Middle School Teacher Preparation: Nevada

Analysis of Nevada's policies

Nevada offers a middle school license for middle school teachers; candidates must earn 24 semester hours in a major field of endorsement or area of concentration. Teachers with secondary certificates are allowed to teach single subjects in middle school. Those candidates must complete either a major (36 credit hours) or a minor (24 credit hours) in their intended teaching field. Regrettably, Nevada also allows middle school teachers to teach on a generalist K-8 license.

All new middle school teachers in Nevada are also required to pass a Praxis II subject-matter test to attain licensure. However, only secondary and middle school candidates are required to pass a single-subject Praxis II content test to attain licensure. Those seeking the generalist K-8 license are only required to pass the general content test for elementary education. This is especially worrisome considering that elementary teachers in the state are only required to pass the Praxis II Elementary Education: Instructional Practice and Applications test, which is not even an adequate assessment of content knowledge for elementary teachers.

Nevada addresses some of the instructional shifts toward building content knowledge and vocabulary through careful reading of informational and literary texts associated with the state's college- and career-readiness standards for students through its required assessment for middle school English teachers, the Praxis II Middle School English Language Arts (5047) test. Although this assessment addresses informational texts, regrettably it does not include the instructional shifts toward building content knowledge and vocabulary through increasingly complex texts and careful reading of informational and literary texts associated with the state's college- and career-readiness standards for students.

Neither middle school assessments nor standards address the incorporation of literacy skills across the core content areas.

Regarding struggling readers, Nevada's middle school English content test requires that a teacher be able to group students and differentiate instruction. However, it does not specifically address the ability either to identify struggling readers or provide appropriate intervention.

Citation

Praxis Test Requirement www.ets.org Nevada Administrative Code 391.090, -111, -120

Recommendations for Nevada

Require content testing in all core areas.
Nevada 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, Nevada should reevaluate its passing scores so that all tests reflect high levels of performance. For example, the passing score for the Praxis II Middle School Mathematics test is set just above the 8th percentile. 

Eliminate the generalist license. 
Nevada 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.  

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. Although Nevada's English language arts content test for the middle school endorsement addresses informational texts, the state should ensure that all middle school teachers possess this knowledge and are further able to challenge students with texts of increasing complexity. Further, generalist K-8 teachers who are teaching the middle grades should also be held to this same standard.

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, Nevada 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. Nevada should articulate more specific 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.

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 Nevada who intend to teach a single subject should earn a major in that area.

Close the loophole that allows teachers to add middle-grade levels to an existing license without demonstrating content knowledge.
Nevada allows teachers to add areas of certification without passing 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