The Reading Instruction Competence Assessment, or RICA, is a test required for two groups of California teaching credential candidates: those seeking a clear Multiple Subjects credential to teach elementary school and those seeking an Education Specialist credential, which is required to teach special education classes.
The exam is administered by National Evaluation Systems, a division of Pearson Education, Inc. The exam consists of 70 multiple choice questions, four constructed responses, and one extended-length case study question.
The RICA focuses on five domains: Domain 1: Planning, Organizing, and Managing Reading Instruction Based on Ongoing Assessment Domain 2: Word Analysis Domain 3: Fluency Domain 4: Vocabulary, Academic Language, and Background Knowledge Domain 5: Comprehension
Point distributed across the domains are as follow:
Domain 1: 10% Domain 2: 33% Domain 3: 13% Domain 4: 20% Domain 5: 23%