Rationale: Midde school preparation
Middle school teaching requires more advanced subject knowledge than elementary school teaching; consequently, those seeking middle school endorsement must have adequate subject preparation: a full academic major. The definition of a "highly qualified teacher" under the federal No Child Left Behind statute requires that all middle and high school teachers either major in the subject they teach or pass a rigorous test in that subject.
NCTQ has long endorsed an academic major for all secondary teachers, established by No Child Left Behind as the minimum credential that secondary teachers should have. For middle school teachers, NCTQ has endorsed an academic major for teachers of a single subject. However, recognizing the staffing needs of many schools, it is a viable option to require that middle school teachers who intend to teach two related subjects earn two minors instead of two majors.
There are both practical and substantive considerations at play here. On the practical side, unless a teacher candidate has fulfilled a very substantial part of the requirements for a college major outside of education or teacher-specific subjects such as social studies, one ramification of failing student teaching will be great: the withholding of a college degree. This provides a strong disincentive for the education program to fail candidates even in the face of poor performance.
On the substantive side, strong subject matter expertise makes for better teaching. However, while support for this principle is strong at the high school level, the evidence supporting how much expertise is enough is less clear at the middle school level.1 There are few studies examining the effectiveness of a middle school teacher with a major versus one with only a minor. Only one study can be identified, and it points to a potential ceiling effect at six mathematics courses for middle school mathematics teachers, roughly equivalent to a minor.
