Elementary Teacher Preparation Policy
Content Test Requirements: North Dakota requires early childhood education candidates, who are licensed to teach elementary grades through grade 3, to pass the new Praxis II Early Childhood Education (5025) test. This test does not report separate subscores in the core content areas of language arts, math, science or social studies.
Scientifically Based Reading Instruction: As a condition of initial licensure, North Dakota does not require its early childhood candidates to pass a
reading test addressing the five instructional components of scientifically
based reading instruction: phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary and
comprehension.
Informational Texts: The Praxis II Early Childhood Education (5025) test addresses both the use of informational texts and text complexity. With regard to the incorporation of informational text of increasing complexity,
teachers are required to know how to: "explain factors that contribute
to text complexity (e.g., vocabulary, sentence complexity, images) [and]
selects appropriate texts for readers at various levels."
Literacy Skills:
North Dakota's early childhood education assessment does not include the incorporation of literacy into all academic subjects
Struggling Readers: North Dakota's early childhood education assessment does not address the needs of
struggling readers.
Require all early childhood candidates who are eligible to teach elementary grades to pass a subject-matter test designed to ensure sufficient content knowledge of all subjects.
North Dakota should require all early childhood education teacher candidates who teach elementary grades to pass an elementary content test appropriately aligned with its college- and career-readiness standards. Although requiring a content test is a step in the right direction, the state should require separate, meaningful passing scores for each core subject covered on the test, including reading/language arts, mathematics, science and social studies. The state's current practice of using a composite passing score offers no assurance of adequate knowledge in each subject area and therefore fails to ensure that a candidate who achieves a passing score has the necessary subject-matter knowledge to teach a particular subject area.
Require all teacher candidates who teach elementary grades to pass a rigorous assessment in the science of reading instruction.
North Dakota should require a rigorous reading assessment tool to ensure that its early childhood candidates are adequately prepared in the science of reading instruction before entering the classroom. The assessment should clearly test knowledge and skills related to the science of reading and address all five instructional components of scientifically based reading instruction: phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary and comprehension. If the test is combined with an assessment that also tests general pedagogy or elementary content, it should report a subscore for the science of reading specifically. Early childhood teachers who do not possess the minimum knowledge in this area should not be eligible for licensure.
Ensure that early childhood teachers are prepared to meet the instructional requirements of college- and career-readiness standards for students.
Incorporate literacy skills as an integral part of every subject.
To ensure that elementary students are capable of accessing varied information about the world around them, North Dakota should also—either through testing frameworks or teacher standards—include literacy skills and using text to build content knowledge in history/social studies, science, technical subjects and the arts.
Support struggling readers.
North Dakota should articulate more specific requirements ensuring that all candidates who teach elementary grades are prepared to intervene and support students who are struggling. The early elementary grades are an especially important time to address reading deficiencies before students fall behind.
North Dakota questioned NCTQ's statement on struggling readers and noted that struggling readers are addressed with curriculum and through an educator preparation program's need for program approval.
2D: Elementary Licensure Deficiencies
Early childhood teachers who teach elementary grades must be ready for the demands of the elementary classroom. Many states have early childhood licenses that include some elementary classroom grades, usually up to grade three.[1] Because teachers with this early childhood license can still teach many elementary grades, they should not be held to a lower bar for subject-matter knowledge than if they held more standard elementary licenses. Given the focus on building students' content knowledge and vocabulary in college- and career-readiness standards,[2] states would put students at risk by not holding all elementary teachers to equivalent standards.[3] That is not to say the license requirements must be identical; there are certainly different focuses in terms of child development and pedagogy. But the idea that content knowledge is only needed by upper-grade elementary teachers is clearly false.
Focus on reading instruction is especially critical for early childhood teachers. Although some states do not ensure that any elementary teachers know the science of how to teach young children to read, in the states where this is a priority, it is inexcusable to hold elementary teachers on an early childhood license to a lower standard. Research is clear that the best defense against reading failure is effective early reading instruction.[4] Therefore, if such licenses are neglecting to meet the needs of the early elementary classroom, of which learning to read is paramount, they are failing to meet one of their most fundamental purposes.