Praxis ParaPro Assessment Online Center
This Praxis ParaPro Assessment Online Center brings together practice, lessons, worksheets, flashcards and review tools. Choose the resource that matches the skill you want to work on next.
ParaPro Practice Center
Take a full form, then read the explanation under every question you missed. Sort the misses two ways: the skills questions, which are about your own reading, mathematics, and writing, and the classroom questions, which are about what a paraprofessional should do. They need completely different kinds of study.
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ParaPro Assessment at a glance
The ParaPro is the assessment most districts use to qualify paraprofessionals and instructional aides. It is not a teacher licensure test and it is not pitched like one: the skills questions sit at about a high school level. What catches people out is the other third of each category, which puts you in a classroom under a teacher’s direction and asks what you should do next. Those questions have a consistent logic, and once you see it they become the easiest points on the test.
| Test code | 1755 (ParaPro Assessment) |
|---|---|
| Status | Current. ETS has also launched a newer paraprofessional assessment called ParaPathways (5757, with subtests 5758 and 5759), but ETS presents it as an alternative rather than a replacement, and states and districts are moving over on their own timetables. Check which one yours accepts. |
| Number of questions | 90 selected-response questions |
| Time limit | 150 minutes |
| Calculator | Not allowed. |
| Where you take it | Three ways: at home with a live online proctor, at a participating school district or regional office acting as its own test center, or at a commercial test center. Districts acting as test centers sometimes charge an additional proctoring fee. |
| Format | Computer-delivered only. There is no current paper version. |
| Passing score | ETS does not set one. Each state, and often each individual district, sets its own qualifying score, so ask the district you are applying to rather than relying on a number you read online. |
The three categories are equally weighted at about a third each, roughly thirty questions apiece. Inside each one, about two thirds of the questions test the skill itself and about one third ask you to apply it to classroom instruction. So of ninety questions, about thirty are classroom-judgment questions, and they are spread evenly across reading, mathematics, and writing.
The three categories, in plain language
Each category is split the same way: the skill, then the classroom.
Reading (about a third, about 30 questions)
Your own reading, then helping a student read.
- Main idea and supporting details
- Vocabulary in context
- Drawing conclusions and making inferences
- Author’s purpose and organization
- Reading a chart, a table, or a set of directions
- Supporting a student during reading instruction the teacher has planned
Mathematics (about a third, about 30 questions)
Arithmetic through basic algebra, by hand.
- Whole numbers, fractions, decimals, and percent
- Ratio, proportion, and simple algebra
- Measurement and unit conversion
- Basic geometry: perimeter, area, and volume
- Reading graphs and simple statistics
- Supporting a student working a problem without giving the answer
Writing (about a third, about 30 questions)
The conventions, then helping a student write.
- Grammar, usage, and sentence structure
- Punctuation, capitalization, and spelling
- Organizing and revising a piece of writing
- Research and reference skills
- Supporting a student through the writing process
A study routine for a 150-minute assessment
Ninety questions in one hundred fifty minutes is a comfortable pace, so this is not a speed test. It is a two-part study problem: refresh skills you may not have used since school, and learn how the classroom questions are meant to be answered.
Complete lesson map
One hundred twenty-two lessons on the reading, writing, and mathematics this assessment covers, each opening in a new tab, followed by the topics ETS lists for each category.
Key ideas, details, and textual evidence
Inference, conclusions, and how ideas develop
Word meaning, word choice, and tone
Text structure, features, and organization
Purpose, perspective, and point of view
Evaluating claims, evidence, and reasoning
Integrating information across texts and formats
Sentence Foundations
Sentence Boundaries
Agreement, Verbs, and Pronouns
Punctuation and Capitalization
Spelling and Confused Words
Knowledge of Language
Vocabulary and Word Parts
Counting, place value, and operations
Fractions and decimals
Ratios, proportion, and percent
Algebraic thinking and patterns
The coordinate plane
Measurement and geometry
Data, statistics, and probability
Reading (33 percent, about 30 questions)
- 123Reading skills and knowledge, approximately 20 of the 30 questions in this category
- 124Identify the main idea or primary purpose of a passage
- 125Identify and summarize supporting ideas and details in a passage
- 126Recognize how a text is organized, such as sequence, comparison, or cause and effect
- 127Determine the meaning of a word or phrase from its context in the passage
- 128Draw inferences and conclusions that the passage supports but does not state directly
- 129Distinguish statements of fact from statements of opinion
- 130Interpret information presented in tables, diagrams, charts, and graphs
- 131Application of reading skills to classroom instruction, approximately 10 of the 30 questions in this category
- 132Help a student decode an unfamiliar word using phonics, syllables, and prefixes and suffixes
- 133Use the syntax of a sentence to help a student decode or make sense of a word
- 134Distinguish synonyms, antonyms, and homonyms when assisting a student
- 135Put words in alphabetical order and guide a student in doing so
- 136Support a teacher-directed pre-reading strategy such as previewing, predicting, or activating prior knowledge
Mathematics (33 percent, about 30 questions)
- 137Mathematics skills and knowledge, approximately 20 of the 30 questions in this category
- 138Add, subtract, multiply, and divide whole numbers, fractions, and decimals
- 139Demonstrate conceptual understanding of what multiplication and division mean and when each applies
- 140Recognize and use mathematical symbols and the terms sum, difference, product, and quotient
- 141Compare and order numbers and describe the relative position of numbers on a number line
- 142Recognize equivalent forms of a number across fractions, decimals, and percents
- 143Apply place value concepts, including rounding
- 144Compute with percents, including finding a percent of a number
- 145Work with basic exponents
- 146Apply the order of operations
- 147Use mental math and estimation to judge whether an answer is reasonable
- 148Solve word problems by selecting the operation and setting up the computation
- 149Solve simple one-variable linear equations
- 150Identify and extend number sequences and patterns
Writing (33 percent, about 30 questions)
- 151Writing skills and knowledge, approximately 20 of the 30 questions in this category
- 152Identify errors in grammatical relationships such as subject-verb agreement, pronoun agreement, and verb tense
- 153Identify errors in word usage, including commonly confused homonyms
- 154Identify errors in punctuation and capitalization
- 155Recognize the parts of a sentence, including subject, predicate, phrases, and clauses
- 156Identify the parts of speech
- 157Identify spelling errors
- 158Application of writing skills to classroom instruction, approximately 10 of the 30 questions in this category
- 159Support prewriting and brainstorming techniques such as listing, webbing, and outlining
- 160Help a student select appropriate reference materials for a writing task
- 161Assist with drafting and revising, including developing and supporting a thesis or main idea
- 162Help edit a document for clarity, grammar, sentence fragments and run-ons, punctuation, and spelling
- 163Recognize how purpose and audience shape a piece of writing
- 164Recognize different modes and genres of writing, such as narrative, descriptive, expository, and persuasive
Before test day
Two things are worth carrying in. First, no calculator, so slow down and write the working; the arithmetic is not hard but it is easy to slip. Second, on every classroom question, ask yourself what the teacher would want you to do. A paraprofessional supports the plan rather than replacing it, helps a student get to the answer rather than handing it over, and passes anything about grades, diagnosis, or a conversation with a parent back to the teacher. That single rule answers most of them.
A USEFUL NEXT STEP
Praxis ParaPro Assessment: study questions
What can I study in this Praxis ParaPro Assessment Online Center?
This Praxis ParaPro Assessment Online Center includes practice, lessons, worksheets, flashcards and review tools. Topics on the page include Key ideas, details, and textual evidence, Word meaning, word choice, and tone, Text structure, features, and organization.
How should I use the Praxis ParaPro Assessment resources?
Choose a topic or practice activity from this Online Center. Review the linked explanation, try the practice, and use the result to decide what to study next. Check each resource’s directions for its format and access requirements.
Resources from Effortless Math · Editorial standards