The Excellent Schools Act gives this charge:

By March 15, 1998, the Board of Governors of The University of North Carolina shall report to the Joint Legislative Education Oversight Committee on the efforts to improve teacher preparation through implementation of a second major requirement. The report shall include recommendations to strengthen the requirement and provide greater consistency for second majors throughout the system.

that all undergraduate teacher education students in early childhood education, elementary education, middle grades education, special education, and all other education degree programs also complete a second major in one of the basic academic disciplines or an inter-disciplinary major.

The choice of "second majors" available to education students varies greatly from institution to institution. Each UNC institution reports on the number of students who have selected the various second majors on that campus indicating that some second majors have proven to be more frequently selected.

Since the implementation of the second major policy, the University of North Carolina has established a 128-hour limit on baccalaureate programs. One area of concern is the implication of the second major policy in light of this 128 credit-hour limitation. At many institutions the curriculum became so restricted that courses such as technology and reading were deleted as requirements in some programs. An unintended consequence of the second major policy in combination with the 128 credit-hour limitation was that some institutions eliminated programs such as vocational or technical education and several programs had to drop course sequences related to effective teaching, e.g. reading courses for prospective elementary teachers.

The impact of the Standard Course of Study of the Department of Public Instruction and goals established by the State Board of Education also needs to be taken into consideration. For example, revisions in the Standard Course of Study in social studies and reading, and anticipated revisions in science and mathematics necessitate changes in teacher preparation programs. The current second major policy does not appear to offer sufficient flexibility to address some of these significant concerns, especially in light of the high stakes accountability associated with the Department of Public Instruction's ABC's plan and the increased emphasis on reading and technology competencies.

The second major policy grew out of a desire to ensure that teachers have strong preparation in an academic discipline. However, students enter teacher preparation programs in their junior year after two years of general liberal arts courses and many programs require additional content work in addition to the "second major." Students in UNC teacher preparation programs take the majority of their 128 hours in liberal arts courses.

Because of the term "second major," students have been limited to "second majors" only in fields in which the university offers a regular major in a basic academic discipline. For example, Spanish and social studies are available as second majors only at those which offer Spanish and social studies majors. Furthermore, a university does not now have the option of developing a second major in critical areas such as literacy or technology because these are not recognized as basic academic discipline majors. Universities need more flexibility in developing interdisciplinary "second majors" which might be more appropriate for some teaching fields, but the present policy does not permit such options. Changing the policy of limiting second majors to existing majors and changing the term "second major" to "second academic concentration" will open up possibilities for developing more interdisciplinary options.

Another expressed concern with the existing "second major" policy is the perceived lack of consistency. Some content areas such as physical education and business education are subject to the second major requirement because they are not recognized as "basic academic disciplines." Art education and music education are not impacted by the second major, because they are recognized as basic academic disciplines. There are valid, though disputable, reasons for this distinction. From the limited data available, there is no evidence to suggest that secondary/K-12 teachers with a second major are more effective teachers than those without a second major. 

There is also a concern as to whether the completion of a "second major" has any effect on the hiring or assignment of teachers. A recent survey of teachers and administrators in some of the UNC Partnership schools indicated that many principals are not aware that recent teacher education graduates have completed a second major, although most indicated they thought the policy was a good idea.

Recommendation #1:

By fall 1999, the term "second academic concentration" will replace the current phrase "second major" to designate the added require-ment of a set of courses in an academic area beyond the required hours in education. All four criteria defined by the Board of Governors for the "second major" in response to the recommenda-tion of the 1986 task force (see Appendix A), including the minimal 24-semester hour expectation, will continue to define "second academic concentrations." (If the term "second academic concentration" conflicts with existing terminology on a campus, an alternative term may be proposed for use on that campus.)

During the 1998-99 academic year, faculty in all UNC colleges/schools/departments of education will work with faculty in arts and sciences and other appropriate academic units to review current "second majors" and revise them as necessary to ensure that future "second academic concen-trations" are not only rigorous, coherent, and regularly available, but also provide students with academic content and subject matter expertise appropriate to their teaching field(s). Each institution will submit a description of its revised "second academic concentrations" to UNC General Administration in June 1999 for review and approval by August 1 and implementation during the 1999-2000 academic year.

In addition to meeting the four criteria for "second majors" established by the Board of Governors in response to the 1986 task force, "second academic concentrations" will also align with the state's educational priorities, the Department of Public Instruction Standard Course of Study, and the articulation agreements of the University of North Carolina and the community colleges.

Recommendation #4:

A system for on-going data collection will be established by staff in UNC General Administration to monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of "second academic concentrations" particularly with respect to developing the content and subject matter expertise of program graduates in their specific teaching field(s).

Gloria Bowman, Department of Public Instruction

Charles Cherry, Chairperson, Division of Education, Elizabeth City State University

Charles Duke, Dean, Reich College of Education, Appalachian State University

Judith Stillion, Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs, the University of North Carolina General Administration

Melba Spooner, Associate Dean, College of Education, UNC-Charlotte;

Kathy Sullivan, formerly director of teacher education at the University of North Carolina at Pembroke and now, Section Chief, Teacher Education, the Department of Public Instruction