Secondary Teacher Preparation: Louisiana

Analysis of Louisiana's policies

Louisiana offers single-subject secondary licenses to teach grades 6-12. The state requires that its secondary teacher candidates pass a Praxis II content test to teach any core secondary subjects.  

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

To add a core subject area to a secondary license, teachers in Louisiana must either submit a passing score on the Praxis II content test or complete 30 credit hours in the content area. 

Louisiana addresses some of the instructional shifts associated with college- and career-readiness standards toward building content knowledge and vocabulary through careful reading of informational and literary texts associated with these new standards and through its required assessment for English language arts teachers, the Praxis II English Language Arts: Content and Analysis (5039) test.

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

Louisiana's competencies fully address the needs of struggling readers by requiring teacher candidates to know how to:

• Use assessment information to identify students' proficiencies and needs
• Group students for small groups based on data, including small flexible intervention groups
• Develop instruction that is targeted and linked to student deficits visible through screening assessments.

Citation

Praxis Test Requirement www.ets.org Louisiana Administrative Code Title 28, Bulletin 113 and Bulletin 746, Section 211, 243, and 611

Recommendations for Louisiana

Require subject-matter testing for all secondary teacher candidates. 
Louisiana wisely requires subject-matter tests for most secondary teachers but should address any loopholes that undermine this policy (see "Secondary Teacher Preparation in Science and Social Studies" analysis and recommendations).

Require subject-matter testing when adding subject-area endorsements. 
Louisiana 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.

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.
Although Louisiana's required secondary English language arts content test addresses informational texts, the state 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 secondary students are capable of accessing varied information about the world around them, Louisiana 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.

State response to our analysis

Louisiana stated that the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education policy requires all teacher preparation programs to address State Content Standards, which are the Common Core State Standards. The Common Core State Standards require programs to prepare candidates who are sufficiently prepared to incorporate informational text into instruction and ensure that all new teachers are prepared to support struggling readers. The state also referenced its reading competencies required of all teachers. These competencies must be addressed by teacher preparation programs, including but not limited to the reading courses required by state statute.

The state added that teacher preparation programs are required to "realign the teacher preparation curriculum to prepare pre-service teachers to teach to the new CCSS, Compass, and assessments."

Louisiana also noted that an ongoing review of this alignment is occurring as campuses provide documentation for their national NCATE/TEAC/CAEP accreditation and ongoing state approval. The state then referenced CAEP standards and its teacher preparation program-approval standards.