Middle School Teacher Preparation: South
Dakota

Analysis of South Dakota's policies

South Dakota allows middle school teachers to teach on a generalist K-8 license. The state offers a middle-level endorsement (grades 5-8), which appears to only be required if the teacher is teaching in an organized junior high or middle school. Further, South Dakota only articulates that candidates must "know the subject matter they plan to teach"; it does not explicitly require a major or minor in the subject areas.

All new middle school teachers in South Dakota are also required to pass a Praxis II subject-matter test to attain licensure. However, because the state allows middle school teachers to teach on a generalist license, these candidates are only required to pass the general elementary content test, in which subscores are not provided. Therefore, there is no assurance that all middle school teachers will have sufficient knowledge in each subject they teach. Candidates who earn the middle-level endorsement are required to take subject-specific assessments. 

Citation

Praxis Test Requirement www.ets.org South Dakota Administrative Rules 24:53:04:07

Recommendations for South Dakota

Require content testing in all core areas.
South Dakota 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 that its middle school content tests are meaningful, South Dakota should reevaluate its passing scores so that all tests reflect high levels of performance. For example, the passing scores for the Praxis II Middle School English Language Arts and Mathematics tests are both set just above the 9th percentile. 

Eliminate the generalist license.
South Dakota 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.   

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

State response to our analysis

South Dakota asserted that it allows middle school teachers to teach on a generalist K-8 license if they are teaching self-contained 5th and 6th grade assignments at the middle school. Grades 5-8 teachers who are teaching in departmentalized classrooms must meet the requirements to be highly qualified in the subjects to which they are assigned. This includes passing the appropriate content area Praxis exams.