Secondary Teacher Preparation: Florida

Analysis of Florida's policies

Florida offers single-subject secondary licenses to teach grades 6-12. The state requires that its secondary teacher candidates pass a content test (Florida Teacher Certification Examinations, or FTCE) to teach any core secondary subjects. 

Unfortunately, Florida permits a significant loophole to this important policy by allowing a general social studies license without requiring subject-matter testing for each subject area within this discipline (see "Secondary Teacher Preparation in Science and Social Studies" analysis and recommendations).

Further, to add an additional field to a secondary license, teachers must also pass a content test. However, as stated above, Florida cannot guarantee content knowledge in each specific subject for secondary teachers who add general social studies subject coverage. 

Florida's preparation and licensure requirements for secondary teachers address some of the instructional shifts associated with college- and career-readiness standards. Both the secondary FTCE English test and the state's reading competencies include only vague references to informational texts.  

Florida's competencies for its Professional Education test require "knowledge of effective literacy strategies that can be applied across the curriculum to impact student learning," which includes the following:    

• Apply effective instructional practices to develop text reading skills in the appropriate content area    
• Select instructional practices for developing and using content area vocabulary    
• Determine instructional practices to facilitate students' reading comprehension through content areas    
• Apply appropriate literacy strategies for developing higher-order critical thinking skills    
• Select appropriate resources for the subject matter and students' literacy levels.     

Regarding struggling readers, Florida requires teachers to "apply appropriate instructional practices determined by the student's strengths and needs, text structure, and the reading demands of domain specific text." Florida's competencies for Professional Education also require teachers to "differentiate instructional practices based on literacy data for all students."

Citation

Florida State Board of Education Administrative Rules 6A-4.03321; 6A-4.0331; 6A-4.0233 Florida Teacher Certification Examinations www.fl.nesinc.com

Recommendations for Florida

Ensure that secondary 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.
Florida's testing standards and competencies fail to capture the major instructional shifts of college- and career-ready standards. The state is therefore encouraged to strengthen its teacher preparation requirements and ensure that all secondary English candidates have the ability to adequately incorporate complex informational text into classroom instruction.

Incorporate literacy skills as an integral part of every subject.
To ensure that secondary students are capable of accessing varied information about the world around them, Florida should also include more specific requirements regarding 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.
Florida should articulate more specific requirements ensuring that secondary 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.

State response to our analysis

Florida noted that with regard to the recommendation to "incorporate literacy skills as an integral part of every subject," all state-approved teacher preparation programs must abide by statutory regulations that specify a uniform core curricula that includes scientifically researched reading instruction and content literacy, as well as  the “state-adopted content standards.” The state-adopted content standards are the Florida Standards, which have literacy standards throughout. The state added that Florida ensures that literacy skills are incorporated and an integral part of every subject.