MTEL Early Childhood (72) Practice Test

The Early Childhood exam is a subtest requirement of the Massachusetts Tests for Educator Licensure (MTEL) program. Each test in the MTEL program is aligned with licensure regulations within the state of Massachusetts and is one of the two tests you must pass to obtain teacher licensure.

Click “Start Test” above to take a free MTEL Early Childhood practice test, and check out our premium-quality MTEL test prep resources by clicking the links below!

MTEL Early Childhood Exam Outline

The MTEL Early Childhood exam is split into two subtests and contains 100 multiple-choice questions and two open-response questions. You will be given a time limit of 4 hours.

The exam is split into five subareas.

I. Child Development, Language Foundations, and the Writing Process (26%)

The questions in this subarea assess your knowledge and skills pertaining to the following:

• The science of child development and learning
• Providing and differentiating experiences that holistically promote early childhood development across all domains
• The foundations of language development
• Supporting children’s emergent literacy development
• The foundations of writing development
• Promoting children’s emergent writing skills and writing competence

II. Core Knowledge in Mathematics (20%)

The questions in this subarea assess your knowledge and skills pertaining to the following:

• Concepts and processes of mathematics pertaining to early childhood education
• Providing appropriate instruction to promote mathematics learning

III. Core Knowledge in History and Social Science (17%)

The questions in this subarea assess your knowledge and skills pertaining to the following:

• Principles and concepts of history and social science pertaining to early childhood education
• Providing appropriate, content-specific instruction to promote history and social science learning

IV. Core Knowledge in Science and Technology/Engineering (17%)

The questions in this subarea assess your knowledge and skills pertaining to the following:

• Principles and concepts of science and technology/engineering pertaining to early childhood education
• Providing appropriate, content-specific instruction to promote science and technology/engineering learning

V. Integration of Knowledge and Understanding (20%)

This subarea contains the two open-response questions. For each of these questions, you will be asked to write a short analysis of a topic that related to either foundational reading skills or reading comprehension development.

Exam Registration

To register for the exam, you must create an online NES account via their website. Once your account has been created, you can use it to register for the exam and schedule an exam date. When you register, you will need to pay the $139 examination fee.

Test Day

You should arrive at the testing center about 30 minutes early to allow time for the check-in process on test day. When you arrive, you will be asked to sign in and provide at least one form of valid photo ID.

After the check-in process is complete, you will be asked to leave all personal items (cell phone, keys, wallet, etc.) in a locker outside the testing area.

Once you enter the testing room, you will be given a brief tutorial on the computer-adaptive testing system before the exam begins.

How the Exam is Scored

Your MTEL Early Childhood score is determined by using a scaled scoring method, which means your final score is placed on a scale of 100-300.

To pass the exam, you must achieve a minimum scaled score of 240.

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