. If you miss two or more, you retake the overall exam — but the score from your best attempt on each subject exam is retained, and you do not need to answer questions again in subject exams you have already passed.
Layer 2: Pedagogy — how you will teach
Pedagogy and Professional Responsibilities EC–12 (160) — the PPR — is the pedagogy exam nearly every Texas classroom candidate takes, whatever their subject. Per its official Pearson preparation manual:
| PPR EC–12 (160) | |
|---|---|
| Questions | 100 selected-response questions |
| Appointment time | 5 hours total — 15 minutes for the CAT tutorial and compliance agreement, then 4 hours 45 minutes of testing time |
| Format | Computer-administered test (CAT) |
| Grade range covered | Early Childhood through Grade 12 |
| Passing score | 240 (scale 100–300) |
Its framework divides the exam into four domains:
| Domain | Weight | What it covers |
|---|---|---|
| I. Designing Instruction and Assessment to Promote Student Learning | 34% | Development, learner differences, and planning instruction and assessment that respond to both |
| II. Creating a Positive, Productive Classroom Environment | 13% | Classroom climate, routines, management, and motivation |
| III. Implementing Effective, Responsive Instruction and Assessment | 33% | Delivering instruction, engaging students, monitoring learning, and adjusting based on what assessment shows |
| IV. Fulfilling Professional Roles and Responsibilities | 20% | Legal and ethical requirements, professional duties, and collaboration with families and colleagues |
| Total | 100% |
The practical reading of that table: Domains I and III are 67% of the exam. The PPR is chiefly a test of instructional design and responsive teaching, presented largely through classroom scenarios — the professional-roles material in Domain IV matters, but a study plan that spreads time evenly across the four domains misreads the test.
Layer 3: The Science of Teaching Reading — where TEA requires it
The Science of Teaching Reading (293) — the STR — is an additional required exam for the issuance of five certification fields, for intern, probationary, and standard certificates, in effect since January 1, 2021:
- Early Childhood: EC – Grade 3
- Core Subjects with Science of Teaching Reading: Early Childhood–Grade 6
- Core Subjects with Science of Teaching Reading: Grades 4–8
- English Language Arts and Reading with Science of Teaching Reading: Grades 4–8
- English Language Arts and Reading/Social Studies with Science of Teaching Reading: Grades 4–8
Educators who were already standard-certified in the predecessor Core Subjects and ELAR fields are not required to pass the STR to renew — the requirement reaches candidates seeking certification in these fields after January 1, 2021.
Per its official Pearson preparation manual:
| Science of Teaching Reading (293) | |
|---|---|
| Questions | 90 selected-response questions + 1 constructed-response question |
| Appointment time | 5 hours total — 15 minutes for the CAT tutorial and compliance agreement, then 4 hours 45 minutes of testing time |
| Format | Computer-administered test (CAT); the exam includes a listening question taken with a headset |
| Content range | Prekindergarten through Grade 6 |
| Passing score | 240 (scale 100–300) |
| Domain | Weight | What it covers |
|---|---|---|
| I. Reading Pedagogy | 13% | Foundations of research-based reading instruction and of reading assessment |
| II. Reading Development: Foundational Skills | 43% | Oral language, phonemic awareness, alphabetic principle and word analysis, and fluency foundations |
| III. Reading Development: Comprehension | 24% | Vocabulary and comprehension development |
| IV. Analysis and Response | 20% | Analyzing reading performance and producing the constructed response |
| Total | 100% |
Two facts drive STR preparation: Foundational Skills is nearly half the exam (43%), and Domain IV is a written performance — the constructed response is prepared for by writing responses, not by answering more multiple-choice questions.
Facts that apply across the family
- Unscored questions are mixed in. TExES exams may include questions being evaluated for future administrations. They do not affect your score, they cannot be identified, and your scaled score is based only on scored questions.
- Delivery is by appointment. TExES exams are computer-administered tests offered by appointment at testing sites in Texas and nationwide, on a first-come, first-served basis.
- One scale everywhere. Whatever the exam, the reporting scale is 100–300 and the bar is 240.
The passing standard, explained
You pass a TExES exam with a scaled score of 240 on the 100–300 scale.
A scaled score is not a percentage and not a count of correct answers. Pearson converts performance onto the common scale with statistical adjustments for differences in difficulty, so the same scaled score on different versions of the same exam reflects approximately the same level of knowledge. Note the limit of that comparability, which the program itself states: the same number on different exams does not mean the same thing — a 250 on one TExES exam and a 250 on another reflect knowledge of different content.
What your score report shows:
- Total Test Performance — your scaled score and your Passed / Not Passed status.
- Performance by Domain and Performance by Competency (where applicable to the exam) — how you did section by section. For a candidate who did not pass, this is the diagnostic core of a retake plan: rebuild around the domains and competencies that cost the attempt rather than re-studying everything evenly.
- Results are also transmitted into your certification file and made available to TEA, the State Board for Educator Certification, and, where applicable, your EPP. Scores are released at 10:00 p.m. Central time on the published score report dates for your exam.
For Core Subjects candidates, remember the per-subject rule from the section above: 240 is required on each subject exam, and there is no overall total to average into.
Fees and registration, step by step
What the exams cost. TEA publishes TExES exam fees at two levels — $116 or $136 depending on the exam — so budget per exam, not per certificate: a typical elementary candidate sits a content exam, the STR, and the PPR and pays the fee for each. Confirm the exact fee for your specific exam on its official test page at tx.nesinc.com before you register, because the fee attaches to the exam, not to this guide. Beyond the exams, TEA’s published standard-certificate application fee is $78, and its fingerprinting figure is $49 — separate payments, at separate steps, in addition to your EPP’s own tuition and fees. Treat every figure in this paragraph as a planning number and verify it on the official pages when you register; fees change by agency action.
How payment works. Exam registration fees are paid by credit card (VISA or MasterCard), a debit or check card carrying the VISA or MasterCard logo that can be used without a PIN, or Apple Pay / Google Pay. Cash and checks are not accepted. The charge appears as “Texas Educator Exam.”
The sequence, in order:
- Get approved. Confirm with your EPP which exams your certificate requires and obtain your program’s approval to test. Keep your TEA identification details consistent across your TEA account and your testing account — you will use both.
- Register on the Texas Educator Certification Examination Program site (tx.nesinc.com). Create your account, select your approved exam, and pay the exam fee.
- Schedule within your registration window. A registration is valid for 170 days from issue: schedule, test, or withdraw within that window, because an expired registration earns no refund or credit of any kind.
- Take the exam at your scheduled appointment (see the test-day section below).
- After you have passed everything and completed your program requirements, submit your state application for certification and complete fingerprinting, following your EPP’s recommendation process.
Retakes and the five-attempt limit
Texas is stricter here than most candidates expect, and the rules reward treating the first attempt as a real attempt:
- Wait 30 days. An exam can be retaken after 30 days. You cannot register for the retake until the results of your last attempt have been posted; once they post, the first appointment you can take is 30 days from the prior attempt’s exam date.
- Get program approval again. If you are affiliated with an EPP, you must request your program’s approval to retest.
- Five attempts, total. Texas limits you to five attempts to take a certification exam — the first attempt plus four retakes, with each testing session counting as an attempt. If you register for a sixth sitting without relief, scores from it will not count toward certification and the fees are still yours.
- The waiver path. A candidate who has not passed after five attempts may test again only if TEA approves a test-limit waiver. Without passing a required exam — by the fifth attempt or under a waiver — TEA cannot issue the intern, probationary, or standard certificate in that field.
- Core Subjects exception in your favor. For the Core Subjects exams, retake the single subject exam you missed if you missed only one, and know that your best score on each subject exam is retained across sittings.
Test day
- Know your appointment structure. For the flagship exams, the 5-hour appointment divides into 15 minutes for the computer tutorial and compliance agreement, then 4 hours and 45 minutes of testing time. The tutorial is not extra testing time — pace against the 4 hours 45 minutes.
- Scores are not instant. Unlike some certification exams, TExES results post later — at 10:00 p.m. Central on the score report dates published for your exam. Plan your next steps (including any retake registration, which must wait for posted results) around that calendar.
- Every question gets an answer. Your score is based only on scored questions, and unscored tryout questions are indistinguishable from them. Leaving a question blank can only hurt you; an educated answer cannot cost you more than the blank.
- Follow the program’s candidate rules. When you register, you agree to the Texas Educator Certification Examination Program’s rules and policies — including the rule against disclosing exam content. Those rules are also why legitimate preparation, including ours, is built from the published frameworks rather than from anyone’s memory of the test.
A scheduled change: the Texas Test of Educator Proficiency (T-TEP)
Plan long timelines with this in view. TEA has published that a new assessment — the Texas Test of Educator Proficiency (T-TEP), a Texas-specific performance-based assessment of the state’s classroom-teacher pedagogy standards — is scheduled to launch in September 2027. Pending action by the State Board for Educator Certification, T-TEP would replace the PPR as the required pedagogy assessment for standard certification. TEA has not yet set T-TEP’s price or its implementation policy. Candidates testing well before September 2027 should prepare for the PPR as the current requirement; candidates whose certification timeline crosses that date should confirm the current requirement with their EPP and TEA’s T-TEP guidance before assuming which pedagogy assessment they will take.
How to study for these exams
The framework is the syllabus — each exam’s official preparation manual defines its domains and competencies, and the weights above are the exam’s actual proportions. A plan built on that structure:
- Start from your certificate’s exam list, not from a generic TExES plan. TEA’s Required Texas Certification Tests chart and your EPP agree on your set; study time spent on an exam you do not need is lost, and an exam you do need but did not plan for is worse.
- Read the preparation manual before anything else. It is free, official, and exact: domains, competencies, and the descriptive statements that define what can be tested. Use the competencies as a checklist and mark what you cannot yet explain.
- Weight the PPR by its domains. Designing Instruction (34%) and Implementing Instruction (33%) are two-thirds of the exam. Learn them through classroom scenarios — what should the teacher do next, and why — because that is the form the knowledge is tested in.
- Treat STR Domain II as its own course. Foundational Skills at 43% spans oral language, phonemic awareness, word analysis, and fluency. Candidates who “know reading” generally but have not studied the developmental sequence of early reading skills are the ones this domain catches.
- Write STR constructed responses in practice. Domain IV is 20% of the exam and is performed in writing, under the same clock. Outline, draft, and revise against sample student data until the format costs you no thinking time.
- For Core Subjects, study subject by subject. Because each subject exam must independently reach 240, your weakest subject — not your average — sets your risk. Give the weakest subject the largest block, and use the single-subject retake rule as a safety net, not a plan.
- Respect the attempt limit in your scheduling. With five attempts per exam and a 30-day wait between them, test when timed full-length practice says you are ready — comfortably above the passing standard — not when the calendar says you are impatient.
PassProfessor’s TExES program is being built exam-by-exam on these same official frameworks. The TExES Exam Prep program page shows the coverage plan for the PPR and STR — and the notify list there will email you when the program opens.
Frequently asked questions
What does TExES stand for? Texas Examinations of Educator Standards — the family of certification exams for Texas educators, established under the Texas Education Agency and administered by Pearson through the Texas Educator Certification Examination Program.
Is there one TExES exam or many? Many. Each certificate has its own required exam or exams: a content exam for your subject and grade level, the Pedagogy and Professional Responsibilities EC–12 exam (160) for most classroom candidates, and the Science of Teaching Reading exam (293) for the five certificate fields TEA lists. Your educator preparation program confirms your exact set.
What is the passing score for TExES? 240 on a scale of 100 to 300, for every exam in the series. For Core Subjects EC–6 and Core Subjects 4–8, that means 240 on each individual subject exam — there is no overall score that averages subjects together.
Do I need a degree to take a TExES exam? Certification requires a bachelor’s degree from an accredited institution for almost all fields, and the exams are taken inside an approved educator preparation program, which approves you to test. TEA exempts Health Science Technology and Trades & Industrial Education certifications from the degree requirement. Confirm your field’s requirements with TEA and your program.
Can I register for a TExES exam without being in a program? For initial certification, no — TEA directs candidates to contact their educator preparation program for exam approval. Educators who already hold a Texas standard classroom certificate use the separate certification-by-examination route to add areas.
How much do TExES exams cost? TEA publishes exam fees at $116 or $136 depending on the exam, charged per exam and per attempt. The standard-certificate application fee TEA publishes is $78, and fingerprinting carries its own fee. Confirm the exact fee for your exam on its official test page at tx.nesinc.com when you register.
How long is a TExES registration valid? 170 days from the date of issue. You must schedule and take the exam — or withdraw — within that window; after it, the registration expires with no refund or credit.
How many questions are on the PPR (160)? 100 selected-response questions in a 5-hour appointment (15 minutes of tutorial and compliance agreement, then 4 hours 45 minutes of testing), per the official Pearson preparation manual. The exam covers grades EC–12 across four domains, weighted 34% / 13% / 33% / 20%.
How many questions are on the STR (293)? 90 selected-response questions plus 1 constructed-response question, in the same 5-hour appointment structure, per the official Pearson preparation manual. Content ranges from Prekindergarten through Grade 6, and Foundational Skills is 43% of the exam.
Who has to take the Science of Teaching Reading exam? Candidates seeking intern, probationary, or standard certification in five fields: Early Childhood EC–Grade 3; Core Subjects EC–6; Core Subjects 4–8; English Language Arts and Reading 4–8; and English Language Arts and Reading/Social Studies 4–8. The requirement applies to certification sought after January 1, 2021; educators already standard-certified in the predecessor fields do not need it for renewal.
If I fail, how soon can I retake a TExES exam? After 30 days — and only after your previous results have posted, with your EPP’s approval if you are program-affiliated. Texas limits you to five attempts per exam in total; beyond five, a TEA-approved test-limit waiver is required.
When do I get my TExES scores? Scores are posted at 10:00 p.m. Central time on the score report dates published for your exam, and are added to your certification file and shared with TEA, the State Board for Educator Certification, and your EPP where applicable. Your report shows your total scaled score, your pass status, and performance by domain and competency where applicable.
Is the PPR being replaced? TEA has scheduled a new performance-based pedagogy assessment, the Texas Test of Educator Proficiency (T-TEP), to launch in September 2027; pending State Board for Educator Certification action, it would replace the PPR for standard certification. The PPR is the current requirement — candidates on longer timelines should confirm with their EPP which assessment will apply to them.
Disclaimer
PassProfessor is an independent exam-preparation provider and is not affiliated with, sponsored by, or endorsed by the Texas Education Agency (TEA), the State Board for Educator Certification, or Pearson. TExES is a program of the Texas Education Agency, administered by Pearson. This guide is general information about the Texas educator certification exams, current as of October 2026; TEA’s and Pearson’s official publications govern if anything here differs from them. Passing an exam is one step in Texas certification — an approved educator preparation program, a state application, and fingerprinting are also required, and only TEA issues the certificate.