District calculator
What’s the cost of certification exam failurein your district?
Every candidate who misses the cut score on game day costs you twice: once in retake fees, and again in the roles you cannot fill. Set the four numbers below to your own district. The figures it opens with are research defaults, not your data.
How many people take a certification exam each year?
Teacher candidates, paraprofessionals moving into licensed roles, and aspiring leaders. Count exam takers, not exams.
What share of them pass on the first attempt?
Don’t know? Most states do not publish first-attempt rates at all. Use one of the research figures below.
Research figures
What does one attempt cost?
The registration fee your district reimburses, or that your candidate pays to try again.
Praxis fees, 2026 to 2027
What does one lost candidate cost you?
What you spend to fill the role another way: posting and recruiting, screening and hiring, and onboarding whoever arrives instead.
District estimates, 2024 dollars
Where your 120 candidates end up
- Pass on the first attempt86 (72%)
- Fail, then take it again27 (23%)
- Fail and never come back7 (6%)
Estimated annual cost
$118,660
Lifting the first-attempt pass rate 20 points would save
$84,720
Moving your first-attempt rate from 72% to 92%, the margin HumRRO measured in 2025. Source 1.
The dollars are the smaller loss. NCTQ found that 22% of candidates who fail on the first attempt never take the exam again, and 30% of candidates of color. Those people leave the pipeline for good.
How this is calculated
- 1HumRRO, 2025. An independent comparative study of certification exam prep platforms found the courses Dr. Jason Ampel built and led as founder of The Learning Liaisons (sold in 2021) produced twice the first-attempt pass rate of the major competitors, a margin of 20 points, with 50% higher course engagement. The savings figure applies that 20 point gain to your own numbers and caps the result at 100%.
- 2NCTQ, Driven by Data. First-attempt pass rates average 45% in states with strong testing systems and 76% in states with weaker ones. 22% of candidates who fail the first attempt never retake the exam, rising to 30% for candidates of color. This calculator uses that 22% to split your non-passers into those who try again and those you lose.
- 3Ohio first-attempt data. 72% pass on the first attempt and 87% pass eventually, the gap being candidates who needed more than one try. Ohio is the opening default here because it is a published state-level figure rather than a national average.
- 4ETS Praxis fees, 2026 to 2027. Core tests are $90 each ($150 for the combined test 5752); subject assessments are $130 for selected response and $156 where constructed response is included; Elementary Education CKT 7811 is $209. Costs assume one additional attempt per retaking candidate, so a candidate who tests three times costs more than this shows.
- 5Learning Policy Institute, 2024. Per-teacher replacement costs, averaged across nine districts in five studies and adjusted to January 2024 dollars: $11,860 small, $16,450 medium, $24,930 large. Used here as the cost of filling a role when the candidate in front of you never clears the exam.
Suggested citation
Built To Pass. (2026). What’s the cost of certification exam failure? [Interactive tool]. https://www.getbuilttopass.com/partners/cost-calculator
The 20 points are the whole offer.
The savings figure above is not a projection we invented. It is the first-attempt margin HumRRO measured, applied to the numbers you just entered. If you want to see what that looks like for your candidates, start here.