What Is the Praxis Test? Core, Subject Assessments and PLT Explained

The Praxis tests are a family of teacher certification exams owned and administered by ETS.

ETS publishes its policies in a Praxis Information Bulletin that is effective only for its own testing year; the current bulletin covers 2026–27, August 1, 2026 through July 31, 2027.

The family has three parts.

Praxis Core measures academic skills in Reading, Mathematics and Writing, and it is designed for candidates entering teacher preparation programs.

Praxis Subject Assessments are the content exams: ETS lists over 120 of them, ranging from Agriculture to World Languages.

Within that group sit the Principles of Learning and Teaching (PLT) tests, which measure general pedagogical knowledge.

ETS runs the tests; it does not decide who takes them.

Each state and licensing organization determines its own certification and Praxis qualifying score requirements, so what you need depends on where you plan to teach.

That split is why the same exam matters differently in different jobs.

What follows covers what each part of the family is, what it costs, and when a private or charter school job actually calls for scores.

Praxis Core Academic Skills for Educators tests measure academic skills in Reading, Mathematics and Writing, and they are designed for candidates entering teacher preparation programs.

They can be taken as separate tests or as one combined test.

Praxis Subject Assessments are the content exams: over 120 tests, from Agriculture to World Languages.

The PLT tests are part of that Subject Assessment group.

They measure general pedagogical knowledge at four grade levels: Early Childhood, K–6, 5–9 and 7–12.

On ETS's practice-test catalog, the PLT codes are 5621 (Early Childhood), 5622 (K–6), 5623 (Grades 5–9), 5624 (Grades 7–12) and 5625 (PreK–12).

Which PLT a candidate needs is set by the state.

ETS is also adding a new elementary option.

A Praxis Elementary Education Fundamentals test, codes 8002–8005, launches in 2026 and can be taken as a full test or in "Steps"; for full-test attempts after September 6, 2026, scores are reported within 7 calendar days.

Which tests you need — Core, a Subject Assessment, a PLT, or some combination — is decided by the state whose certificate you are pursuing, not chosen from a menu.

There is no single answer to memorize.

ETS does not set requirements or a national passing score: each state and licensing organization determines its own certification and Praxis qualifying score requirements, and ETS publishes a requirements page for each state.

Requirements are set state by state, so the authoritative source for your situation is the requirements page for your target state — check ETS's state requirements pages and, for anything unclear, the state education agency behind them.

One thing the 2026–27 bulletin does publish is score routing.

If you test in one of 40 listed jurisdictions, a copy of your score is sent automatically to that state's education department.

The list includes states such as Alabama, Arkansas, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia and Washington, plus the District of Columbia.

Candidates for Maine, Texas, Wisconsin, Guam or the USVI are treated differently: they must list their institution or submit an ETS score report themselves.

Automatic reporting is score routing, not a statement of what each state requires.

Whether a given test counts toward a state's certificate is that state's decision, recorded on the state's requirements page.

Praxis fees are published per testing year, and the figures below are the 2026–27 fees, in effect August 1, 2026 through July 31, 2027.

Core.

A single Core test costs $90.

Registering two Core tests together costs $180 and all three together costs $270, while the Core Combined test (5752) — Reading (5713), Writing (5723) and Math (5733) taken together — costs $150.

Subject Assessments.

A selected-response-only Subject Assessment costs $130, one with constructed-response items costs $156, and World Language tests cost $170.

The Elementary Education: Multiple Subjects master test (5001) is an exception: it costs $180, or $64 per subtest.

Service fees.

ETS charges $50 for each additional score report, $35 for telephone registration, $40 for a test date or center change, a 3% online service fee on online transactions, and $65 per test for a score review of a constructed-response test.

A location surcharge also applies: Subject Assessments taken at Nevada test centers carry a $5 surcharge, which does not apply to Core.

There is no blanket answer.

The Praxis reaches a private school teacher only where someone requires it: a state certification rule that covers the school, or the school's own hiring standard.

The state door works like this.

Each state and licensing organization sets its own certification requirements and Praxis qualifying scores, so where a state requires teachers at a category of private schools to hold its certificate, that requirement brings the state's exam rules with it.

The categories matter.

Where a state's certification rules do reach private schools, they may cover only some categories of school, so the answer can differ school to school within one state.

Federal numbers cannot settle the question either.

NCES publishes no certification-type data for private school teachers from its 2020–21 teacher survey, so there is no national share of certified private school teachers to generalize from.

The U.S. Department of Education's Office of Non-Public Education publishes a comparison chart of state private-school rules, "Teacher Certification, Length of School Day, and Curriculum Requirements," but it summarizes information states supplied before September 30, 2016.

Treat it as context, not current law.

Then there is the school itself.

Where no state rule reaches a school, the hiring standard is the school's own: a certificate, scores, a degree, subject background, experience or, at faith-based schools, a religious credential can each be part of it.

The posting tells you which.

For how private-school certification rules differ by state and school, our private school teacher career guide covers the certificate question in full.

Start with the national numbers, because the "charters skip certification" line does not survive them.

In 2020–21, 75.3% of public charter school teachers held a regular state teaching certificate and 11.5% held none, against 90.9% and 1.3% among traditional public school teachers (NCES, NTPS 2020–21).

What a charter teacher needs is set by state law, not by one national rule.

The federal government's own special-education regulation shows the structure: a public charter school special education teacher must meet the certification or licensing requirements, if any, set out in the state's public charter school law (34 CFR 300.156(c)(1)(i)).

The exam attached to a charter job can also be a state exam rather than the Praxis.

Texas, for example, requires a Pre-Admission Content Test (PACT) for certain candidates entering an educator preparation program, and for some candidates pursuing a teaching assignment at some Texas charter schools.

So the practical answer follows the same route a public school candidate takes: look up the certification rule for charter teachers in your state, confirm the exact tests and passing scores it names, and ask your state education agency anything the written rule leaves unclear.

Each state writes that rule in its own terms, so a rule you read about one state does not transfer to another.

When a posting names a charter school, ask the school which certification rule applies to it.

Registration and testing run through ETS.

Praxis tests can be taken at a test center, and many can also be taken at home on your own computer with a live online proctor, seven days a week, for test takers living in the United States, its territories or Canada.

At-home tests are identical in content to the test-center versions.

If a retake is in your future, two ETS policies are worth knowing.

A test can be retaken only on a date at least 28 days after the previous attempt; scores from a sooner retest are canceled without refund.

ETS's "Free After 3" policy makes retakes free once you have three reported attempts at the same test.

It counts only attempts on or after October 1, 2025, applies within five years of the third score report, and excludes ParaPro.

Scores come back on a schedule.

Selected-response-only tests show an unofficial score at the end of the session; tests with constructed-response items do not.

Official scores post on Tuesdays and Fridays.

For Core, Reading (5713) and Mathematics (5733) scores are available within 7 calendar days of the test, while Core Writing (5723) takes 20 business days.

At registration you can choose up to four free score recipients, and your official score reports stay in your ETS account for ten years.

Preparation is ETS's own material first: the company publishes a free Study Companion for each test and sells official interactive practice tests — the Social Studies (5581) practice test, for instance, lists at $24.95.

Career information, not legal or tax advice; certification requirements, fees and passing scores change, so confirm them with ETS and your state education agency before you register.