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Create AccountThe California Preliminary Administrative Credential Examination (CPACE) is for candidates wishing to become school administrators in the state of California. Candidates who have completed either an approved training, an administrative internship, or have successfully passed the CPACE exam are then eligible for a preliminary credential to become an educational administrator. The CPACE is composed of 2 subtests: CPACE-Content and CPACE-Performance. Each test has its own form and content. All test-takers must pass both of these subtests to pass the CPACE test.
The CPACE-Content subtest is a multiple-choice exam of 70 questions that covers six domains, each with multiple competencies. 58 of these multiple-choice questions count toward the final score, while 12 are field test questions. Multiple-choice questions are scored as either correct or incorrect. All of these questions assess the test-taker's ability to apply, analyze, or conduct educational administration knowledge and tasks. There are also three focused construct-response questions that involve written assignments. In this part of the CPACE subtest, candidates will consider a problem or task and provide strategies and considerations for its solution.
The CPACE-Performance subtest contains two modules. The first requires candidates to review eight provided exhibits such as class profiles, a classroom's organization, and a lesson plan. This will also include a video segment of teacher instruction around 12-15 minutes in length. The candidate will be asked to analyze in writing the effectiveness of the recorded teacher. This involves assessing the teacher's engagement and support of the students, their effectiveness in assessing student learning, and observations regarding the teacher's professional development. The second module of this CPACE subtest involves reviewing a number of exhibits from a school and being asked to analyze the leadership of that school in writing. Exhibits may include school demographics, educational growth, and parent surveys.
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Create AccountThere are 6 CPACE domains that form the content specifications of the exam. Each has several competencies that together form the body of knowledge and practice required for an educational administrator in the state of California. All of the CPACE questions derive from the 6 domains. These domains are: Visionary Leadership, Instructional Leadership, School Improvement Leadership, Professional Learning and Growth Leadership, Organizational and Systems Leadership, and Community Leadership. The multiple choice questions in the CPACE-Content exam come from all 6 domains, while the CPACE-Performance exam focuses on Instructional Leadership and School Improvement Leadership.
The first of the CPACE domains concerns developing and articulating a vision for a school that matches the local education authority's goals for that school. This includes a principal's ability to develop a vision within multiple contexts and from various stakeholders, including creating a mission statement and programs and activities across all grades. The candidate will need to understand how to use a vision to shape a school.
Other CPACE questions may concern how to involve the wider community through collaborative work and what this means for school governance. This involves understanding how to develop a student-centered vision across multiple constituencies and how to navigate the complex contexts of California public schools.
This competency also includes school governance, diversity, and overcoming barriers to inclusion and equity, as well as accountability and communication. Exam candidates will need to understand how to identify and access any resources that can help address these complex topics.
Another competency within this domain explores the sharing of leadership within the school community, distributing opportunities to encourage shared decision making in support of the vision. This involves consensus building, networking with other professionals, and understanding the roles of support staff and those dealing with student mental health.
The Instructional Leadership domain features competencies that deal with the implementation of effective classroom instruction. This involves knowledge of K-12 academic standards and the required pedagogical skills for teaching that content, including a principal's support and training of teachers. Candidates should be able to articulate these principles and standards to all stakeholders and explain California's assessment program. They also need to be able to identify and mitigate any barriers to student teaching.
Candidates should know how to observe and evaluate teachers and do so according to local educational authority policy and K-12 standards. This involves analyzing student work, modeling self-reflection, and offering evidence-based feedback for teachers. The candidate should possess knowledge of instructional resources to improve teaching and student learning. All candidates need to know about student assessment procedures to ensure data-driven decisions.
Future administrators should prepare for CPACE questions about the community context of instruction, a context that includes socioeconomic, linguistic, cultural, and political factors. These may involve questions about culturally-relevant instruction and support for English language learners, as well as how to access community resources for inclusive instruction. Similarly, it may also feature questions about community communication in relation to outcomes data, including analyzing that data from various contexts and knowing how to articulate new goals.
This domain contains four competencies, all of which focus on the practice of creating positive change and growth in a school. CPACE questions may involve how to work with others to develop a data-based school growth plan. Candidates should know how to involve and support these multiple stakeholders when building a growth plan, as well as using collaboration and effective technology to manage the process.
Another competency involves using current and relevant theories to implement change. Candidates need to know how to document and evaluate the growth plan, manage it appropriately with multiple data sources, and change it when needed.
Principals must be knowledgeable about the range of resources available for school growth plans and know how to seek further resources when needed from within and beyond the local community. Questions in this CPACE domain may involve how to identify, acquire, and develop these community resources, as well as how to use them to provide support for the growth plan.
Finally, connecting to other CPACE domains, candidates must understand how to continually monitor progress and update growth using community engagement and data. This competency involves using student outcomes to reflect on the plan's ongoing success, updating the plan when needed with members of the school community.
Of the six CPACE domains, these competencies focus on professional development and all require a strong familiarity with adult learning. Candidates should be able to model professional growth over time and use data sources to inform their own personal growth plan. They should be able to support, motivate, and provide professional support for staff as they progress through the stages of their careers.
This involves a sound knowledge of principles of adult learning to design, facilitate, and implement professional development activities for teachers. These activities must be authentic and focused on improving student outcomes.
CPACE candidates must also know about induction programs for early teachers and how to support teachers individually through coaching and mentoring, as well as differentiating professional development using data and collaboration. These activities may involve feedback and observation to encourage continuous improvement
Test-takers may encounter CPACE questions concerning how to involve the wider school community in professional growth, in support of both student and adults. They must be proficient in providing this targeted professional development activities involving staff, parents, faculty, and other members of a broader school community.
Candidates should know how to use technology effectively to become a time-conscious, data-driven instructional leader within the school community.
This CPACE domain involves systemic thinking about how to promote teaching and learning while managing organizational complexity. Candidates must know how to apply research-based strategies to establish, monitor, and evaluate an organization's processes, systems, and structures. This involves understanding effective technology, as well as aligning human resources by making staffing and teacher placement decisions for equitable learning and to support school goals.
Systems thinking may also involve considering space and learning programs within the school. There may also be questions concerning the possibility of personal biases or actual inequities within the system and how this and related problems can affect student opportunity.
This domain also involves an administrator's ability to develop, implement, and monitor a school's budget. There may be CPACE questions regarding California school finance and laws, as well as expenditure and fiscal reporting to the LEA and community as a whole. Candidates need to understand these connections between school financial resources and a school's growth plan, as well as the processes of record-keeping and accounting for financial management.
The intersection of federal, state, and local laws are a part of this domain, as well as constitutional and legal rights of school stakeholders. They should also anticipate questions about labor practices and collective bargaining, health and safety, and the management of auxiliary services such as food and transport. Candidates should understand staff related processes potentially leading to dismissal.
Finally, test-takers should anticipate questions regarding unpredictable circumstances within a school.
An administrator must represent their school to the wider community, and candidates should anticipate CPACE questions relating to this domain. Future administrators should be able to use a range of advocacy and presentation skills to communicate the school's accomplishments and needs in a variety of contexts. Candidates will need to demonstrate diplomatic skills in advocacy and significant skills in exposition, persuasion, and narrative writing.
Of the six CPACE domains, this one is the most focused on how to encourage participation from the entire school community. Questions here may involve how to communicate a shared vision and encourage stakeholders to work toward it.
There may be questions concerning how to address a school's diverse goals and needs, and how to integrate these into decision making. Candidates should understand communication strategies for community outreach, to agencies and organizations as well as families.
Future administrators should understand how to build trust, teams, and consensus, as well as understand conflict resolution among members of the school community. As some stakeholders may find change threatening and have concerns, an administrator must know how to navigate these barriers. The ultimate concern of this domain is how to promote student well-being through skills and strategies within community outreach to gain support for a vision of school growth.
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Taking a CPACE practice test is an excellent way for candidates to familiarize themselves with the final test's content and format and is an essential part of good CPACE exam prep. There are physical exams available at bookstores and libraries with multiple-choice questions that can be graded by hand afterwards and appropriate writing prompts. Similarly, there are also online versions where the questions can be automatically graded. This will allow candidates to get a sense of which CPACE domains will require the most work for them to master. Practice tests should also contain prompts and sample exhibits for the writing questions in the CPACE-Content and CPACE-Performance. Although neither can be graded, they can give a candidate experience needed to gain confidence before the final exam.
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Bryan McMahon, M.A. is a high school biology and special education teacher in New Jersey with over 14 years of teaching experience. He has hundreds of hours of experience tutoring aspiring teachers to take the CSET/CBEST exam suite. He has successfully passed the science and special education Praxis exams. Bryan completed a B.S. in Education from Seton Hall University and an M.A. in Teaching from Mangrove College.
Each of the 2 CPACE subtests, the CPACE-Content and the CPACE-Performance, requires a minimum scaled passing score of 220 to pass the CPACE as a whole.
The CPACE-Performance test is the second of two required subtests to pass the CPACE, the other one being the CPACE-Content exam. It is composed of two writing challenges with numerous exhibits.
CPACE stands for California Preliminary Administrative Credential Examination. It is the required exam for a candidate's efforts to become an administrator in that state.
The CPACE test is the required exam for aspiring school administrators in the state of California. It is composed of two subtests: CPACE-Content and CPACE-Performance.
The CPACE exam uses 6 domains to assess an aspiring school administrator's abilities. While it is a significant amount of content, a good way for a candidate to prepare is a CPACE practice test that can familiarize them with the test's content and format.
