NYSTCE EAS (State Teacher Licensure Exams) key terms

Teaching that recognizes and uses students' cultural backgrounds, values, and experiences as resources for learning, and that adapts examples, materials, and interactions so students from all backgrounds can succeed.

The skills, knowledge, and experiences families and communities pass on to children, such as work skills, traditions, and problem solving. Teachers connect lessons to these resources to make learning relevant.

Providing each student the supports, resources, and instruction needed to reach high standards, recognizing that different students may need different help rather than identical treatment.

Unconscious attitudes or stereotypes that shape how a person perceives and treats others. In school, it can quietly affect expectations, discipline decisions, and referrals for services.

The anxiety a person feels when they risk confirming a negative stereotype about a group they belong to. It can lower test performance and participation for students in stereotyped groups.

Interpreting a student's struggles as personal or family shortcomings rather than as results of school or systemic factors. It lowers expectations and often leads to blaming students and families.

Persistent differences in academic outcomes between groups of students, such as by race, income, disability, or language background, that reflect unequal opportunities and school experiences.

A family's relative position based on income, education, and occupation. It shapes access to resources such as books, health care, tutoring, and stable housing, all of which influence learning.

Basic Interpersonal Communication Skills: the everyday conversational language used in social settings. Students often develop it within one to two years, which can make them appear more fluent than they are academically.

Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency: the vocabulary and language structures needed to read, discuss, and write about school content. It usually takes five to seven years to develop and is essential for academic success.

Language and content presented so learners can understand it, using visuals, gestures, repetition, and slightly simplified structures pitched just above their current level, so new material is learnable without losing meaning.

The emotional barrier that rises when a learner feels anxious, embarrassed, or unwelcome. A high filter blocks language intake; teachers lower it by building a supportive, low-stress classroom.

Teaching grade-level content in English while adjusting language demands, using visuals, clear objectives, and explicit vocabulary so English language learners can access the same curriculum as their peers.

Temporary supports such as models, sentence frames, graphic organizers, or guided practice that help a student complete a task they cannot yet do alone, then are gradually removed as competence grows.

Purposefully allowing learners to draw on all of their languages to understand content and express ideas, rather than forbidding the home language in the classroom.

Words in two languages that share a similar origin, meaning, and often spelling or sound, such as familia and family. Pointing them out builds vocabulary for English language learners.

Total Physical Response: a strategy in which students learn new vocabulary and directions by responding with physical actions to spoken commands, reducing anxiety and supporting beginning English learners.

Individualized Education Program: a legally required written plan for a student who qualifies for special education, listing goals, services, accommodations, and placement as decided by a team that includes the family.

A written plan under Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act that gives a student with a disability accommodations in school so they can access programs and activities on an equal basis with peers.

Free Appropriate Public Education: the federal right of students with disabilities to special education and related services provided at public expense, suited to their needs, and meeting state standards.

Least Restrictive Environment: the requirement that a student with a disability be educated alongside peers without disabilities as much as possible, with removal only when supports in general education are insufficient.

Changes that remove barriers to learning or testing, such as extra time, read-aloud, or preferential seating, without altering what the student is expected to learn or the content being measured.

Changes to what a student is expected to learn or demonstrate, such as reduced content, simplified text, or different grading standards. They alter the curriculum or the level of the assessment.

Response to Intervention: a multi-tiered system in which all students receive high-quality instruction, are screened, and those who struggle receive increasingly intensive, monitored interventions before any special education referral.

Universal Design for Learning: planning lessons from the start with multiple ways to present information, let students show what they know, and sustain engagement, so varied learners including students with disabilities can succeed.

Any device, software, or service that helps a student with a disability perform tasks and access learning, ranging from text-to-speech apps and adapted keyboards to communication boards and hearing aids.

Functional Behavioral Assessment: a structured process of gathering data to identify what triggers and maintains a student's challenging behavior, used to design a positive behavior intervention plan.

Instruction adapted in content, methodology, or delivery to meet the unique needs of a student with a disability, as written in the IEP and delivered by qualified special education staff.

Procedural safeguards that give parents and schools formal ways to resolve disagreements about special education identification, placement, or services, including mediation and impartial hearings.

A person legally required, such as a teacher, to report suspected child abuse, neglect, or maltreatment to designated authorities, even when the suspicion comes from a confidential disclosure.

Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act: a federal law protecting the privacy of student education records and giving parents and eligible students rights to inspect, amend, and control disclosure of those records.

New York's Dignity for All Students Act: requires schools to prevent and respond to bullying, harassment, and discrimination based on protected characteristics and to teach respect for diversity.

A general education teacher and a special education or ESOL teacher plan and deliver instruction together in one classroom, sharing responsibility for all students and providing services in an inclusive setting.

Regularly examining one's own teaching decisions, student data, and assumptions in order to improve instruction and address biases, often through journals, peer observation, or self-assessment.

Using assessment results and other student data to identify what students know, adjust teaching, and monitor progress, rather than relying on assumptions or covering content on a fixed schedule.

Building ongoing, respectful partnerships with families through two-way communication, shared decision-making, and invitations to participate, so that home and school work together on student learning.

Communication supports that give families information in their preferred language: interpretation is spoken or signed, while translation is written. Schools are expected to provide these, usually at no cost to families.

A meeting between school staff and a family in the family's own home, used to build trust, learn about the student's context, and share information in a setting where families may feel more comfortable.

Coordinated supports from school and community agencies, such as health care, counseling, food assistance, and housing help, that address out-of-school needs affecting a student's learning.