Praxis Educational Leadership Online Center
This Praxis Educational Leadership Online Center brings together practice, lessons, worksheets, flashcards and review tools. Choose the resource that matches the skill you want to work on next.
Praxis Educational Leadership Practice Center
Take a full form, then read the explanation under every question you missed. Almost every wrong answer here is something a real administrator has done, which is what makes the test hard. The explanations name which step the right answer took that the wrong one skipped.
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Praxis Educational Leadership at a glance
This is the test most states require of aspiring principals and assistant principals. Two things about it are worth knowing before you start studying. It is entirely selected-response: there are no written assignments, whatever an older guide may say, and the leadership test that does have constructed responses is the separate SLLA, code 6990. And the framework has six categories, not the five in most published outlines, because climate and culture stands on its own.
| Test code | 5412 (Educational Leadership: Administration and Supervision) |
|---|---|
| Status | Current. 5412 is itself the successor to the retired 5411. |
| Not to be confused with | The School Leaders Licensure Assessment, code 6990, which is a separate live test and does include constructed response. |
| Number of questions | 120 selected-response questions. There is no constructed response and no separately timed section. |
| Time limit | 2 hours 45 minutes |
| Format | Computer-delivered, at a test centre or at home |
| Scoring | Based on the number of correct answers. ETS states there is no penalty for a wrong answer, so answer everything. |
| Score scale | 100 to 200 |
| Passing score | ETS does not set one. Each state sets its own qualifying score. |
ETS publishes counts and percentages for all six categories: Instructional Leadership 27 questions and 23 percent, Climate and Cultural Leadership 22 and 18 percent, Strategic Leadership 20 and 17 percent, Ethical Leadership 19 and 16 percent, Organizational Leadership 16 and 13 percent, and Community Engagement Leadership 16 and 13 percent. Instructional leadership is the largest single block, which tells you what the test thinks a principal is for.
The six categories, in plain language
ETS lists each category and the topics under it. Here is what each one asks of you.
Instructional leadership (23 percent, 27 questions)
The largest category. Learning is the job.
- Curriculum, instruction, and alignment to standards
- Supervising, observing, and evaluating teachers
- Instructional coaching and feedback
- Using data for school improvement
- Professional learning and staff development
- Supporting students with disabilities and multilingual learners
Climate and cultural leadership (18 percent, 22 questions)
The conditions everything else depends on.
- Building and sustaining school culture
- Discipline systems and restorative approaches
- Student and staff wellbeing
- Equity and access
- Celebrating and communicating success
Strategic leadership (17 percent, 20 questions)
Vision, mission, and getting there.
- Developing and communicating a shared vision
- School improvement planning
- Setting and monitoring goals
- Managing change
- Distributed leadership
Ethical leadership (16 percent, 19 questions)
Professional norms and the law.
- Professional ethics and integrity
- Confidentiality and student records
- Due process in personnel matters
- Legal obligations including mandated reporting
- Acting in the interest of every student
Organizational leadership (13 percent, 16 questions)
Running the building.
- Budget and resource allocation
- Master scheduling and staffing
- Hiring, induction, and retention
- Facilities, operations, and safety
- Crisis planning and response
Community engagement leadership (13 percent, 16 questions)
The school in its context.
- Family partnership and two-way communication
- Community and agency partnerships
- Communicating with the public and the media
- Responding to community concerns
- Advocacy for the school and its students
A study routine for a 165-minute leadership test
The content of this test is not hard to understand. What is hard is choosing between four defensible actions under time pressure, which is a pattern you learn by practising rather than by reading.
Complete topic map
Every topic ETS lists under the six categories, weighted the way the test is weighted.
Strategic Leadership (17 percent, about 20 questions)
- 01Develop an educational mission that promotes the academic success and well-being of each student
- 02Analyze relevant data sources before developing or revising the mission, vision, and goals
- 03Implement a vision and goals that carry challenging, measurable expectations for student learning and instructional practice
- 04Understand the relationship between the school’s vision and goals and local, state, and federal policy
- 05Model the school’s mission, vision, and core values in day-to-day leadership behavior
- 06Engage staff and community members with diverse perspectives in shaping the vision
- 07Develop shared commitments and shared responsibilities for implementing the vision and goals
- 08Determine and implement effective strategies for evaluating progress toward the vision and goals
- 09Communicate the shared vision and goals clearly to all stakeholder groups
- 10Implement the shared vision and goals consistently across the school
- 11Use multiple sources of data to conduct a needs analysis
- 12Apply data-driven decision making systematically rather than episodically
- 13Facilitate needed change, including managing uncertainty, supporting individuals through change, and communicating during change
- 14Engage staff, students, and community in planning and assessing school programs
Instructional Leadership (23 percent, about 27 questions)
- 15Develop and implement job-embedded, standards-based professional development
- 16Use data to provide ongoing feedback that improves professional practice and student learning
- 17Guide and monitor individual teacher professional development plans
- 18Establish expectations for strengthening teachers’ content knowledge and instructional skills
- 19Provide differentiated professional development matched to individual and team needs
- 20Develop the capacity of faculty and staff, including leadership capacity
- 21Promote a healthy work-life balance for faculty and staff
- 22Understand one’s own learning through self-reflection and collaboration
- 23Create continuous improvement of the school’s instructional capacity
- 24Strengthen teachers’ knowledge of rigorous curriculum and standards-based instruction
- 25Work with teams to analyze student work and monitor student progress
- 26Develop and implement curricular and instructional programs
- 27Align rigorous curriculum and instruction both horizontally across a grade and vertically across grades
- 28Assure alignment among curriculum, instruction, assessment, and professional development
Climate and Cultural Leadership (18 percent, about 22 questions)
- 29Create opportunities for the safe examination and expression of beliefs about teaching and learning
- 30Provide opportunities for appropriate professional risk-taking
- 31Create structures that provide time and resources for a collaborative professional community
- 32Equip and motivate teachers toward continuous improvement
- 33Hold faculty and staff accountable for maintaining a safe and supportive school climate
- 34Promote a healthy work-life balance among faculty and staff
- 35Develop and support open, productive, caring, and trusting working relationships
- 36Treat each student fairly and respectfully and with an understanding of culture and context
- 37Recognize and employ each student’s strengths, diversity, and culture as assets for learning
- 38Ensure equitable access to effective teachers, learning opportunities, academic and social support, and other resources
- 39Implement policies addressing student misconduct in a fair and unbiased manner
- 40Confront and alter institutional biases of student marginalization, deficit-based schooling, and low expectations toward protected social groups
- 41Develop a shared understanding of high standards for all students and of closing achievement gaps
- 42Act with cultural competence and responsiveness in interactions, decision making, and practice
Ethical Leadership (16 percent, about 19 questions)
- 43Model personal and professional ethics, integrity, justice, and fairness
- 44Safeguard and promote the values of democracy, individual freedom and responsibility, equity, social justice, community, and diversity
- 45Use appropriate systems and procedures to protect the rights and confidentiality of students and staff
- 46Understand the leader’s responsibility for student safety, success, and well-being
- 47Model transparent and consistent decision-making practices
- 48Implement practices that hold faculty, staff, and students accountable
- 49Establish and maintain an inclusive school community
- 50Address unethical behavior affecting students and adults
- 51Understand the importance of self-reflection and of setting goals for one’s own improvement
- 52Employ ethical decision making regarding policies and practices
- 53Provide moral direction for the school and promote ethical behavior among staff and students
Organizational Leadership (13 percent, about 16 questions)
- 54Implement district policy governing facility use and facility needs
- 55Develop a process that ensures compliance with safety regulations
- 56Use technology to improve the quality and efficiency of operations
- 57Institute and monitor operational and administrative systems
- 58Use and maintain data systems and communication systems
- 59Allocate funds based on student needs and within the applicable regulatory framework
- 60Implement strategies to recruit, select, support, develop, and retain effective staff
- 61Assign personnel in ways that address student needs and equity goals
- 62Evaluate educational programs to ensure that all instructional needs are met
- 63Manage personnel assignments strategically
- 64Ensure a safe environment by proactively addressing physical and emotional safety
- 65Develop and advocate for a support system that ensures the welfare and safety of students and staff
- 66Involve teachers, students, and parents in developing safety guidelines
- 67Identify and document key emergency support personnel
Community Engagement Leadership (13 percent, about 16 questions)
- 68Access and use resources from the school, families, and the community
- 69Support and engage families in educational decision making
- 70Use effective public information strategies, including social media, email, and multilingual communication
- 71Apply communication strategies that develop positive family partnerships
- 72Use appropriate strategies for communicating with the media
- 73Identify the competing perspectives and interests of different stakeholder groups
- 74Engage proactively with the local community
- 75Accommodate diverse student and community dynamics
- 76Use diverse community representatives to strengthen school programs
- 77Demonstrate cultural sensitivity in shared responsibilities with the community
- 78Collaborate with community agencies that provide health, social, and other services to students and families
- 79Develop mutually beneficial relationships with business and service organizations
- 80Use community resources appropriately and effectively
- 81Seek community support to sustain existing resources and to identify additional needs
Before test day
When two answers both look like leadership, the test almost always prefers the one that finds out more before it acts, and the one that brings in the people who will have to live with the decision. Decisiveness reads well in an interview and badly on this test. The other thing to hold onto is process: a personnel action that skips a required step is wrong on this test even when the underlying judgment is right.
A USEFUL NEXT STEP
Praxis Educational Leadership: study questions
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