Welcome to the cseveryone.org online practice assessment platform. This online practice assessment platform holds three practice assessments for the Florida Teacher Certification Examination (FTCE) Computer Science K-12 certification examination (pre, mid, and post). These three practice assessments were created by five certified teachers in the state of Florida using rigorous development procedures led by researchers at the University of Florida. Each teacher underwent training on writing effective assessment items, and extensively unpacked the FTCE Computer Science K-12 certification competencies in a collaborative process. After, the teachers spent approximately 10 months writing the assessment questions that are available on this platform.
The purpose of this online practice assessment platform is to assist individual teachers aspiring to become certified Computer Science K-12 teachers in the state of Florida, and to assist school districts in professional development planning for the school district’s teachers seeking this credential. All the data collected on this platform will be used for research purposes and to assist in reviewing and revising the practice assessments. All your data will be kept confidential, and the data will be de-identified prior to conducting any data analyses. We suggest teachers take the pre-test first to gauge where they stand in their professional learning toward passing the FTCE examination.
The online practice assessment platform provides feedback on your performance across the seven competencies on the FTCE Computer Science K-12 certification examination and simulates the 2 hours and 30 minutes you have to take the real certification examination. Each competency includes a unique set of multiple-choice items aligned with the actual weights on the certification examination. Each practice assessment contains 100 unique items. These seven competencies include:
- Competency 1—Knowledge of computational thinking and problem-solving (15%)
- Competency 2—Knowledge of data types and structures (15%)
- Competency 3—Knowledge of programming logic (20%)
- Competency 4—Knowledge of programming languages (20%)
- Competency 5—Knowledge of computer hardware, software, and networking (10%)
- Competency 6—Knowledge of the historical aspects and social issues related to computer technologies (10%)
- Competency 7—Knowledge of computer science pedagogy (10%)
We hope teachers in the state of Florida will find this online practice assessment platform invaluable for their professional development toward earning the FTCE Computer Science K-12 credential. Should you have any questions or concerns, please contact the lead researcher on this project – Dr. Albert D. Ritzhaupt at aritzhaupt@coe.ufl.edu. This platform was funded by the Kenneth C. Griffin CS Education for All Initiative at the University of Florida.
