Lessons · Teaching · the basic skills requirement, and the ways to meet it
Basic skills: one requirement, several doors
California asks every credential candidate to show basic skills in reading, writing and mathematics, and it publishes more than one way to do it: the basic skills examination, qualifying scores on other approved tests, qualifying coursework, or a mixture of those.
Hone is a place to practise a career, one idea a day. This is one of its lessons, written out in full and free to read without an account.
What it is for
A candidate booked and paid for the basic skills examination, sat it, and only afterwards learned that her college coursework already satisfied the requirement. She had assumed one requirement meant one test. The Commission publishes a list of ways, and the list is exactly the sort of thing that changes between cohorts, so it is read rather than remembered.
How to think about it
Before you book anything, open the Commission's own page on this requirement and read the full list of options against your own history: what tests you have already sat, what courses you have already passed. Then pick the cheapest door that is already open to you. This requirement is in transition, and the Commission's page is the only current answer.
Worked example
Options listed off the Commission's page, then matched against my own recordRead the list before booking anything.
Old college courses in English and mathematics checked against the coursework optionThe door most often already open, and the one people never look at.
Scores from tests sat years ago dug out before any new test is bookedA test you already passed costs nothing to reuse.
Part by test and part by coursework is allowed where the Commission says soWhich is why the whole list is read, not just the first line.
Your turn
Name what it is called when part of the requirement is met by test and part by coursework.
Basic skills can be met by examination, by coursework, or by a of the two
Solve one, graded on the server
The trap
Reading an old forum answer and booking the test it names. The set of accepted routes to this requirement has moved more than once, and a candidate following last year's thread can spend a weekend and a booking on something they never needed.