Florida’s teacher certification exams in 2020: During the pandemic year, the state’s teacher pipeline gave mixed signals

Each year, the results of Florida’s teacher certification exam, the FTCE, provide signals about the future of the profession in the state.

In 2020, those signals were at best mixed, but perhaps just confusing.

The number of first-time test takers in a particular subject gives the number of individuals trying to enter the teacher pipeline in that subject. As an example, consider the exam for the Math 6-12 certification. The shortage of high school math teachers has been particularly severe in Florida. The numbers of candidates taking this exam for the first time and the number of first-time test takers passing this exam declined from 2013 until 2018. Those numbers leveled out in 2019, and in 2020 the number of candidates taking the exam for the first time shot up nearly 50%. But the passing rate on the exam plunged in 2020 (from 51% in 2019 to 42% in 2020), so the number of first-time test takers passing the exam only inched up.

Both the number of first-time takers of the Physics certification exam and the number of those first-time exam takers who passed remained close to the levels of the last several years.

The number of first-time takers of the Chemistry certification exam rose sharply for the second year in a row. Unfortunately, the passing rate among first-time exam takers dropped substantially during the same period (from 71% in 2018 to 53% in 2020). So the number of first-time test takers who passed has been approximately unchanged during the last few years.

The results for the Biology certification exam were similar. The number of first-time exam takers increased by about one-third, but the passing rate for first-time exam takers dropped from 69% in 2019 to 61% in 2020. As a result, the number of first-time exam takers who passed rose only modestly.

The number of first-time takers of the Earth/Space Science Exam doubled between 2018 and 2020. Unlike with the other science subjects, the passing rate stayed fairly constant so that the number of first-time exam takers who passed the exam doubled as well.

The number of first-time takers of the Math 5-9 exam increased by one-third in 2020 over 2019. As with the Earth/Space Science exam, the passing rate stayed relatively constant so that the number of first-time takers who passed the exam also increased by one-third.

Outside of the STEM fields, first-time exam takers and the numbers of those first-time takers who passed increased sharply in both English and Social Sciences.

The number of individuals taking the Elementary Education exam for the first time in 2020 was about equal to what it was in 2018 and 2019. The results for the math part of the Elementary Ed exam are shown below.

All of these results were taken from the 2020 FTCE report posted by the Florida Department of Education and reports posted in previous years.