Elementary Teacher Preparation Policy
The state should ensure that new elementary teachers demonstrate sufficient knowledge of the science of reading instruction. This goal has been revised since 2017.
Test Requirement www.ets.org/praxis Program Approval and Teacher Education Standards Section 50015 https://www.nd.gov/espb/program-approval/teacher-education-standards Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation (CAEP) State Partners http://caepnet.org/working-together/state-partners 2018 CAEP K-6 Elementary Teacher Preparation Standards http://caepnet.org/accreditation/caep-accreditation/caep-k-6-elementary-teacher-standards
Require all teacher candidates who teach elementary grades to pass a rigorous assessment in the science of reading instruction.
North Dakota should require a rigorous reading assessment tool to ensure that its elementary teacher candidates are adequately prepared in the science of reading instruction before entering the classroom. The assessment should clearly test knowledge and skills related to the science of reading and address all five instructional components of scientifically based reading instruction: phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary and comprehension. If the test is combined with an assessment that also tests general pedagogy or elementary content, it should report a separate subscore for the science of reading specifically. Elementary teachers who do not possess the minimum knowledge in this area should not be eligible for licensure.
Ensure that the coursework required of aspiring elementary teachers is appropriately focused on the science of reading.
Although North Dakota maintains standards that address all five components of the science of reading, NCTQ finds considerable evidence that nearly three quarters (74 percent) of all teacher preparation programs fail to explicitly cover all five components of scientifically-based reading instruction. North Dakota should exercise its leverage in the program approval process to ensure that the coursework required of aspiring elementary teachers is appropriately focused on the science of reading, and, if not, that the state plays a more active, supportive role in remedying knowledge gaps on the part of faculty teaching these courses.
North Dakota recognized the factual accuracy of this analysis.
2C: Teaching Elementary Reading
Teaching children to read is the most important task teachers undertake. Over the past 60 years, scientists from many fields have worked to determine how people learn to read and why some struggle. This science of reading has led to breakthroughs that can dramatically reduce the number of children destined to become functionally illiterate or barely literate adults, identifying five components of effective instruction. In fact, most reading failure can be avoided by routinely applying the lessons learned from the scientific findings in the classroom. Estimates indicate that the current failure rate of 20 to 30 percent could be reduced to 2 to 10 percent.
Scientific research has shown that there are five essential components of effective reading instruction: explicit and systematic instruction in phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension. Many states' policies still do not reflect the strong research consensus in reading instruction that has emerged over the last few decades. Many teacher preparation programs resist teaching scientifically-based reading instruction. Reports by NCTQ on teacher preparation, beginning with What Education Schools Aren't Teaching about Reading and What Elementary Teachers Aren't Learning in 2006 and continuing through the Teacher Prep Review in 2016 have consistently found the overwhelming majority of teacher preparation programs across the country do not train teachers in the science of reading, although the most recent Teacher Prep Review did find signs of improvement. Whether through standards or coursework requirements, states must direct programs to provide this critical training. But relying on programs alone is insufficient; states must only grant licenses to new elementary teachers who can demonstrate they have the knowledge and skills to teach children to read.
Most current reading tests do not offer assurance that teachers know the science of reading. A growing number of states, such as Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Virginia, require strong, stand-alone assessments entirely focused on the science of reading. Other states rely on either pedagogy tests or content tests that include items on reading instruction. However, since reading instruction is addressed only in one small part of most of these tests, it is often not necessary to know the science of reading to pass. States need to make sure that a teacher candidate cannot pass a test that purportedly covers reading instruction without knowing the critical material.
College- and career-readiness standards require significant shifts in literacy instruction. College- and career-readiness standards for K-12 students adopted by nearly all states require from teachers a different focus on literacy integrated into all subject areas. The standards demand that teachers are prepared to bring complex text and academic language into regular use, emphasize the use of evidence from informational and literary texts and build knowledge and vocabulary through content-rich text. While most states have not ignored teachers' need for training and professional development related to these instructional shifts, few states have attended to the parallel need to align teacher competencies and requirements for teacher preparation so that new teachers will enter the classroom ready to help students meet the expectations of these standards.