Middle School Teacher Preparation: Oklahoma

Analysis of Oklahoma's policies

Oklahoma requires teachers who teach a single subject in grades 5-8 to be certified at the middle or secondary level; candidates must earn a major in a content-related area. Regrettably, the state also allows middle school teachers to teach on a generalist 1-8 license, with the exception of mathematics.

All new middle school teachers in Oklahoma are also required to pass a content test to attain licensure. Those seeking the generalist license, however, are only required to pass the general content test for elementary education, which does not report subscores in each area. Therefore, there is no assurance that all middle school teachers will have sufficient knowledge in each subject they teach.

Oklahoma requires middle school English teachers who teach a single subject to pass the CEOE Middle Level English test, which requires teachers to "understand strategies for reading expository texts." This competency is followed with a list of extensive examples of content that may be covered under this competency.

The state's competencies for English teachers mention that a teacher "understands and teaches strategies appropriate to a variety of forms (genres), text organizations, and structures, including functional print and informational print." According to the competencies, "informational print" includes reference materials, telephone books, almanacs and dictionaries. However, both the testing and English competencies do not sufficiently ensure that teachers are adequately prepared for 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.

Neither teacher standards nor testing frameworks in other content areas address incorporating literacy skills.

Regarding struggling readers, the English competencies require teachers to use "a variety of assessment strategies to evaluate student proficiencies in the language arts and to modify instruction appropriately." However, the competencies do not specifically address the ability either to identify struggling readers or provide appropriate intervention.

Citation

Test Requirement www.ceoe.nesinc.com Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education Academic Affairs Procedure Handbook 3.21.4 www.okhighered.org/state-system/policy-procedures/part3.shtml

Recommendations for Oklahoma

Require content testing in all core areas.
Oklahoma 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.

Eliminate the generalist license.
Oklahoma 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. 
Oklahoma 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.

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, Oklahoma 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 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, Oklahoma should also include literacy skills and using text to build content knowledge in history/social studies, science, technical subjects and the arts.

Support struggling readers.
Oklahoma 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.

State response to our analysis

Oklahoma indicated that the state does require the passing of middle school content area exams for initial middle school licensure.  Teachers who have an elementary education certificate (1-8, except for Math which is 1-6) and wish to teach a single subject must comply with the federal NCLB guidelines requiring them to build a HOUSSE in that subject area or pass the middle level content area exam for that subject area.

The state added that the Oklahoma Full Subject Matter Competencies for Middle School educators include establishing "an environment using active participation to teach problem solving and communication skills (reading, listening, writing and speaking) as an integral part of all instruction." Oklahoma also stated that the test competencies for the Middle Level English test do address reading and reading instruction for all students including the struggling reader.