Middle School Teacher Preparation : New
Hampshire

Analysis of New Hampshire's policies

New Hampshire offers a middle school (grades 5-9) license for middle school teachers and allows teachers with secondary certificates to teach single subjects. All candidates must complete a major consisting of at least 10 courses above the introductory level. Regrettably, New Hampshire also allows middle school teachers to teach on a generalist K-8 license.

Not all middle school teachers in New Hampshire are required to pass a Praxis II subject-matter test to attain licensure. To demonstrate content knowledge, they (with the exception of middle school math teachers) must either pass the Praxis II test or earn the equivalent of a content major. 

Further, those seeking the elementary license are only required to pass the general content test for elementary education, in which subscores are not provided; therefore, there is no assurance that these middle school teachers will have sufficient knowledge in each subject they teach. In addition, candidates with master's degrees are exempted from the Praxis II test. 

Citation

Administrative Rules for Education Chapter 500, 513.01, 611.02 www.ets.org/praxis Required Tests for Certification http://www.education.nh.gov/certification/req_tests.htm

Recommendations for New Hampshire

Eliminate K-8 generalist license.
New Hampshire should not allow middle school teachers to teach on a generalist license that does not differentiate between the preparation of middle school teachers and that of elementary teachers. These teachers are less likely to be adequately prepared to teach core academic areas at the middle school level because their preparation requirements are not specific to the middle or secondary levels and they need not pass a subject-matter test in each subject they teach. Adopting middle school teacher preparation policies for all such teachers will help ensure that students in grades 7 and 8 have teachers who are appropriately prepared to teach grade level content, which is different and more advanced than what elementary teachers teach.  

Strengthen middle school teachers' subject-matter preparation.
New Hampshire should encourage middle school teachers who plan to teach multiple subjects to earn two minors in two core academic areas, rather than a single major. However, the state should retain its requirement for a subject-area major for middle school candidates who intend to teach a single subject.

Require subject-matter testing for middle school teacher candidates.
New Hampshire 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.

State response to our analysis

New Hampshire asserted that it does encourage middle school candidates who plan to teach multiple subjects to earn two minors in two core academic areas, rather than a single major. 

In a subsequent response, New Hampshire added that the new Elementary Education: Multiple Subjects Praxis II test has been adopted by the State Board of Education. The test results will provide a separate score for each of the subtests in Reading and Language Arts, Mathematics, Social Studies and Science. The test is available immediately and will be required beginning July 1, 2012.