Certification

Student Developmental Level - Middle Childhood (Grades 5-9)

For Initial and Professional teacher certification through the Individual Evaluation pathway and the Additional Classroom Teaching Certificate (Must Hold a Valid Certificate) pathway, candidates need to complete six semester hours of pedagogical (professional education) coursework that is appropriate for the student developmental level of the certificate title.

Coursework

For the middle childhood (grades 5-9) developmental level, acceptable coursework includes pedagogical courses that would be required in a middle childhood education/middle school teacher preparation program. Examples of acceptable courses include, but are not limited to:

  • Teaching methods in the middle school
  • Assessment in the middle school
  • Literacy instruction in the middle school
  • Middle school curriculum
  • Early adolescent development

Pedagogical coursework must address the middle childhood developmental level. The following table lists the acceptable and not acceptable developmental level(s) for middle childhood pedagogical coursework.

Pedagogical courses that include the following developmental level(s) are
Acceptable

Pedagogical courses that include the following developmental level(s) are
Not Acceptable

  • Middle Childhood only
  • Childhood and Middle Childhood
  • Middle Childhood and Adolescent
  • Childhood, Middle Childhood, and Adolescent
  • Early Childhood
  • Childhood only
  • Adolescent only
  • Life Span

If you have a New York State College Recommendation for either Initial Literacy (Grades 5-12) certification or Initial certification at the middle childhood (grades 5-9) level in your TEACH account, the student developmental level coursework requirement will be marked as met on your certificate application at the middle childhood level.

Additional Information

You could review course catalogs of institutions of higher education that offer middle childhood education/middle school programs leading to certification to learn about pedagogical courses at the middle childhood developmental level. New York State institutions that have registered middle childhood education programs can be found on the Inventory of Registered Programs.

Last Updated: September 29, 2020