Rationale: High school preparation
For decades, teacher preparation and higher education reformers have been attempting to improve the rigor of undergraduate teacher preparation programs by promoting the requirement of full academic majors for prospective teachers. For example, the Holmes Group of the mid-1980s, a group of education school deans, advocated for teachers capping the solid preparation represented by an academic major with professional preparation.
A full academic major should not be a difficult proposition for the preparation of secondary teachers. Candidates for secondary certification at the master's degree level earn full academic majors before they enter education programs, as do most certification candidates in five-year teacher preparation programs. Moreover, the definition of a "highly qualified teacher" under the federal No Child Left Behind statute requires that all secondary 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. While there is little or no research on subject areas such as English or the social sciences that provides confirmation of any connection between subject matter preparation and instructional efficacy, there is direct research indicating that sufficient coursework preparation in mathematics and science makes high school teachers more effective.1
