TExES 164 Salary Guide 2026: Complete Earnings Analysis

How TExES 164 Fits Into Bilingual Educator Pay

Searching for a "TExES 164 salary" implies there's a single number attached to the credential the way there might be for a stand-alone teaching certificate. That's not quite how this exam works. TExES 164, the Bilingual Education Supplemental, does not create a standalone job title or salary schedule on its own. Instead, it is one half of the certification pathway that allows a Texas teacher to be officially designated as a bilingual educator for Spanish-English programs, working alongside the BTLPT 190 language proficiency test. Understanding that structure is the first step to understanding how this exam actually influences earnings.

Rather than a fixed dollar figure, the realistic way to think about TExES 164's financial impact is through the doors it opens: eligibility for bilingual-designated teaching assignments, eligibility for district-level bilingual stipends where they exist, and access to a smaller, more competitive pool of qualified applicants in a shortage-designated teaching area. If you want the full picture of what the certification is and isn't, our overview of what TExES 164 is is a useful companion to this guide.

What the Certification Actually Verifies

Districts don't pay stipends or prioritize hiring simply because a candidate has "passed a test." They do so because the credential verifies a specific, defensible set of professional competencies. TExES 164 is built around one domain - Bilingual Education - weighted at 100% of the exam, which the Texas Education Agency further organizes into four content areas that map to Bilingual Education Standards II through VI.

For a deeper breakdown of each domain and how questions are typically framed, see our complete guide to all four content areas. This is the material that makes a bilingual teacher's classroom practice distinct - and it's precisely why administrators treat the credential as a meaningful hiring signal rather than a paperwork formality.

Factors That Move Bilingual Stipends and Offers

Because TExES 164 does not come with a nationally published salary table, the realistic way to evaluate its financial upside is to look at the variables that actually determine what a bilingual-certified teacher is offered:

• District need: Campuses running dual-language or transitional bilingual programs must staff them with certified bilingual teachers, which creates built-in demand wherever those programs exist.
• Program model: Schools with dual-language one-way or two-way immersion models often depend more heavily on certified bilingual staff than campuses running only pull-out ESL support.
• Grade level and subject: Elementary bilingual generalists and secondary content-area bilingual teachers (math, science) are evaluated differently based on local staffing gaps.
• Experience and degree pathway: Candidates entering through an educator preparation program, an out-of-state route, or certification-by-exam may be evaluated differently by hiring committees, even holding the same passing score.

None of these factors are quantified by TEA or Pearson as a formula, so be skeptical of any site that hands you a precise salary number attached to this exam alone - it's not something the certifying body publishes, and it would have to be estimated district by district. If you want to weigh this qualitative reality against your total investment, our analysis on whether the certification is worth it looks at that trade-off directly.

Why Domain Mastery Translates to Hiring Leverage

Because the exam reports total performance plus performance broken down by competency, hiring committees and mentor teachers who review your credential file can reasonably infer where your instructional strengths lie. A candidate who can speak fluently to biliteracy assessment (Domain 3) or content-area scaffolding in two languages (Domain 4) during an interview is demonstrating exactly the skill set the exam was built to verify - and that fluency often matters more in a hiring conversation than the numeric score itself.

This is also why difficulty and preparation quality matter for earnings indirectly: a candidate who barely clears the 240 passing score but cannot articulate the underlying content in a classroom or interview setting won't get the same leverage as one who deeply understands the four domains. For a realistic sense of how demanding the exam is relative to other certification tests, read how hard the TExES 164 exam actually is, and for context on how many candidates clear the bar, see the TExES 164 pass rate analysis.

Weighing the $116 Fee Against Career Return

Under House Bill 2, signed June 4, 2025, eligible Bilingual Education certification candidates get their first attempt at exam 164 fee-waived, along with the $78 certification application fee. That's a meaningful reduction in the upfront cost of pursuing this credential, since a first-time candidate who qualifies may not pay the standard $116 exam fee at all. For candidates who don't qualify for the waiver, or who need a retake, understanding the full fee structure matters before you plan your testing calendar - our complete pricing breakdown walks through every cost point in detail.

TEA allows up to five attempts on a certification exam, with a mandatory 30-day wait between attempts (a test-limit waiver from TEA is required to go beyond five). That policy matters financially: each additional attempt is a direct cost and a delay to when you can actually start earning as a bilingual-certified teacher, so treating your first attempt seriously has a real dollar value attached to it, even without a specific salary figure to quote.

The 165 Transition and Your Earning Timeline

One detail that's easy to overlook - but directly affects your career planning - is that TEA is retiring the 164/190 pathway. The replacement, TExES 165 Bilingual Education Spanish Supplemental, launches September 1, 2026. August 31, 2027 is the last day candidates can take 164 and 190, and September 1, 2028 is the last day anyone can apply for or be recommended for certification using 164 and 190 scores.

Why does this matter for earnings planning? If you're already on the 164/190 track, or eligible to qualify, testing sooner rather than later keeps your original pathway open and avoids any uncertainty tied to a brand-new exam's early rollout. Candidates weighing which pathway to pursue should also review the testing windows, deadlines, and scheduling guide to make sure their preparation timeline lines up with these hard cutoffs.

Preparing Efficiently Without Wasting Your Testing Window

Given the attempt limits and the fixed retirement date for this pathway, an efficient study plan is itself a financial decision - every wasted week is a week closer to a mandatory retake wait or, worse, the 2027 cutoff. Rather than studying generically, sequence your review around the four domains in the order they build on each other: start with Domain 1's foundational program models and legal context, move into Domain 2's acquisition theory (which underpins everything else), then tackle Domain 3's literacy and biliteracy assessment content, and finish with Domain 4's content-area instruction, since it draws on all three earlier domains.

Reviewing your competency-level score breakdown after any practice assessment - mirroring how the official score report is structured - helps you spend your remaining prep time on the domain actually holding your score back, instead of re-studying material you've already mastered. For a structured, week-by-week plan built specifically around this exam's content, see our full study guide for passing on your first attempt, and if you want a fast final review before test day, the one-page cheat sheet of must-know facts is designed for exactly that purpose. You can also work through timed, domain-tagged questions on our practice test platform to get comfortable with the 80-question, selected-response format before your appointment.

Frequently Asked Questions