Elementary Teacher Preparation in Reading
Instruction: Maryland
Delivering Well Prepared Teachers Policy
Analysis of Maryland's policies
Maryland does not require teacher candidates to pass an assessment that measures knowledge of scientifically based reading instruction prior to certification or at any point thereafter.
In its Reading Course Revision Guidelines, Maryland requires teacher preparation programs to address the science of reading. Programs must provide training in the five instructional components of scientifically based reading instruction: phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary and comprehension. The state also requires reading coursework for all teacher candidates: 12 credit hours for elementary teacher candidates and six credit hours for secondary teacher candidates.
Teacher candidates or current certificate holders with certifications in elementary may test out-of-state reading requirements by passing the Praxis II Reading Across the Curriculum: Elementary test.
Elementary teacher candidates must be prepared for the key instructional shifts related to literacy that differentiate college- and career-readiness standards from their predecessors. Elementary teachers in Maryland are required to pass the Praxis II Elementary Education: Instructional Practice and Applications
(5019) test, which now addresses informational texts but
regrettably does not adequately include the specific skills needed to
teach the instructional shifts associated with Maryland's new standards.
Elementary teachers are
required to take coursework in "materials for teaching reading to gain
literary experience, to perform a taskand to read for
information." Also, the state articulates in its Reading Course Revision
Guidelines that teachers will demonstrate knowledge of "selecting,
organizing, and evaluating text that supports the development of the
five essential components of reading including but not limited to:
informational text."
The revised elementary assessment requires that a teacher "knows
how to make connections within reading and language arts topics, across
other disciplines, and in real-world contexts."
Maryland's assessment only vaguely addresses the needs of struggling
readers. The Elementary Education: Instructional Practice and
Applications test requires that a teacher "knows how to design and use
formative assessments to adjust instruction." According to Maryland's Reading
Course Revision Guidelines, teachers will be able to "modify a lesson to
meet the needs of ... students with reading comprehension
difficulties."
Recommendations for Maryland
Require all teacher candidates who teach elementary grades to pass a rigorous assessment in the science of reading instruction.
Ensure that new elementary teachers are prepared to incorporate informational text of increasing complexity into classroom instruction.
Maryland's testing frameworks and reading course requirements do not capture all 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 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, Maryland 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.
Maryland should articulate more 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
Maryland recognized the factual accuracy of this analysis. The state added that while there is no plan at this time to initiate
additional packaged, commercial
testing of competence in the teaching of reading, the state does agree with the need
to revise the 12 credits required in reading for the candidate. Maryland agreed with the portion of the analysis that
underscores the need to instruct teachers with a more global view of literacy,
including textual complexity, digital literacy and intentional and overt
instruction for all primary and elementary teachers in diagnosis and
appropriate intervention strategies for struggling readers, whether that struggle has to do with motivation, early experiences or impacting
disability.
The state added that the Elementary Reading
Work Group will utilize the courses developed through Maryland's Reading First grant, which employ scientifically based reading research and build out to meet
the far more complex needs of Maryland College- and Career-Ready Standards (MCCRS) in literacy. In addition, the work group will include members of the
MCCRS and PARCC communities, the higher education and alternative preparation
communities, the Division of Special Education/Early Intervention Services, and
members of parent and expert groups external to MSDE such as Decoding Dyslexia
Maryland.
The state acknowledged that it does recognize that
differentiation of instruction for a variety of students is inadequate in
assuring that all children are identified and properly instructed early in
their school careers. The
work group is expected to produce deliverable products for course development
by the Fall 2016.
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Maryland
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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.