Middle School Teacher Preparation: District
of Columbia

Analysis of District of Columbia's policies

The District of Columbia requires middle-level certification for all middle school teachers, who must complete a minimum of 30 semester hours in a content-related major.

All new middle school teachers in the District are also required to pass a single-subject Praxis II content test to attain licensure; a general content knowledge test is not an option.

Commendably, the District does not offer a K-8 generalist license. 

The District addresses some of the instructional shifts toward building content knowledge and vocabulary through careful reading of informational and literary texts associated with the District's college- and career-readiness standards for students through the required assessment for English language arts teachers, the Praxis II English Language Arts: Content Knowledge (5047) test. Neither teacher standards nor middle school tests in other content areas address incorporating literacy skills.

The District has no requirements for the preparation of middle school teachers who address struggling readers.

Citation

Praxis Test Requirement www.ets.org DCMR Title 5E.1610; 5.1619

Recommendations for District of Columbia

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 the District of Columbia's required middle school English language arts content test addresses informational texts, the District 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, the District of Columbia should—either through testing frameworks or standards—include literacy skills and using text as a means to build content knowledge in history/social studies, science, technical subjects and the arts.

Support struggling readers. 
The District of Columbia should articulate 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 secondary 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.

Close the loophole that allows teachers to add middle-grade levels to an existing license without demonstrating content knowledge.
The District of Columbia allows teachers to add a middle school endorsement to an elementary or secondary certification by either completing coursework or passing a content test. The District is urged to require that all teachers who add the middle-grade levels to their certificates pass a rigorous subject-matter test to ensure content knowledge of all subject areas before they are allowed in the classroom.

Ensure meaningful content tests.
To ensure meaningful middle school content tests, the District of Columbia 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 District licensing tests, and it would increase schools' staffing flexibility. However, middle school candidates in the District who intend to teach a single subject should earn a major in that area.

State response to our analysis

The District of Columbia recognized the factual accuracy of this analysis.