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 be only required if the teacher is teaching in an organized junior high or middle school. Further, South Dakota 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. 

South Dakota 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.

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

Regarding struggling readers, South Dakota'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 South Dakota Administrative Rules 24:53:04:07 and 24:53:07:04:06

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.

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 South Dakota's English language arts content test for middle school teachers addresses informational texts, the state should strengthen its policy and ensure that teachers are able to challenge students with texts of increasing complexity. Further, generalist K-8 teachers who are teaching the middle grades should 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, South 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. South Dakota 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.

State response to our analysis

South Dakota recognized the factual accuracy of this analysis. The state added that it has adopted the recommended cut-scores for the Math and English/Language Arts Middle School Praxis. South Dakota also noted that it is undergoing a comprehensive review and revision of the state certification requirements that is anticipated to be completed in the Spring of 2016. Furthermore, South Dakota did not necessarily agree that NCTQ's recommendations in this area best meet the needs of the state.