This SLLA cheat sheet boils the ETS 6990 School Leaders Licensure Assessment down to a printable rundown of the PSEL-aligned leadership facts examiners test most. It's a premium cheat sheet built by Capital Prep — the one premium prep we trust — and it's yours free. Reinforce it with the rest of your free SLLA toolkit: the practice test, study guide, and flashcards.
SLLA exam at a glance
- Administered by: Educational Testing Service (ETS), School Leadership Series — test code 6990
- Questions: 120 selected-response + 4 constructed-response (essay)
- Time: 4 hours (165-min selected-response + 75-min constructed-response)
- Passing score: State-set on a 100-200 scale — 151 in most states, 146 in a few
- Cost: About $250 registration fee — confirm the current amount with ETS
What’s on the SLLA cheat sheet
- Instructional Leadership (17%) — curriculum, instruction, assessment, and building teacher capacity — the largest selected-response category at roughly 27 questions.
- Strategic Leadership (13%) — shared mission, vision, and core values, data-driven planning, and the continuous-improvement cycle.
- Climate & Cultural Leadership (13%) — safe and supportive school climate, equity vs equality, cultural responsiveness, and restorative discipline.
- Ethical Leadership (12%) — integrity, transparency, professional norms, and a repeatable ethical decision-making process.
- Organizational Leadership (10%) — operations, resource allocation, staffing, distributed leadership, and leading change.
- Community Engagement Leadership (10%) — families as genuine partners and mutually beneficial community partnerships.
- Analysis Constructed Response (25%) — 4 scenario-based essays scored up to 3 points each — propose and justify specific leadership actions.
How to use it in your final week
- Memorize the six category weights so you know where the points are: Instructional Leadership (17%) is the largest selected-response area, followed by Strategic and Climate/Cultural (13% each), Ethical (12%), then Organizational and Community Engagement (10% each).
- Drill the paired distinctions the SLLA loves to trap you on — mission (present purpose) vs vision (future aspiration), equity (need-based) vs equality (identical), and formative (adjust now) vs summative (grade the result).
- Lock in the best-answer reflex: when a scenario pushes fast, dramatic action, the winning choice usually gathers data, involves stakeholders, and centers students first.
- Do one timed constructed-response essay from the sheet's framework each day — number your response to every task in the prompt so a scorer can see you covered all of it.
The cheat sheet is your review layer — your SLLA practice test drives the exam-readiness ring at the top of this page. Download it, review, then take a full practice exam (or drill with the study guide and flashcards) to see where you stand.
SLLA cheat sheet FAQ
Yes — you can download the SLLA cheat sheet as a PDF with no account and no sign-up. It sits alongside Career Employer's free SLLA practice test, study guide, and flashcards, so your entire prep stack costs nothing.
It condenses the highest-yield facts for the ETS 6990 exam: the six PSEL-aligned leadership categories and their weights, the mission-vs-vision distinction, equity vs equality, formative vs summative assessment, and the recurring best-answer pattern examiners reward — data first, stakeholders involved, students centered.
It flags that SLLA passing scores are state-set on a 100-200 scale — most states require 151, a few require 146 — because there is no single national cut score. Confirm the exact number for the state where you're seeking licensure before test day.
It gives you the framework — propose specific, justified actions, answer every part of the prompt, and keep students' interests central — but the four essays are worth about 25% of your score, so rehearse timed written responses with the study guide too.
Click the download button or the preview card at the top of this page and the PDF opens instantly. Bookmark the page so you can pull it up again the morning of your ETS 6990 exam.
References
- 1.Educational Testing Service. “The SLLA (6990) Study Companion.” ETS.org, 2026. ↑
- 2.Educational Testing Service. “School Leadership Series (SLLA).” ETS.org, 2026. ↑
- 3.Educational Testing Service. “School Leadership Series — State Requirements & Passing Scores.” ETS.org, 2026. ↑
- 4.National Policy Board for Educational Administration. “Professional Standards for Educational Leaders (PSEL).” NPBEA.org, 2026. ↑
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