The exam development process involves numerous steps to ensure that the resulting exams are customized for the Texas educational context, aligned with Texas educator standards, and judged to be appropriate and important for assessing the knowledge and skills required of a beginning teacher in Texas.
The process involves collaborating with Texas educators, validating each TExES competency in multiple ways, and engaging Texas educators in recommending passing standards for each exam to TEA.
Committees of Texas educators and members of the community guide the development of the TExES exams by participating in each stage of the exam development process. These working committees are composed of Texas educators from public and charter schools, university and EPP faculty, education service center staff, content experts, and representatives from professional educator organizations. The committees are diverse in terms of position, affiliation, years of experience, ethnicity, gender, and geographical location.
Key components of the exam development process for TExES exams are summarized below.
Develop Exam Frameworks. Test Specialists work with exam development committees, composed of Texas teachers and teacher educators, to develop exam frameworks that are based on the state's standards. These frameworks outline the specific competencies to be measured on the TExES exams.
Conduct Content Validation Surveys. A representative sample of Texas educators are surveyed to confirm the relative job importance of each competency outlined in the exam framework. These educators include certified practitioners in the fields related to the certification exams as well as those who prepare the practitioners in those fields.
Develop and Review Exam Questions. Item writers develop draft questions that are designed to measure the competencies described in the exam framework. Questions undergo review by diverse committees of Texas educators to verify that they reflect the exam framework, as well as for accuracy and appropriateness of content, difficulty, clarity, and potential ethnic, gender, and regional bias. Additionally, constructed-response tasks are pilot tested with an appropriate sample of Texas educator candidates to verify they will elicit an appropriate range of responses and perform as intended.
Develop and Review Exam Forms. TExES examinations are constructed to reflect the content in the exam framework. The completed exam forms undergo review to ensure that they accurately reflect the exam framework, that the exam questions reflect an appropriate sample of the construct, and that all questions are fair, valid, and accurate.
Set Passing Standard. A committee of Texas educators participates in a standard-setting study to recommend a passing score for the exam. TEA presents the recommendation to the Commissioner for consideration. The Commissioner makes the final determination regarding the passing score.
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