Rationale: Broad subject preparation
This standard begins with a common sense presumption: Teachers cannot teach what they don't know. Elementary teachers must be broadly educated with sufficient knowledge of the content they will need to deliver instruction in language arts, social studies, fine arts and science.
Not only is content understanding important in its own right, but a teacher's capacity to deliver content matters, because students' content understanding improves their reading comprehension, an area in which American students languish.1
There is no research that directly links a teacher's liberal arts knowledge with student achievement. However, the more a person knows about many different subject areas, the stronger his or her levels of literacy as measured by vocabulary and scores on tests of reading comprehension. It is in this fact that the importance of teachers being broadly educated gains such importance. There is a body of robust research spanning many decades connecting a teacher's level of literacy and the achievement of that teacher's students. To simplify these findings to the core, the more broadly educated a teacher is, the stronger that teacher's vocabulary; teachers with strong vocabularies are more likely to be effective in the classroom.2
The importance of broad subject matter knowledge has gained even more urgency with the pending arrival of Common Core standards, in which teachers will be asked to teach many more nonfiction topics in the course of schools' literacy blocks.
Although the state does not specify any coursework requirements for general education candidates, Illinois requires completion of 32 semester hours leading to an elementary education major. In addition, Illinois articulates standards that its approved teacher preparation programs must use to frame instruction in elementary content. They address important areas such as U.S., world and children's literature; life and physical sciences; and U.S. and world history. However, the state's standards fail to mention some important areas such as world history, basic chemistry, American government and art history. There appears to be no guarantee that arts and sciences faculty will teach liberal arts classes to teacher candidates or that a test-out option is available for candidates who may already have a strong background in one or more content areas.
2Ferguson, R., & Ladd, H. (1991). How and why money matters: An analysis of Alabama schools. In H. Ladd (Ed.), Holding schools accountable (pp. 265-298). Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution; Hanushek, E. (1971). Teacher characteristics and gains in student achievement: Estimation using micro-data. The American Economic Review, 61(2): 280-288; McLaughlin, M., & Marsh, D. (1978). Staff development and school change. Teacher College Record, 80(1): 69-94; Strauss, R., & Sawyer, E., (1986). Some new evidence on teacher and student competencies. Economics of Education Review, 5(1), 41-48; Wayne, A., & Youngs, P. (2003). Teacher characteristics and student achievement gains: A review. Review of Educational Research, 71(1): 89-122; Winkler, D. (1975). Educational achievement and school peer composition. Journal of Human Resources, 10, 189-204.
