“We have a shortage of qualified people preparing teachers.”
⚠️ 75% of early learning teachers who receive pre-service prep or in-service PD enter the classroom ill-prepared to teach reading aligned with the Science of Reading.¹
⚠️ 97% of higher education institutions surveyed by the National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ) do not require aspiring teachers to complete courses in most of the topics in science or social studies an elementary teacher needs to know.²
⚠️ Only 2 states that adopted Science of Reading legislation address the importance of aligning teacher pre-service and in-service PD.³
“We have a shortage of qualified people preparing teachers.” —Dr. Holly Lane, University of Florida Literacy Institute (UFLI)
Dr. Holly Lane attributes the lack of high quality reading instruction in part to out-of-date university professors and programs. She claims this is a widespread issue in colleges of education.
Additionally, a survey conducted by Education Week found that tenured professors tend to adhere to a “balanced literacy” approach that teaches outdated reading practices. Younger professors, on the other hand, tend to teach reading practices that employ explicit, systematic phonics with language comprehension as a separate focus.⁴
While this is a delicate situation because teacher shortages are still a challenge, perhaps we need to hold professors who teach literacy to the kinds of standards we hold other licensed professionals like engineers and doctors to.
Because as literacy researcher Dr. Louisa Moats writes, we “should be able to trust that any person holding a license has demonstrated competence and is accountable to his or her professional board of governance. No such rules or standards assure that teachers who instruct children in reading have mastered the relevant knowledge base and acquired the necessary skills.”⁵
When early-learning leaders begin to peel back the multiple layers of the reading crisis, they quickly learn that deficits in teacher training are a major factor. With so many colleges of education turning out under-prepared teachers, it has fallen to districts to take on this challenge.
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About AskMeno
AskMeno is dedicated to helping early-childhood leaders build the foundational oral language and social skills necessary for their young scholars’ reading comprehension and emotional wellbeing. AskMeno provides a play-based, teacher-facilitated supplemental curriculum that systematically and explicitly develops oral language and social skills through scaffolded, fun, and engaging learning activities.
