Elementary Teacher Preparation in Reading
Instruction: New York
Delivering Well Prepared Teachers Policy
Analysis of New York's policies
All elementary teacher candidates in New
York must pass the newly designed NYSTCE Multi-Subject:Teachers of Childhood as a condition of initial licensure. This test includes a separately
scored English language arts/literacy section. It addresses all five
instructional components of scientifically based reading instruction: phonemic
awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary and comprehension, and it amounts to a
stand alone reading 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. The Multi-Subject: Teachers of Childhood assessment includes the instructional shifts toward building
content knowledge and vocabulary through increasingly complex texts and
careful reading of informational and literary texts associated with the
state's college- and career-readiness standards for students.
The test framework addresses "text complexity and instruction in text
comprehension" and outlines the following performance indicators:
- Demonstrates an understanding of how emergent text comprehension relates to comprehension skills that are the focus of instruction in later grades and to essential college- and career-readiness text-comprehension skills
- Demonstrates an understanding of the role of asking a range of cognitively complex questions that require students to respond using text-based evidence
- Applies knowledge of quantitative tools and measures for evaluating text complexity.
- Demonstrates an understanding of NYCCLS grade-specific standards in reading literature and informational text for grades 1-6 and the relationship of these standards to the development of college and career readiness in reading by the end of grade 12.
- Applies knowledge of developmentally appropriate, research- and evidence-based assessment and instructional practices to promote students' development of skills for integrating, analyzing and evaluating knowledge and ideas from literary and informational text.
The test framework also addresses struggling readers with the following performance indicator: "[S]elects and describes accurately and appropriately effective strategies, activities, or interventions to address a student's identified need ... in reading, writing, listening, speaking, language knowledge and conventions, and/or vocabulary acquisition."
Recommendations for New York
Ensure that the science of reading test is meaningful.
To ensure that its science of reading test is meaningful, New York should
evaluate its passing score to make certain it reflects a high standard of
performance.
Support implementation of new state standards.
Although New York's testing framework for its elementary content test is commendable, the state is encouraged to strengthen its policy by making certain that there is a common understanding that the new college- and career-readiness standards require challenging students with texts of increasing complexity and may require shifts in what has been traditionally considered "developmentally appropriate."
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, New York 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
New York stated that the Multi-Subject CST is not the only test Childhood Education 1-6 candidates must pass that measures their skills and knowledge of literacy instruction. The state also requires the edTPA for Elementary Education for Childhood Education 1-6 certification. New York indicated that consistent with state college- and career-readiness content standards and the InTASC Standards, edTPA assesses teaching skills that focus on student learning.
New York noted the following elements of the edTPA:
- Requires aspiring teachers to document and demonstrate their readiness to teach through lesson plans, instructional materials, student assignments and video clips of teaching and analyses of teacher and student learning
- Assesses a candidate’s skills and knowledge of literacy and mathematics instruction
- Focuses on academic language, defined as the language of the discipline that students need to learn and use to participate and engage in meaningful ways in the content area
- Addresses the oral and written language used for academic purposes and the means by which students develop and express content understandings.
In addition, the state reiterated that the Multi-Subject test includes a separately scored math section and a separately scored general education and sciences section. Candidates must pass each section independent of the other sections. They must also pass the Academic Literacy Skills Test.
New York stated that the Commissioner’s regulations for the registration of programs leading to initial certificates for teaching childhood education (grades 1- 6) require a content core that shall be a major, concentration or the equivalent in one or more of the liberal arts and sciences. This, according to the state, in combination with the general education core and pedagogical core, ensures that the candidate has a knowledge base for teaching to the state learning standards for students in the following areas of the childhood education curriculum: the arts; career development and occupational studies; English language arts; health, physical education, and family and consumer sciences; languages other than English; mathematics, science and technology; and social studies.
New York indicated that the regulatory language developed in 1998 is purposefully generic allowing for changes in learning standards that occur over time. On July 19, 2010, the New York State Board of Regents adopted the CCSS for Mathematics and CCSS for English Language Arts Literacy in History/Social Studies, Science, and Technical Subjects, with the understanding that New York State could add additional expectations to the Common Core.
New York also described the efforts to assist the state's public higher education institutions with assimilating the new information on teaching and learning, including the incorporation and implementation of the CCSS into their programs. According to the state, Race to the Top funding was used to provide $10 million total to SUNY, CUNY, and the Commission on Independent Colleges and Universities, and in 2013, an additional $1.5 million was spent on faculty professional development.
New York also indicated that it has provided a wealth of resources to support practicing teachers,teaching candidates and teacher preparation programs with the implementation of the CCSS.
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New York
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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.