GACE: Special Education Academic Content Concentrations

The Special Education Academic Content Concentrations assessment, offered as part of the Georgia Assessments for the Certification of Educators, is divided into two tests.

The first test consists of 60 selected-response questions (80% of the test score) and 2 constructed-response assignments (20% of the test score). The content areas covered by the first test are reading, English language arts, and social studies. The topics covered by the reading and English language arts subarea are: the foundations of reading and language; fluency and other factors that affect reading comprehension; word identification, vocabulary development, research habits, and study skills; reading comprehension strategies for literary and informational texts; the skills involved in writing for various purposes and audiences; the conventions of standard American English grammar, usage, mechanics, and spelling; and the skills involved in listening, speaking, and viewing. The topics covered by the social studies subarea are: government, civics, and economics in the United States; geography; and history of the United States, Georgia, and the various regions of the world.

The second test consists of 60 selected-response questions (80% of the test score) and 2 constructed-response questions (20% of the test score). The content areas covered by the second test are mathematics and science. The topics covered by the mathematics subarea are: numbers and mathematical operations; measurement and geometry; algebra; data analysis and principles of probability; and approaches for exploring mathematics and solving problems. The topics covered by the science subarea are: earth science; physical science; life science; and the characteristics, tools, and processes of science.

The examination must be completed within four hours. The total test score is placed on a scale of 100 to 300, with 220 as the lowest passing score. Scores are based on the number of selected-response questions answered correctly and the scores assigned by judges to the constructed responses. Test-takers will also receive performance indices indicating their success in each subarea of the examination. Scores will be available approximately a month after the date of the examination; unofficial results are posted on the internet, and an official score report is mailed to the test-taker, the Professional Standards Commission, and the institution specified by the test-taker during registration.

Practice Questions

1. Which of the following best demonstrates the associative property of multiplication?

A: 6(4 x 7) = 7(6 x 4)
B: 4(6 + 8) = 4(6) + 4(8)
C: 5 x 3 x 6 = 3 x 5 x 6
D: 5 x 5 x 5 = 25 x 5

2. What was the result of Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)?

A: railroads were required to provide "equal but separate" accommodations for whites and blacks
B: public schools were integrated
C: new states were allowed to decide whether or not they would permit slavery
D: freed slaves were allowed to vote

3. What is the median of the set {4, 4, 8, 12, 17}?

A: 4
B: 8
C: 9
D: 17

Read the poem by Thomas Hardy called "Heredity" and answer the two questions that follow.

I am the family face;
Flesh perishes, I live on,
Projecting trait and trace
Through time to times anon,
And leaping from place to place
Over oblivion.

The years-heired feature that can
In curve and voice and eye
Despise the human span
Of durance -- that is I;
The eternal thing in man,
That heeds no call to die

4. Which sentence best summarizes the theme of the poem?

A: Everyone dies eventually, so it is best to live for the present.
B: The members of a family share physical characteristics.
C: The similarities in appearance among family members allow for a kind of immortality.
D: Humans die, but memories last forever.

5. The phrase "trait and trace" is an example of what literary device?

A: metaphor
B: assonance
C: simile
D: alliteration

Answer Key

1. A. The associative property of multiplication asserts that a group of numbers that are to be multiplied together can be grouped in any way without changing the product.
2. A. This case would become a rallying cry for civil rights activists in the 1960s.
3. C. The median of a set is the same as the average, and is calculated by adding the members of the set together and dividing by the number of members.
4. C. The poem suggests that heredity enables family characteristics to endure beyond the life span of a single individual.
5. D. Alliteration is the repetition of initial consonant sounds.