Teaching Reading: Georgia
Elementary Teacher Preparation Policy
Analysis of Georgia's policies
Scientifically Based Reading Instruction—Tests and Standards: Elementary teachers in Georgia are required to pass the Georgia Assessments for the Certification of Educators (GACE) Early Childhood Education Assessment. This test addresses the science of reading and is divided into subtests, but because the reading questions are combined with other English Language arts topics in addition to at least one other core subject, it does not amount to a stand-alone reading test.
In its standards for elementary education teacher preparation, Georgia does require teacher preparation programs to address the science of reading.
Informational Texts: Elementary teacher candidates must be prepared for the key instructional shifts related to literacy that differentiate college- and career-readiness standards from their predecessors. According to the testing framework, teachers must know ways to "promote students' comprehension of informational text and literature and to integrate knowledge and ideas."
Georgia's reading standards for elementary teachers require the following:
- Candidates plan with other teachers and personnel in designing, adjusting and modifying the curriculum to meet students' needs in traditional print, digital and online contexts
- Candidates differentiate instructional approaches to meet students' reading and writing needs in all content areas
- Candidates use a wide range of texts (e.g., narrative, expository poetry) from traditional print, digital and online resources.
Literacy Skills: Georgia has no requirements for the preparation of elementary teachers that address the incorporation of literacy skills into the core content areas.
Struggling Readers: Georgia's elementary content test indirectly addresses struggling readers by requiring that a teacher "knows how to apply developmentally appropriate pedagogical practices for planning curriculum, designing instruction, and evaluating student progress in reading and language arts."
The state's reading standards require the following:
- Candidates select or develop appropriate assessment tools to monitor student progress and to analyze instructional effectiveness.
- Candidates collaborate with other teachers and personnel to discuss interpretation of assessment data and their uses in responding to student needs and strengths.
- Candidates use assessment data to evaluate students' responses to instruction and to develop relevant next steps for teaching.
- Candidates collaborate with other professionals to modify instruction and to plan and evaluate interventions based on assessment data.
Recommendations for Georgia
Ensure that new elementary teachers are prepared to incorporate informational text of increasing complexity into classroom instruction.
Georgia's elementary test does not adequately capture all the major instructional shifts of college- and career-readiness standards. Georgia is therefore encouraged to strengthen its teacher preparation requirements and ensure that all elementary education candidates have the ability to address the use of informational texts as well as incorporate complex informational texts into classroom instruction.
Ensure that new elementary teachers are prepared to incorporate literacy skills as an integral part of every subject.
To ensure that elementary students are capable of accessing varied information about the world around them, Georgia should also—either through testing frameworks or teacher standards—include literacy skills and using text to build content knowledge in history/social studies, science, technical subjects and the arts.
State response to our analysis
Georgia disagreed with NCTQ's analysis that neither the state's license nor preparation requirements address college- and career-readiness standards, including the use of informational texts and the incorporation of literacy skills into the core content areas. Georgia cited additional standards which state:
The state also referenced its student academic standards, The Georgia Performance Standards, stating that these address expectations around content knowledge, vocabulary, informational texts, and literacy texts. Georgia cited its rules that require candidates seeking early childhood education certification to meet the standards for the Reading Endorsement Program. One of the Reading Endorsement Program standards requires candidates to differentiate instructional approaches to meet students' reading and writing needs in all content areas.
The state further cited one of its rules for preparation program approval, which states,
In addition, Georgia Professional Standards Commission Educator Preparation Rule 505-3-.01 requires: "(i) Preparation programs for educators prepared as teachers shall incorporate the latest version of the InTASC Model Core Teaching Standards developed by the Interstate Teacher Assessment and Support Consortium." The InTASC Model Core Teaching Standards address the incorporation of literacy skills into the core content areas.
Georgia disagreed with NCTQ's analysis "…the reading questions are combined with other topics without a specific reading subscore…" The state indicated that GACE Content Assessment score reports include the number of items answered correctly at both the subarea and objective levels. Reading comprises 50 percent of one of the two tests that comprise the Early Childhood Education assessment.
Updated: July 2018
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How we graded
2C: Teaching Elementary Reading
- Scientifically Based Reading Instruction: The state should require all elementary teacher candidates to pass a rigorous elementary test of scientifically based reading instruction in order to attain licensure. The design of the test should ensure that prospective teachers cannot pass without knowing the five scientifically based components of early reading instruction: phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension. The state should require that all teacher preparation programs prepare elementary candidates in the science of reading instruction.
- College- and Career-Readiness Standards: The state should ensure that all new elementary teachers are sufficiently prepared for the ways that college- and career-readiness standards affect instruction in all subject areas. Specifically,
- The state should ensure that all new elementary teachers are prepared to incorporate informational texts of increasing complexity into instruction.
- The state should ensure that all new elementary teachers are prepared to incorporate literacy skills as an integral part of every subject.
- The state should ensure that all new elementary teachers are prepared to identify and support struggling readers.
Three-quarters of the total goal score is earned based on the following:
- Three-quarters credit: The state will earn three-quarters of a point if it requires all new elementary teachers to pass a rigorous test of scientifically based reading instruction. The design of the test must ensure that all prospective teachers are competent in the five research-based components of early reading instruction: phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension. A stand-alone English/Language Arts (ELA) content test must be primarily focused on scientifically based reading instruction to earn credit.
- One-quarter credit: The state will earn one-quarter of a point if elementary teacher preparation standards address the five components of scientifically based reading instruction, but the state does not require an adequate - or any - scientifically based reading instruction test.
One-quarter of the total goal score is earned based on the following:
- One-quarter credit: The state will earn the one-quarter of a point if its elementary teacher preparation tests or standards address the requirements of college- and career-readiness standards. To earn credit, the state must have at least one requirement (outlined in component three) "fully addressed" and two "partially addressed."
Research rationale
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.[1]
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.[2] 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.[3] 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.[4] 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.[5] 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.[6]
[1] Walsh, K., Glaser, D., & Wilcox, D. D. (2006). What education schools aren't teaching about reading and what elementary teachers aren't learning. National Council on Teacher Quality. Retrieved from http://www.nctq.org/nctq/images/nctq_reading_study_app.pdf; Torgesen, J.K. (2005, November). Preventing reading disabilities in young children: Requirements at the classroom and school level. Presented at the Western North Carolina LD/ADD Symposium. Retrieved from http://www.fcrr.org/science/pdf/torgesen/NC-interventions.pdf
[2] National Reading Panel (US), National Institute of Child Health, & Human Development (US). (2000). Teaching children to read: An evidence-based assessment of the scientific research literature on reading and its implications for reading instruction. National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, National Institutes of Health. Retrieved from https://www.nichd.nih.gov/publications/pubs/nrp/Documents/report.pdf; To review further indications of the affirmation of the previously-mentioned research, see: Foorman, B., Beyler, N., Borradaile, K., Coyne, M., Denton, C. A., Dimino, J., ... & Keating, B. (2016). Foundational skills to support reading for understanding in kindergarten through 3rd grade: Educator's practice guide (NCEE 2016-4008). National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance. Retrieved from https://ies.ed.gov/ncee/wwc/Docs/PracticeGuide/wwc_foundationalreading_040717.pdf
[3] National Council on Teacher Quality. (2016, December). Landscapes in teacher prep: Undergraduate elementary. National Council on Teacher Quality's Teacher Prep Review. Retrieved from http://www.nctq.org/dmsView/UE_2016_Landscape_653385_656245; To review past TPR materials on teacher prep programs: Walsh, K., Glaser, D., & Wilcox, D. D. (2006). What education schools aren't teaching about reading and what elementary teachers aren't learning. National Council on Teacher Quality. Retrieved from http://www.nctq.org/nctq/images/nctq_reading_study_app.pdf
[4] For problems with many existing reading tests, see: Stotsky, S. (2006). Why American students do not learn to read very well: The unintended consequences of Title II and teacher testing. Third Education Group Review, 2(2), 1-37.; Rigden, D. (2006). Report on licensure alignment with the essential components of effective reading instruction. National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education, Reading First Teacher Education Network.
[5] National Council on Teacher Quality. (2011). Recommendations for the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. Retrieved from http://www.nctq.org/p/publications/docs/nctq_eseaReauthorization.pdf
[6] Student Achievement Partners. (2015). Research supporting the Common Core ELA/literacy shifts and standards. Retrieved from https://achievethecore.org/content/upload/Research%20Supporting%20the%20ELA%20Standards%20and%20Shifts%20Final.pdf