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Praxis Special Education: Core Knowledge and Applications Online Center
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2 free pop-up tests · 120 flashcards · 5 weighted categories
2 pop-up practice tests58 connected lessons1 complete flashcard deck
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Praxis Special Education Core Practice Center
Take a full 120-minute form, then read the explanation under every question you missed. On this test most misses are not knowledge gaps. They are a candidate choosing the most supportive-sounding answer over the professionally correct one, and the explanations are written to make that difference visible.
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Praxis Special Education Core Knowledge and Applications at a glance
This is the core special education test, required in most states for a special education licence. It is one hundred twenty selected-response questions with no written assignment, which makes it shorter than its reputation, and every question is a minute. What it actually tests is judgment under legal and professional constraints: you know the student, now what does the law, the evidence, and the team require you to do next.
| Test code | 5354 (Special Education: Core Knowledge and Applications) |
|---|---|
| Status | Current. No retirement date or successor code is published. |
| Number of questions | 120 selected-response questions. There is no constructed response. |
| Time limit | 120 minutes, one session |
| Format | Computer-delivered, at a test centre or at home |
| Score scale | 100 to 200 |
| Passing score | ETS does not set one. Each state sets its own qualifying score, so check the requirement where you are seeking licensure. |
ETS publishes both the percentage and the question count for every category. Development and Characteristics of Learners is 16 percent, about 20 questions. Planning and the Learning Environment is 23 percent, about 27. Instruction is 23 percent, about 27. Assessment is 18 percent, about 22. Foundations and Professional Responsibilities is 20 percent, about 24. Planning and Instruction together are almost half the test.
The five categories, in plain language
ETS lists each category and the topics under it. Here is what each one asks of you.
I. Development and characteristics of learners (16 percent, about 20 questions)
Who the students are and how disability affects learning.
- The federal disability categories and their defining characteristics
- Typical and atypical development
- How a disability affects learning, behavior, and communication
- Co-occurring conditions and students who are twice exceptional
II. Planning and the learning environment (23 percent, about 27 questions)
The IEP, the placement, and the classroom you build around them.
- The IEP process and every required component
- Writing measurable annual goals from present levels
- Least restrictive environment and the continuum of placements
- Transition planning
- Co-teaching models and collaboration
- Positive behavior support, functional behavior assessment, and behavior intervention plans
- Universal design for learning and MTSS
III. Instruction (23 percent, about 27 questions)
What you actually do with the student.
- Explicit, systematic, evidence-based instruction
- Scaffolding, differentiation, and the gradual release of responsibility
- Accommodation against modification, and when each is right
- Assistive technology and augmentative and alternative communication
- Task analysis, chaining, prompting, and prompt fading
- Reading and mathematics instruction for students with disabilities
- Self-determination and social skills instruction
IV. Assessment (18 percent, about 22 questions)
Gathering evidence and doing something with it.
- Screening, diagnostic, formative, and summative assessment
- Progress monitoring and curriculum-based measurement
- Norm-referenced against criterion-referenced measures
- Non-discriminatory evaluation and eligibility determination
- Alternate assessment and testing accommodations
- Reading data and changing instruction because of it
V. Foundations and professional responsibilities (20 percent, about 24 questions)
The law, the team, and the family.
- Free appropriate public education and least restrictive environment as legal principles
- Procedural safeguards, prior written notice, consent, and due process
- Child find, independent educational evaluation, and manifestation determination
- How Section 504 differs from an IEP
- The roles of team members and related service providers
- Partnership with families and cultural responsiveness
- Professional ethics, confidentiality, and advocacy
A study routine for a 120-minute test
One minute per question means you cannot deliberate. The preparation that pays is the kind that makes the right answer obvious on sight, which means vocabulary and principles rather than reading.
DiagnoseTake Practice Test 1 cold. Note not just what you missed but which wrong answer pulled you, because that pattern repeats.
Learn the acronyms coldFAPE, LRE, IEP, FBA, BIP, UDL, MTSS, AAC, CBM, IEE. The stems assume you know them and will not define them.
Draw the line between accommodation and modificationAn accommodation changes how a student accesses the same expectation; a modification changes the expectation. More questions turn on that line than on any other single idea.
Learn the legal principles, not the numbersThe test asks what a school must do, not which section says so. Timelines vary by state; the principles do not.
Prove itTake Practice Test 2 under time. On every miss, write one sentence naming the step the right answer took first.
Complete topic map
Every topic ETS lists under the five categories, weighted the way the test is weighted. There are no linked lessons here yet; these are the points to be able to speak to.
Development and characteristics of learners (16 percent, about 20 questions)
- 01Apply principles of typical human development and behavior across the life span, including cognitive, physical, social, emotional, and language development
- 02Apply major theoretical approaches to student learning and to student motivation
- 03Identify the basic characteristics and the defining factors of each of the major disability categories
- 04Distinguish a developmental delay from a developmental disability, and explain what the term developmental disability means
- 05Recognize that individuals sharing the same disability category can differ substantially in how they learn, and that a single definition does not capture every student in a category
- 06Describe the impact of a disability on the individual, the family, and society across the life span, including the fact that development does not stop at adulthood
- 07Explain how language differences, cultural differences, and gender differences affect the identification and referral process
- 08Distinguish when special education services are appropriate for a student who is not a native English speaker from when a language difference is being mistaken for a disability
- 09Identify co-occurring conditions and comorbid disabilities and explain how a combination of conditions changes how a student receives instruction
- 10Explain how family systems contribute to the development of individuals with disabilities and how family structure and functioning affect outcomes
- 11Analyze environmental and societal influences on student development and achievement, including poverty, health, trauma, mobility, and community factors
- 12Connect a student’s documented characteristics to likely strengths, needs, and instructional implications
Planning and the learning environment (23 percent, about 27 questions)
- 13Identify the characteristics of a good lesson plan and the basic elements an effective lesson plan must contain
- 14Write learning objectives that are measurable, observable, and appropriately challenging for the individual student
- 15Identify the components of a measurable goal and judge whether a stated goal or objective is measurable
- 16Select means of providing access to the general education curriculum, including accommodations, modifications, adaptations, and universal design principles
- 17Choose strategies that support diverse students with special needs within a general education setting
- 18Identify the characteristics of a successful inclusion program and the conditions that make inclusion effective
- 19Organize the learning environment, including physical arrangement, scheduling, grouping, routines, transitions, and use of paraprofessionals and support staff
- 20Sequence and structure instruction so that students have meaningful learning experiences
- 21Apply basic assumptions underlying behavioral approaches, including antecedents, consequences, reinforcement, and shaping
- 22Manage student behavior using proactive, positive, and evidence-based approaches, including functional behavioral assessment and behavior intervention planning
- 23Develop a behavior management plan targeted to an individual student’s needs and monitor its effect
- 24Apply the theory and practice of effective classroom management, including rules, procedures, expectations, and consistency
- 25Design and maintain a safe and supportive classroom environment that promotes achievement and supports students’ emotional growth and personal development
Instruction (23 percent, about 27 questions)
- 26Select instructional strategies and techniques that are appropriate to students’ ages, developmental levels, and abilities
- 27Select instructional strategies that produce individual academic success in one-to-one, small-group, and large-group settings
- 28Decide how to group students for a particular lesson and justify the grouping choice
- 29Apply the benefits of peer tutoring, cross-age tutoring, and cooperative learning structures
- 30Select instructional strategies that promote maintenance of learned skills and generalization of concepts across settings, people, and materials
- 31Select and implement research-based and evidence-based interventions matched to an individual student’s needs
- 32Select and implement supplementary curriculum and functional curriculum, including life skills, self-determination, and community-based instruction
- 33Identify options for assistive technology, including low-tech and high-tech supports, augmentative and alternative communication, and technology that addresses diverse learner needs
- 34Select instructional strategies and techniques that support transition goals, including transition from early childhood, between grade levels, and from school to postsecondary education, employment, and independent living
- 35Apply preventive strategies and intervention strategies for at-risk learners, including tiered support and early intervening
- 36Arrange the classroom and materials so students can access what they need and so active teaching and learning can occur
- 37Use effective movement and transition strategies that minimize disruption to instruction
- 38Coordinate outside support services and related services to create a supportive learning environment
Assessment (18 percent, about 22 questions)
- 39Select evidence-based assessments that are effective and appropriate for the purpose, the student, and the decision being made
- 40Define and use the various types of assessment, including formal and informal, formative and summative, norm-referenced and criterion-referenced, curriculum-based measurement, portfolio, observation, and progress monitoring
- 41Distinguish screening, diagnostic, eligibility, and progress-monitoring purposes and match an assessment to each
- 42Recognize accommodations and modifications in assessment and understand alternate assessment for students with significant cognitive disabilities
- 43Interpret assessment results, including standard scores, percentile ranks, grade and age equivalents, error of measurement, and graphed progress data
- 44Recognize issues of reliability, validity, and bias in assessment, including cultural and linguistic bias
- 45Use the results of assessment to determine eligibility, write present levels of performance, set goals, plan instruction, and adjust instruction
- 46Communicate assessment results clearly to families, general education teachers, and other members of the team
Foundations and professional responsibilities (20 percent, about 24 questions)
- 47Apply the federal definitions used in special education, including the definitions of the disability categories and of terms such as free appropriate public education, least restrictive environment, and related services
- 48Apply the federal requirements for pre-referral, referral, evaluation, and identification, including child find and the timelines and consent that govern the process
- 49Apply the federal safeguards that protect the rights of students and parents, including procedural safeguards, prior written notice, consent, confidentiality of records, independent evaluation, mediation, and due process
- 50Identify the components of a legally defensible individualized education program and the required members of the IEP team
- 51Recognize the major legislation and landmark court decisions that shape special education practice, including the special education statute, the civil rights provision that governs students with disabilities in schools, disability antidiscrimination law, and student records privacy law, as the study companion names these concepts rather than by section number
- 52Distinguish eligibility and service delivery under special education law from eligibility for accommodations under civil rights protections for students with disabilities
- 53Describe the roles and responsibilities of the special education teacher across instruction, case management, documentation, and advocacy
- 54Describe the roles and responsibilities of the other professionals who deliver special education and related services, including general education teachers, paraprofessionals, speech-language pathologists, occupational and physical therapists, school psychologists, counselors, and administrators
- 55Compare the strengths and limitations of collaborative approaches such as co-teaching models, consultation, collaborative problem solving, and multidisciplinary teaming
- 56Communicate effectively with stakeholders, including families, students, colleagues, administrators, and outside agencies, with attention to accessibility and to the family’s language and culture
- 57Identify potential bias issues that may affect teaching and interaction with students and their families, and act to reduce that bias
- 58Apply professional ethics, confidentiality, and continuing professional development responsibilities in the special education role
Before test day
Three habits carry this test. The answer that gathers data usually beats the answer that acts, because the test is written by people who have watched teams act on an assumption. The answer that keeps the student in the general education setting usually beats the one that removes them, unless the evidence says removal is what works. And the answer that brings the family in usually beats the one that informs them afterwards. When two choices both sound supportive, those three rules will nearly always separate them.
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