As part of the licensing and certification process required for many states, prospective teachers will need to take what’s known as the ‘Praxis II Tests’.
Subject assessments are available for over 120 different areas of study, so it’s important to check with your local state education system to confirm that this particular test is something they require.
In terms of what to expect from the test content, questions can include multiple choice, essays, and constructed responses. These questions are created by educators and disciplinary specialists with a goal to assess your subject-specific teaching skills at various grade level ranges from K to 12.
For more information on the various testing requirements imposed by specific states, your best option is to visit the Praxis website directly, then search for specific state requirements using the dropdown box in the sidebar.
Specific tests vary greatly, and include the Georgia Assessments for Certification of Educators (GACE) if you want to teach in Georgia, and the Praxis Core tests if you want to teach in Oklahoma.
- 8. National Board for Professional Teaching Standards
The NBPTS was created in 1987 as a response to the 1983 report entitled ‘A Nation at Risk’, which outlined concerns about a rising level of mediocrity in America’s education system.
As well as defining the expectations required to maintain and improve upon the current level of teaching and learning, the NBPTS is also in place to recognise accomplishments in the profession.
The standards themselves have actually been created by teachers, with a voluntary process in place to certify teachers against these standards, called the National Board Certification.
If you’re considering getting Board-certified yourself, the National Board website contains an invaluable resource detailing the process involved. The site also contains research showing that students of Board-certified teachers learn more than students in other classrooms, and details of state-offered incentives for teachers to attain Board certification.
National Board for Professional Teaching Standards website
- 9. Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation (CAEP)
After the release of the revised CAEP standards in 2013, these are now the standards that programs seeking accreditation should be using.
CAEP is a result of consolidating the Teacher Education Accreditation Council (TEAC), and the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE).
Although this transition is currently an ongoing process, CAEP standards are expected to become the norm by spring 2016. Unlike the assessments of how children are improving their activity levels and knowledge of physical activity, CAEP has a mission of developing principled education leaders who meet high academic standards – essentially an assessment and accreditation process for teachers of grades P-12.
- 10. Physical Education Requirements
Our final recommended resource for prospective teachers is the PE Teacher website, which provides detailed information about all aspects of licensing and qualifications on a state-by-state basis.
This includes advice on the course load you can expect when studying for your Bachelor’s degree, any tests you need to pass before being admitted into a teaching program, and the various different types of licenses that can be applied for.
There’s also information on the careers and salaries on offer, as well as the differences between Bachelor level degrees and Master’s Level programs in Physical Education.
Much of the information is fairly similar to the Certification Map site (maintained by the University of Southern California), so it might be useful to take a look at both and see which one you find easier to navigate.
What is the Physical Education Teacher Education (PETE) program?
We already mentioned the importance of having a bachelor’s degree in a teaching related discipline, but we realise this probably isn’t very specific, and leaves a lot of room for misinterpretation.
So what degrees do we mean? Would graduation of an Exercise Science program leave 