College of Education & Human Services

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Educator Preparation

Teacher Education Basic Skills Requirement

According to Illinois Administrative Code, Section 25.720, teacher education students seeking licensure must pass a test of basic skills. This requirement does not need to be met before starting classes at Western Illinois University. Teacher education majors are encouraged to fulfil this requirement during their first two years at WIU. This requirement must be fulfilled in order to student teach.
There are three ways a student can meet the teacher education basic skills requirement.

  1. Illinois Test of Academic proficiency (TAP), www.il.nesinc.com
  2. ACT Plus Writing with composite Score of 22 or higher and minimum of 6 in writing—if completed 9/10/16 or later. If completed ACT between 9/1/15 to 9/9/16, a composite score of 22 or higher and a minimum of 16 on the writing. If completed ACT prior to 9/1/15, a composite score of 22 or higher and a minimum score of 19 on the Combined English/writing.
  3. SAT composite score of 1110 (evidence based Reading and Writing + Math) and a minimum score of 26 on Writing and Language. (Note: SAT changed its scoring. prior to 3/5/16, scoring was SAT composite score of 1030 (critical reading + mathematics 1030 or higher) and a minimum score of 450 on writing.)

Superscoring is now available on the ACT/SAT exams. If a student does not have the overall passing composite score, the Illinois State Board of Education WII add the highest sub scores from each test and divide by 4 (the total number of subtests) for a composite score. Scores must come from the same assessment. For example, a passing composite ACT score and a passing SAT writing score is not acceptable.

Please feel free to contact your teacher education advisor (Horrabin Hall 91) or the WIU teacher licensure officer if you have questions regarding this or any other teacher education requirement.

Return to the WIU Basic Skills Test Preparation Page