Elementary Teacher Preparation in Reading
Instruction: Massachusetts
Delivering Well Prepared Teachers Policy
Analysis of Massachusetts's policies
Elementary teacher candidates must be prepared for the key instructional shifts related to literacy that differentiate college- and career-readiness standards from their predecessors. The Foundations of Reading test requires teachers to "understand how to apply reading comprehension skills and strategies to informational/expository texts." The framework then offers an extensive list of examples for achieving this competency. The Reading Specialist test does not address the use of informational texts.
Neither teacher standards nor testing frameworks address incorporating literacy into all academic subjects.
Regarding struggling readers, Massachusetts's Foundations of Reading test requires the following:
- An understanding of formal and informal methods for assessing reading development—for example, assessment of the reading development of individual students (e.g., struggling readers)
- An understanding of multiple approaches to reading instruction—for example, awareness of strategies and resources for supporting individual students (e.g., struggling readers).
Recommendations for Massachusetts
Require teacher candidates to pass a rigorous assessment in the science of reading instruction.
Massachusetts is commended for requiring
the Foundations of Reading assessment that ensures that its elementary teacher
candidates are adequately prepared in the science of reading instruction before
entering the classroom. The state undermines this strong policy by allowing candidates
to meet the requirement with the Reading Specialist test. This assessment does not fully 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.
Ensure that new elementary teachers are prepared to incorporate informational text of increasing complexity into classroom instruction.
Although
Massachusetts is on the right track with its requirement of the
Foundations of Reading test, which addresses knowledge of informational
texts, the in-depth coverage of the topic is presented as examples.
Therefore, the extent to which this information is required is unclear.
Massachusetts is encouraged to make certain that its framework captures
the major instructional shifts of college- and career-readiness
standards, thereby ensuring that all elementary candidates have the ability to adequately incorporate complex
informational text into classroom instruction. Because candidates may also satisfy the reading test requirement by taking the MTEL Reading Specialist test which does not address the knowledge of informational texts, Massachusetts is encouraged to require all candidates to take the Foundations of Reading test.
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, Massachusetts 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
Massachusetts listed the following components of the Foundations of Reading test:
The state also listed the components of the Reading Specialist test;
- Knowledge of the significant theories, practices and programs for developing reading skills and reading comprehension.
- Phonemic awareness and phonics: principles, knowledge and instructional practices
- History and nature of English vocabulary and of English-language dialects; development of vocabulary knowledge
- Theories, research and practices for reading instruction in the academic disciplines
- Selection and use of appropriate programs, materials and technology for reading instruction
- Knowledge of, and selection criteria for, literature and informational books for children and adolescents
- Screening and diagnostic instruments, their administration and use for determining student strengths and weaknesses
- Knowledge and use of a variety of informal and formal reading assessments
- Second language acquisition and its relationship to literacy learning
- Child and adolescent development and the timing of formal reading instruction
- Cognitive development in adolescence and its relationship to reading instruction.
- Approaches and practices for writing instruction, including assessment of writing skills and their relationship to reading
- Methods to support classroom teachers and tutors in the improvement of reading instruction, including consultation techniques and professional development.
Updated: September 2020
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Massachusetts
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Delivering Well Prepared Teachers
- Admission into Teacher Preparation
- Elementary Teacher Preparation
- Elementary Teacher Preparation in Reading Instruction
- Elementary Teacher Preparation in Mathematics
- Early Childhood
- Middle School Teacher Preparation
- Secondary Teacher Preparation
- Secondary Teacher Preparation in Science and Social Studies
- Special Education Teacher Preparation
- Special Education Preparation in Reading
- Assessing Professional Knowledge
- Student Teaching
- Teacher Preparation Program Accountability
Expanding the Pool of Teachers
Identifying Effective Teachers
- State Data Systems
- Evaluation of Effectiveness
- Frequency of Evaluations
- Tenure
- Licensure Advancement
- Equitable Distribution
Retaining Effective Teachers
Exiting Ineffective Teachers
Pensions
Research rationale
Reading science has
identified five components of effective instruction.
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.
By routinely applying in the classroom the lessons learned from the scientific
findings, most reading failure can be avoided. 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. NCTQ's reports 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 2013 and 2014, have consistently found the
overwhelming majority of teacher preparation programs across the country do not
train teachers in the science of reading. 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 a license 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 a 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.
Elementary Teacher Preparation in Reading Instruction: Supporting Research
For
evidence on what new teachers are not learning about reading instruction, see NCTQ,
"What Education Schools Aren't Teaching About Reading and What Elementary
Teachers Aren't Learning" 2006) at:http://www.nctq.org/nctq/images/nctq_reading_study_app.pdf.
For
problems with existing reading tests, see S. Stotsky, "Why American Students Do Not Learn to Read Very Well: The Unintended Consequences of Title II and Teacher Testing," Third Education Group Review, Vol. 2, No. 2, 2006; and
D. W. Rigden, Report on Licensure Alignment with the Essential Components of Effective Reading Instruction (Washington, D.C.: Reading First Teacher
Education Network, 2006).
For
information on where states set passing scores on elementary level content
tests for teacher licensing across the U.S., see chart on p. 13 of NCTQ "Recommendations for the Reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, Removing the Roadblocks: How Federal Policy Can Cultivate Effective Teachers," (2011).
For an extensive summary of the research base supporting the instructional shifts associated with college- and career-readiness standards, see "Research Supporting the Common Core ELA Literacy Shifts and Standards" available from Student Achievement Partners.