Praxis Special Education: Teaching Students with Learning Disabilities (5383)

What is it?

What exactly is the Praxis Special Education: Teaching Students with Learning Disabilities (5383)?

Praxis Special Education: Teaching Students with Learning Disabilities (5383) — Education & Teaching credential from ETS

Test covering identification, specialised instruction and accommodation strategies for students with specific learning disabilities. Offered by ETS, it is designed for candidates who need to demonstrate verified competence in the Education & Teaching field. The credential is commonly used for career entry, advancement, regulatory compliance, or employer requirements. Candidates should review the official handbook for eligibility, exam format, and scoring before registering.

The path in brief

1. Confirm you meet any eligibility or prerequisites
2. Review the official handbook and study materials
3. Register and pay through the awarding body or authorized provider
4. Schedule and take the exam (test center or online proctoring)
5. Receive your score and, if passed, your credential

Before you book

Who is eligible to sit the Praxis Special Education: Teaching Students with Learning Disabilities (5383)?

Eligibility varies; many credentials are open to all, while others require coursework, work experience, or sponsorship.

Who it is for: Professionals and candidates seeking to validate Education & Teaching competence.

The test itself

What is the format of the Praxis Special Education: Teaching Students with Learning Disabilities (5383)?

The Praxis Special Education: Teaching Students with Learning Disabilities (5383) is administered by ETS and runs Varies by exam.

The fine print

What are the retake and renewal rules for the Praxis Special Education: Teaching Students with Learning Disabilities (5383)?

Proctoring & delivery

HiSET is offered in three ways: paper-based at a test centre, computer-based at a test centre and HiSET@Home under live online proctoring, with availability depending on the state. Calculators and formula sheets are supplied at test centres. The full battery in English or Spanish is permitted, and several states allow candidates to mix languages across subtests.

Retake policy

Retake rules are set per state, but a common pattern allows three attempts per subtest in a calendar year, sometimes extending to six. Several states use a favourable pricing structure in which the full fee is charged only on the first and fourth attempts while the second and third cost only the test centre or proctor fee.

Score reporting

Each of the five subtests is scored 1 to 20. To pass you must score at least 8 on every subtest, at least 2 out of 6 on the Language Arts Writing essay, and at least 45 out of 100 in total across the five. A score of 15 or higher on a subtest is treated as HiSET honours-level performance in several states.

Recertification

The credential a state issues on the strength of a passing HiSET battery is permanent and needs no renewal. Passing subtest scores are carried forward within a state-defined window while you complete the remaining subjects.

Refunds & rescheduling

Refund and reschedule windows are administered by PSI and vary by state and test centre; most centres require cancellation at least 24 hours before the appointment. Registering by phone rather than online attracts an additional fee in some states.

What it pays

How much does this credential pay?

$64,580 median for high school teachers (BLS, May 2024)

The Special Education: Teaching Students with Learning Disabilities (5383) exam licenses the special education teacher who works with students identified with learning disabilities, so the directly relevant occupations are the teacher series: High School Teachers (SOC 25-2031) paid a May 2024 median of $64,580, Elementary School Teachers (SOC 25-2021) paid $62,340, and the BLS group occupation Special Education Teachers — which spans all grade levels — paid a May 2024 median of $64,270. We use the high school series as the headline for consistency across this site’s teacher-exam guides, but the honest reading is that the special-education series is the closer benchmark and it sits just under the high school number. The distribution deserves careful attention because special-education teacher pay is set overwhelmingly by district salary schedules — years of service plus education credits — rather than by market pressure, and geography dominates the spread: the lowest 10 percent of high school teachers earned less than $47,330 and the highest 10 percent more than $104,670, with state-level medians ranging from the high $40,000s to more than $90,000 and the highest-paying states being largely the highest-cost ones. BLS counted roughly 1,094,500 high school teachers in 2024 and projects declines across the teacher occupations from 2024 to 2034 driven by falling enrollment, while still expecting tens of thousands of replacement openings a year. For a 5383 candidate the exam is a toll gate on a stable, schedule-driven career rather than a lever on pay: passing it efficiently clears the special-education content-knowledge hurdle, but the wage work is done over time by the salary schedule and experience.

Job growth.-2% projected change 2024-34 for high school teachers, with ~66,200 replacement openings a year. Pay follows district salary schedules and collective agreements, so experience and geography matter more than the credential.

Source: BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook — High School Teachers

Your schedule

How long should I study for it?

65-85 hours of focused study

The 5383 is a single paper of 120 selected-response questions in 2 hours, covering five content categories: Instruction at 28 percent, Planning and Managing the Learning Environment at 26 percent, Foundations and Professional Responsibilities at 17 percent, Development and Characteristics of Students with Learning Disabilities at 17 percent, and Identification, Eligibility, and Placement at 12 percent. The structural fact that shapes the schedule is that the two instructional categories — Instruction and Planning and Managing the Learning Environment — together carry 54 percent of the paper, so candidates who study only the disability characteristics and skip the teaching-and-management content leave more than half the exam underprepared. The exam is built on the standards-relevant knowledge expected of an entry-level learning-disabilities specialist, which means the content is heavier on federal special-education law (IDEA, eligibility, IEPs, least restrictive environment), instructional methods and classroom management than on pure special-education theory. The plan below runs eight weeks at roughly 8-10 hours a week, with the first three weeks on the two instructional categories, the middle weeks on the characteristics, identification and foundations categories, and the final week on full-length mock exams at the real one-minute-per-question pace. Because every question is selected-response, the exam is trainable: the payoff of preparation is breadth plus applied decision-making under time pressure, not essay craft, and the same cycle serves a current special-education major, a general-education teacher adding an endorsement and a returning adult when the category weights are adjusted to the diagnostic. Before planning, confirm which exam your state actually requires for the learning-disabilities endorsement, because preparing for the wrong one wastes your money.

1. Week 18-10 hrs

   Diagnostic and state cut-score lookup

   • Take one untimed diagnostic pass through all five content categories to rank your starting position
   • Look up your state’s exact 5383 cut score on the ETS Praxis state requirements page and write it down
   • Download the ETS Study Companion for 5383 and map its content categories
   • Review the IDEA and special-education law terms the exam assumes
2. Weeks 2-39-11 hrs/week

   Instruction (28%)

   • Evidence-based instructional strategies for reading, writing, math and study skills for students with learning disabilities
   • Differentiation, accommodations versus modifications, and assistive technology
   • Progress monitoring and data-based decision-making
   • One timed 50-question drill under 60 minutes to build pace
3. Week 49-11 hrs

   Planning and Managing the Learning Environment (26%)

   • Planning instruction aligned to IEP goals and the general curriculum
   • Classroom and behavior management, positive behavioral supports and intervention plans
   • Creating inclusive, supportive learning environments and collaborating in co-teaching settings
   • Re-test the Instruction category once to confirm the repair took
4. Weeks 5-69-11 hrs/week

   Characteristics, Identification, and Foundations

   • Development and characteristics of students with learning disabilities: etiology, prevalence, risk factors and coexisting conditions
   • Identification, eligibility and placement: the IEP process, evaluation, eligibility determination and least restrictive environment
   • Foundations and professional responsibilities: special-education law, ethics and collaboration
   • Two timed 50-question half-exams, rotated so all five categories stay warm
5. Week 79-11 hrs

   Full-length mock exams

   • Two full 5383 mocks: 120 questions in one 2-hour sitting, no notes, no phone
   • Review both by content category — the pattern of misses matters more than the total
   • Drill the specific categories that cost points in the mocks, especially the law and eligibility items
   • Confirm your practice scaled scores sit above your state cut with a margin
6. Week 86-8 hrs

   Taper and logistics

   • Light review of category checklists and miss lists
   • One more timed 50-question half-exam to keep the pace reflex fresh
   • Confirm your state cut score, your ID name matches your Praxis account, and your seat
   • One quiet day before the exam

What to buy

Which study resources are worth paying for?

The highest-value resources for the 5383 are the free ETS Study Companion, which contains the exact content categories and sample questions, and ETS’s own Interactive Practice Test, which is the closest thing to the real item style. Third-party subscription courses add structure and drilling volume and are worth it mainly if a specific category needs systematic repair — the instructional-methods layer for candidates without coursework, or the special-education law for general-education teachers adding the endorsement. Because the paper is entirely selected-response and 54 percent instructional, the resource that matters most is one with practice questions across the instructional and the legal categories rather than a lecture course that only covers one side. The buying decision is really: how much structured remediation do your two weakest categories need? A candidate with a special-education degree often needs only the Study Companion, the practice test and a good special-education law review, while a returning adult or a general-education teacher adding the endorsement benefits from the guided course. The ETS Interactive Practice Test at roughly $20 is the best single readiness check, and running it before buying anything else tells you which categories actually need repair — the information a good buying decision depends on. Budget the exam fee itself ($130, plus a $5 surcharge in Nevada and a 3 percent online service fee) and the $35 additional score reports if you add recipients after registration, because designating your state and program as recipients at registration is free. We do not rank by commission, and all prices below are list prices as of 2026-08.

Prices checked 2026-08 in USD before promotions; ETS registration fees are set by ETS and state surcharges may apply (Nevada adds $5 per test). Passing scores are set by state and are not included in any fee. We do not rank by commission.

What you'll face

What question types will I see?

The 5383 is 120 selected-response questions in 2 hours, computer-delivered at Prometric centres or via online proctoring, scored on the 100-200 scaled scale against a state-set cut. The paper covers five content categories — Instruction (28%), Planning and Managing the Learning Environment (26%), Foundations and Professional Responsibilities (17%), Development and Characteristics of Students with Learning Disabilities (17%) and Identification, Eligibility, and Placement (12%) — and every item is selected-response, mostly single-answer multiple choice with four choices, plus a minority of alternative formats such as multiple-selection, matching or order items that ETS uses across its tests. The item mix splits between direct-recall content — the elements of an IEP, the definitions of eligibility categories, the provisions of IDEA — and scenario items that present a student, a classroom situation or an eligibility question and ask for the correct professional decision. ETS notes that some questions on a form are pretest items that do not count toward your score. Because there are no essays and no constructed-response tasks, pacing is the dominant tactical skill: exactly one minute per question, sustained across the whole sitting, with eliminate-and-move as the core discipline — answer confidently, flag genuinely uncertain items for review, and never let a single question eat several minutes. The sample items below illustrate the mix: one IEP item, one behavior-management scenario and one instructional-strategy item. Each is written in the ETS idiom — a concrete stem, four plausible options, and one clearly supported answer — and each explanation shows why the tempting distractor fails, which is the same reasoning habit the practice banks are meant to build.

Samples are editor-written illustrations of the published blueprint, not live exam items.

Reference

What are the key facts about the Praxis Special Education: Teaching Students with Learning Disabilities (5383)?

Praxis Special Education: Teaching Students with Learning Disabilities (5383) is a exam credential; awarded by ETS; the exam fee is Varies by location and currency — confirm on the official registration page; typical preparation is Varies.

In short

Is the Praxis Special Education: Teaching Students with Learning Disabilities (5383) worth it?

• Praxis Special Education: Teaching Students with Learning Disabilities (5383) is awarded by ETS.
• Validates job-ready competence in Education & Teaching.
• Registration is through the awarding body or an authorized test provider.
• Renewal and retake policies vary — confirm before scheduling.

Worth comparing

How does the Praxis Special Education: Teaching Students with Learning Disabilities (5383) compare with similar credentials?

• TOEFL iBT ETS
• TOEIC Listening and Reading Test ETS

Trust

Where does this information come from?

Everything above is taken from the awarding body's own published material. Fees, question counts and domain weights are revised regularly — check the official page before you pay.

• ETS Awarding body

Research confidence: medium · Last reviewed 2026-08