What do the Assessment Center Exercises involve?
The assessment center, a second portion of the certification process, consists of six thirty-minute exercises, and assesses selected content knowledge outlined in the standards for Exceptional Needs Specialists. Assessment center exercises involve content recognized by professionals in the field of special education as essential to the work of teachers educating children with disabilities, birth to 21 years of age. Candidates go to Prometric Testing Centers where prompts are delivered by computer. They are given up to 30 minutes per exercise to handwrite or type constructed responses to prompts in six critical content areas. For three of the exercises, teachers declare a specialty, or path, before going to the assessment center: Early Childhood (birth to 8 years), Mild/Moderate Disabilities (5 to 21+ years), Severe and Multiple Disabilities (5 to 21+ years), Visual Impairments (birth to 21+ years), and Deaf/Hard of Hearing (birth to 21+ years). By selecting a path, candidates are able
