On the heels of the release of NCTQ's study What ed schools aren't teaching about reading and what elementary teachers aren't learning, the Colorado Department of Education has decided to shine its own spotlight on how its ed schools are teaching reading, including one of the 72 schools from the national sample examined by NCTQ.

Colorado's department of education will eventually examine all 19 of its teacher preparation programs, but only three of those programs were actually up for reauthorization this year: Adams State College (which earned a grade of zero), the University of Northern Colorado, and the for-profit University of Phoenix. The results? Colorado has granted Adams State and UNC's special education generalist program one-year provisional reauthorizations only--rather than the usual five--and with the stipulation that they must introduce new requirements within the next year to receive full reauthorization. Phoenix wasn't reauthorized at all.

Kudos to Colorado Education Commissioner William Moloney (who is also an NCTQ advisory board member) for paving the way on this issue and showing that states can take a proactive role in improving teacher preparation. We hope that other states will take NCTQ up on our standing offer to review the reading syllabi from all of their approved programs.