Secondary Teacher Preparation Policy
Content Test Requirements: Although Hawaii requires middle school certification (grades 6-8) for all middle school teachers, the state also utilizes five options for verifying content knowledge for licensure: a passing score on a content test; National Board for Professional Teaching Standards certification in the content field; a content major consisting of at least 30 semester hours in the content field; at least 30 semester hours in the content field, at least 15 of which must be upper-division level; or a master's, specialist or doctoral degree in the license field. Regrettably, not all of these options ensure requisite content knowledge for a middle grades teacher candidate.
Candidates who opt for the content test are required to pass a single-subject Praxis II content test to attain licensure; a general content-knowledge test is not an option.
Academic Requirements: Hawaii does not explicitly require a major or minor in the subject areas that the candidates plan to teach.
Require content testing in all core areas.
Hawaii should require subject-matter testing for all middle school teacher candidates in every core academic area they intend to teach as a condition of initial licensure. The state should set its passing scores to reflect high levels of performance to ensure meaningful middle school content tests.
Close the loophole that allows teachers to add middle-grade levels to an existing license without demonstrating content knowledge.
NCTQ urges the state 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 teach in a classroom as the teacher of record.
Strengthen middle school teachers' subject-matter preparation.
Hawaii should encourage middle school teachers 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.
Hawaii had no comment on this goal.
3A: Middle School Content Knowledge
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 can be especially problematic. States need 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. In order to do so, middle school teachers must be deeply knowledgeable about every subject they will be licensed to teach, and able to pass a licensing test in every core subject to demonstrate this knowledge.[1] 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.