Middle School Teacher Preparation: Delaware
Delivering Well Prepared Teachers Policy
Analysis of Delaware's policies
Delaware requires middle-level certification (grades 6-8) for all middle school teachers. It appears, however, that these teachers are only required to complete a teacher preparation program; the state does not explicitly require a major or minor in these subject areas. All new middle school teachers in Delaware are also required to pass a single-subject Praxis II content test to attain licensure; a general content knowledge test is not an option. Teachers with a secondary license in core subjects can also teach middle-level grades.
Commendably, Delaware does not offer a K-8 generalist license.
Delaware addresses some of the instructional shifts toward building content knowledge and vocabulary through careful reading of
informational and literary texts associated with the state's college-
and career-readiness standards for students through its
required assessment for middle school English teachers, the Praxis II
Middle School English Language Arts (5047) test.
Neither teacher standards nor testing frameworks in other content areas address incorporating literacy skills into the core content areas.
Regarding struggling readers, Delaware's middle school English content test requires that a teacher be able to group students and
differentiate instruction. However, it does not specifically address the
ability either to identify struggling readers or provide
appropriate intervention.
Recommendations for Delaware
Ensure that middle school teachers are prepared to meet the instructional requirements of college- and career-readiness standards
for students.
Incorporate informational text of increasing complexity into classroom instruction.
Although
Delaware's English language arts content test for middle school
teachers addresses informational texts, the state should strengthen its
policy and ensure that teachers are able to challenge students with
texts of increasing complexity.
Incorporate literacy skills as an integral part of every subject.
To
ensure that middle school students are capable of accessing varied
information about the world around them, Delaware should also—either
through testing frameworks or teacher standards—include literacy skills
and using text to build content knowledge in history/social studies,
science, technical subjects and the arts.
Support struggling readers.
Delaware should articulate
more specific requirements ensuring that middle school teachers are
prepared to intervene and support students who are struggling. While
college- and career-readiness standards will increase the need for all
middle school teachers to be able to help struggling readers to
comprehend grade-level material, training for English language arts
teachers in particular must emphasize identification and remediation of
reading deficiencies.
Ensure meaningful content tests.
To ensure meaningful middle school content tests, Delaware should make certain that its passing scores reflect high levels of performance.
Encourage middle school teachers licensed to teach multiple subjects to earn two subject-matter minors.
This would allow candidates to gain sufficient knowledge to pass state licensing tests, and it would increase schools' staffing flexibility. However, middle school candidates in Delaware who intend to teach a single subject should earn a major in that area.
State response to our analysis
Delaware recognized the factual accuracy of this analysis.
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Delaware
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Delivering Well Prepared Teachers
- Admission into Teacher Preparation
- Elementary Teacher Preparation
- Elementary Teacher Preparation in Reading Instruction
- Elementary Teacher Preparation in Mathematics
- Early Childhood
- Middle School Teacher Preparation
- Secondary Teacher Preparation
- Secondary Teacher Preparation in Science and Social Studies
- Special Education Teacher Preparation
- Special Education Preparation in Reading
- Assessing Professional Knowledge
- Student Teaching
- Teacher Preparation Program Accountability
Expanding the Pool of Teachers
Identifying Effective Teachers
- State Data Systems
- Evaluation of Effectiveness
- Frequency of Evaluations
- Tenure
- Licensure Advancement
- Equitable Distribution
Retaining Effective Teachers
Exiting Ineffective Teachers
Pensions
Research rationale
States must
differentiate middle school teacher preparation from that of elementary
teachers.
Middle school grades are critical years of schooling. It is
in these years that far too many students fall through the cracks. However,
requirements for the preparation and licensure of middle school teachers are
among the weakest state policies. Too many states fail to distinguish the
knowledge and skills needed by middle school teachers from those needed by an
elementary teacher. Whether teaching a single subject in a departmentalized
setting or teaching multiple subjects in a self-contained setting, middle
school teachers must be able to teach significantly more advanced content than
elementary teachers do. The notion that someone should be identically prepared
to teach first grade or eighth grade mathematics seems ridiculous, but states
that license teachers on a K-8 generalist certificate essentially endorse this
idea.
College- and career-readiness standards require significant shifts in literacy instruction.
College- and career-readiness standards for K-12 students adopted by nearly all states require from teachers a different focus on literacy integrated into all subject areas. The standards demand that teachers are prepared to bring complex text and academic language into regular use, emphasize the use of evidence from informational and literary texts and build knowledge and vocabulary through content-rich text. While most states have not ignored teachers' need for training and professional development related to these instructional shifts, few states have attended to the parallel need to align teacher competencies and requirements for teacher preparation so that new teachers will enter the classroom ready to help students meet the expectations of these standards. Because middle school teachers in most states can be licensed either to be multi-subject teachers or generalists, middle school teachers need specialized preparation. Particularly for single subject teachers of areas other than English language arts, these instructional shifts may be especially acute.
Middle School Teacher Preparation: Supporting Research
A
report published by the National Mathematics Advisory Panel (NMAP) concludes
that a teacher's knowledge of math makes a difference in student achievement. U.S.
Department of Education. Foundations for Success: The Final Report of the National Mathematics Advisory Panel.
Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Education (2008).
For
additional research on the importance of subject matter knowledge, see T. Dee and S. Cohodes, "Out-of-Field Teachers and Student Achievement: Evidence from Matched-Pairs Comparisons." Public
Finance Review, Volume 36, No. 1, January 2008, pp. 7-32; B.
Chaney, "Student outcomes and the professional preparation of eighth-grade teachers in science and mathematics," in NSF/NELS:88 Teacher transcript analysis, 1995, ERIC, ED389530, 112 p.; H. Wenglinsky, How Teaching Matters: Bringing the Classroom Back Into Discussions of Teacher Quality (Princeton, NJ:
Educational Testing Service, 2000).
For
information on the "ceiling effect," see D. Goldhaber and D. Brewer,
"When should we reward degrees for teachers?" in Phi Delta
Kappan, Volume 80, No. 2, October 1998, pp. 134, 136-138.
For an extensive summary of the research base supporting the instructional shifts associated with college- and career-readiness standards, see "Research Supporting the Common Core ELA Literacy Shifts and Standards" available from Student Achievement Partners.