Elementary Teacher Preparation in Reading
Instruction: Oregon

Delivering Well Prepared Teachers Policy

Goal

The state should ensure that new elementary teachers know the science of reading instruction and are prepared for the instructional shifts related to literacy associated with college-and career-readiness standards.

Nearly meets goal
Suggested Citation:
National Council on Teacher Quality. (2020). Elementary Teacher Preparation in Reading Instruction: Oregon results. State Teacher Policy Database. [Data set].
Retrieved from: https://www.nctq.org/yearbook/state/OR-Elementary-Teacher-Preparation-in-Reading-Instruction-69

Analysis of Oregon's policies

As a condition of initial licensure, Oregon requires elementary teacher candidates to pass an assessment that measures knowledge of scientifically based reading instruction. The state's National Evaluation Series (NES) elementary content test addresses the five instructional components of scientifically based reading instruction: phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary and comprehension.

Oregon does not require that teacher preparation program standards for elementary teacher candidates address the science of reading.


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 NES Elementary Education test framework for the reading and English language arts domain requires teachers to "understand literary, informational, persuasive, and functional texts, and graphic sources." It then includes the following standards that begin to incorporate the instructional shifts in the use of text associated with the state's college- and career-readiness standards for students:
  • Must demonstrate knowledge of the characteristics and features of various types of informational, persuasive, and functional texts and strategies for promoting students' comprehension of various types of texts and analysis of text structures
  • Must demonstrate knowledge of the characteristics and features of various types of graphic sources, such as advertisements and editorial cartoons; how visual elements can be used to convey a particular message, meaning or theme; and strategies for promoting students' comprehension and analysis of graphic sources.
Neither teacher standards nor testing requirements address incorporating literacy into all academic subjects.

Regarding struggling readers, Oregon's elementary test requires teachers to "apply knowledge of strategies for promoting the reading comprehension skills of students who are at different stages of reading and for facilitating comprehension before, during, and after reading."

Citation

Recommendations for Oregon

Ensure that teacher preparation programs prepare elementary teaching candidates in the science of reading instruction.

Oregon should require teacher preparation programs in the state to train candidates in scientifically based reading instruction. 

Ensure that new elementary teachers are prepared to incorporate informational text of increasing complexity into classroom instruction.

Oregon has taken a step in the right direction with its adoption of the NES elementary test, which addresses knowledge of informational texts. However, the framework does not appear to capture the major instructional shifts of college- and career-readiness standards. The state is therefore encouraged to strengthen its teacher preparation requirements and ensure that all elementary candidates have the ability to adequately incorporate complex informational text 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, Oregon 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.

Support struggling readers.
Oregon should articulate specific requirements ensuring that elementary teachers are prepared to intervene and support students who are struggling. The early elementary grades are an especially important time to address reading deficiencies before students fall behind.

State response to our analysis

Oregon indicated that recent legislation requires that the science of reading be expressly incorporated into teacher preparation programs. The state noted that changes such as the adoption of newer standards and regulations and requiring programs to make specific modifications  will take place over the course of the next year.

In addition, Oregon asserted that the reading portion of the elementary test does not have a published score, but it must be fully passed in order to pass that subtest. Universities are able to review fully each candidate's performance on the Elementary test.

Updated: September 2020

Last word

Recent legislation requires that beginning July 2016 all teacher candidates "receive training to provide instruction that enables pupils to meet or exceed third-grade reading standards and become proficient readers by the end of the third grade."  While requiring reading standards is a step in the right direction, the state will benefit from requiring elementary teacher candidates to pass an assessment that explicitly measures candidates' knowledge of scientifically based reading instruction.

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.