Secondary Teacher Preparation: California

Analysis of California's policies

California offers a K-12 Single Subject Teaching Credential. The state requires its secondary teacher candidates to verify subject-matter competence in one of two ways: earn a passing score on the appropriate subject-matter exam (CSET) or complete a commission-approved subject-matter program. 

Secondary teachers in California may add endorsements to their licenses through similar options as outlined above.

California's preparation and licensure requirements for secondary teachers ensure that teachers will be prepared to address the instructional shifts associated with college- and career-readiness standards. The state's testing framework for its single-subject CSET English assessment addresses informational texts and text complexity, thereby aligning it with the California college- and career-readiness standards. Educator preparation standards for secondary English teachers require the following: "promoting students' ability to access grade-level texts of increasing depth and complexity and activate background knowledge, make connections, synthesize information, and evaluate texts. " 

The state's educator preparation standards address the incorporation of literacy across core content areas. Both single-subject and multiple subject credential candidates must be able to "teach students to independently read and comprehend instructional materials that include increasingly complex subject-relevant texts and graphic/media representations presented in diverse formats. Candidates also teach students to write opinion/persuasive and expository text in the content area." These requirements are repeated in all educator preparation standards related to Reading/Language Arts, Science, and Social Science.

California's educator preparation standards in Reading, Writing and Related Language Instruction address the needs of struggling readers by requiring that secondary teachers be able to "differentiate instruction based on the needs and strengths of the range of learners in the classroom, including English learners, struggling readers and writers...."

Citation

Single Subject Teaching Credential http://www.ctc.ca.gov/credentials/leaflets/cl560c.pdf Multiple Subject and Single Subject Preliminary Credential Program Standards (2014) http://www.ctc.ca.gov/educator-prep/STDS-prep-program.html California Education Code 44257(a), 44258.1 Test Requirements www.cset.nesinc.com

Recommendations for California

Require subject-matter testing for secondary teacher candidates.
As a condition of licensure, California should require its secondary teacher candidates to pass a content test in each subject area they plan to teach to ensure that they possess adequate subject-matter knowledge and are prepared to teach grade-level content. 

Require subject-matter testing when adding subject-area endorsements.
California should require passing scores on subject-specific content tests, regardless of other coursework or degree requirements, for teachers who are licensed in core secondary subjects and wish to add another subject area, or endorsement, to their licenses. While coursework may be generally indicative of background in a particular subject area, only a subject-matter test ensures that teachers know the specific content they will need to teach.

Incorporate informational text of increasing complexity into classroom instruction.
Although California's preparation standards address a secondary teacher's ability to challenge students with texts of increasing complexity, the state should strengthen its policy and ensure that secondary teachers are able to do so with informational texts.

State response to our analysis

The California Commission on Teacher Credentialing was helpful in providing NCTQ with facts necessary for this analysis.

California also asserted that although secondary candidates may add an additional subject-matter area to their credential via CSET examination or via completing a Commission-approved subject-matter program that covers and assesses the same content, in fact, all such candidates complete the examination option rather than the program option. Thus, according to the Commission, all secondary candidates adding an additional content area have passed the applicable CSET subject-matter examination as recommended by NCTQ.

Last word

If all candidates do pass subject-matter tests for licensure, NCTQ wonders why the state continues to keep the program option in effect. It does not appear there would be any significant pushback from the field to eliminating this option if it is the case that it is never exercised.