Delivering Well Prepared Teachers Policy
Although Wisconsin requires that its secondary teacher candidates pass a Praxis II content test to teach any core secondary subjects, the state permits a significant loophole to this important policy by allowing both general science and general social studies licenses, without requiring subject-matter testing for each subject area within these disciplines.
Wisconsin offers a broad-field science license for secondary teachers. Regardless of the science license (broad field, biology, chemistry, earth and space science, life and environmental science, physics or physical science), the state only requires candidates to pass the Praxis II General Science content assessment. Teachers with this license are not limited to teaching general science but rather can teach any of the topical areas.
All candidates, regardless of whether they are applying for the broad-field license or a specific concentration, are only required to
pass the Praxis II Social Studies content test.
Require secondary teachers with umbrella certifications to pass a content test for each discipline they are licensed to teach.
By allowing general social studies and general science certifications—and only
requiring general knowledge exams for each—Wisconsin is not ensuring that these
secondary teachers possess adequate subject-specific content knowledge. The
state's required general social studies assessment combines all topical areas
(e.g., history, geography, economics), and its required general science
assessment combines subject areas that include biology, chemistry and physics.
Neither assessment reports separate scores for each area. Therefore,
candidates could answer many—perhaps all—chemistry questions, for example,
incorrectly, yet still be licensed to teach chemistry to high school students.
Wisconsin should also
require specific content tests for its subject certifications, such as
history and geography. The state's requirement of a general content test
even for its subject-specific certifications undermines its apparent
effort to ensure content knowledge in each area of social studies.
Wisconsin indicated that while the state does use a broad field science and broad field social studies content test, a
candidate is also required to complete a major/minor in the discrete subject
areas. Since a major/minor is required for each of the discrete licensure
areas, the broad field test has alleviated excessive testing costs and testing
time for candidates prepared in multiple science or social studies licenses. The broad field
science and broad field social studies licenses can only be obtained by
completing a major.
Wisconsin asserted that the only subject a teacher can teach with the broad field
license is entry level high school general science or general social studies.
These broad field licenses are not available through the license based on a
content test pathway for additional licensure. Secondary teachers who teach upper-level courses must have a discrete subject-area license.
Wisconsin noted that when the state begins
the revision process of the content guidelines (preparation program standards)
for Science and Social Studies licensure, it will include a set of preparation
competencies. Once this is complete, the state will review the content test
selection against the competencies and determine the next steps.
Specialized science
teachers are not interchangeable.
Based on their high school science licensure requirements,
many states seem to presume that it is all the same to teach anatomy,
electrical currents and Newtonian physics. Most states allow teachers to obtain
general science or combination licenses across multiple science disciplines,
and, in most cases, these teachers need only pass a general knowledge science
exam that does not ensure subject-specific content knowledge. This means that a teacher with a background
in biology could be fully certified to teach advanced chemistry or physics
having passed only a general science test—and perhaps answering most of the
chemistry or physics questions incorrectly.
There is no doubt that districts appreciate the flexibility
that these broad field licenses offer, especially given the very real shortage
of teachers of many science disciplines.
But the all-purpose science teacher not only masks but perpetuates the
STEM crisis—and does so at the expense of students. States need either to make sure that general
science teachers are indeed prepared to teach any of the subjects covered under
that license or allow only single subject science certifications. In either case states need to consider strategies
to improve the pipeline of science teachers, including the use of technology,
distance learning and alternate routes into STEM fields.
Is a social studies teacher prepared to teach history?
Most states offer a general social studies license at the secondary level. For this certification, teachers can have a background in a wide variety of fields, ranging from history and political science to anthropology or psychology and are usually only required to pass a general social studies test. Under such a license a teacher who majored in psychology could be licensed to teach secondary history having passed only a general knowledge test and answering most—and perhaps all—history questions incorrectly.
Secondary Teacher Preparation in Science: Supporting Research
For
an examination of how science teacher preparation positively impacts student
achievement, see D. Goldhaber and D. Brewer, "Does Teacher Certification Matter? High School Teacher Certification Status and Student Achievement",
Educational Evaluation and Policy
Analysis, Volume 22, No. 2, June 20, 2000, pp. 129-145; D. Monk, "Subject area preparation of secondary mathematics and science teachers and student achievement", Economics of Education Review, Volume 13, No. 2, June 1994, pp.125-145; A. Rothman, "Teacher characteristics and student learning". Journal of Research in Science
Teaching, Volume 6, No. 4, December 1969, pp. 340-348.
See
also, NCTQ "The All-Purpose Science Teacher: An Analysis of Loopholes in State Requirements for High School Science Teachers." (2010).
In addition, research studies have
demonstrated the positive impact of teacher content knowledge on student
achievement. For example, see D.
Goldhaber, "Everyone's Doing It, But What Does Teacher Testing Tell Us About Teacher Effectiveness?" Journal of Human
Resources,Volume 42, No. 4, Fall 2007, pp. 765-794. See also D. Harris and T. Sass, "Teacher Training, Teacher Quality, and Student Achievement". Calder Institute,March 2007,
Working Paper 3. Evidence can also be found in B. White, J. Presely, and K. DeAngelis, "Leveling up: Narrowing the Teacher Academic Capital Gap in Illinois", Illinois Education Research Council, Policy Research Report: IERC 2008-1, 44 p.; D. Goldhaber and D.
Brewer, "Why Don't Schools and Teachers Seem to Matter? Assessing the Impact of Unobservables on Educational Productivity." Journal
of Human Resources, Volume 32, No. 3, Summer 1997, pp. 505-523.