The Essential Career Guide to Becoming a Middle and High School Teacher offers a step-by-step guide to preparation, certification, and employment as a teacher. It provides guidance about issues and choices facing prospective educators, including making the decision to teach, assessing the differences between middle schools and high schools, identifying an excellent teacher education program, understanding alternative pathways to certification, taking state-mandated teacher tests, succeeding as a student teacher, and finding a first job in the profession.