The purpose of this study was to investigate middle school principals' knowledge of the state's new middle level teacher certification, their hiring preferences for newly certified teachers, and their perceptions of middle certified teacher' competencies in teaching various subject areas to middle school students. Survey data indicated that the participants possessed a general awareness of the state's middle level teacher certifications and preferred to hire teachers with middle level teacher certification rather than secondary or elementary certification. However, despite their preference to hire middle level certified teachers, the principals expressed uncertainty as to whether teachers with middle level certification were competent to teach their subject areas.