Middle School Teacher Preparation: Hawaii

Analysis of Hawaii's policies

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: 1) a passing score on a content test; 2) National Board for Professional Teaching Standards certification in the content field; 3) a content major consisting of at least 30 semester hours in the content field; 4) at least 30 semester hours in the content field, at least 15 of which must be upper-division level; or 5) 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.

Hawaii does not explicitly require a major or minor in the subject areas that the candidates plan to teach.

Hawaii's preparation and licensure requirements for middle school teachers do not ensure that teachers will be prepared to teach to these new standards.

Although the assessment adopted by Hawaii for middle school English language arts teachers—the Praxis II Middle School English Language Arts (5047) test—includes some of the instructional shifts toward building content knowledge and vocabulary through careful reading of informational and literary texts associated with these standards, content assessments are not required for certification.

Neither teacher standards nor middle school tests in other content areas address incorporating literacy skills.

Regarding struggling readers, Hawaii's middle school English content test requires that a teacher "knows commonly used research-based approaches to grouping and differentiated instruction to meet specific instructional objectives in English Language Arts" and "understands commonly used research-based strategies for teaching adolescent reading."

Citation

Praxis Test Requirement www.ets.org New Business Item 12-22; 12-29 Licensing Requirements http://www.htsb.org/licensing-permits/licensure-tests/

Recommendations for Hawaii

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. To ensure meaningful middle school content tests, the state should set its passing scores to 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 Hawaii who intend to teach a single subject should earn a major in that area.

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. Either through testing frameworks or teacher standards, Hawaii should specifically address the instructional shifts toward building content knowledge and vocabulary through increasingly complex informational texts and careful reading of informational and literary texts associated with the state's college- and career-readiness standards for students.

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, Hawaii should also include 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. Hawaii 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 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.

Close the loophole that allows teachers to add middle-grade levels to an existing license without demonstrating content knowledge.
Hawaii allows teachers to add new fields to certificates either by completing a state-approved teacher education program, submitting proof of teaching experience and 30 hours of coursework, or by proof of experience and a passing score on a content test. The state 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. 

State response to our analysis

Hawaii had no comment on this goal.