Before clarifying the purpose of that article, I have a question for you: If your child was in 5th grade and reading on the 2.7 grade level, wouldn’t you be alarmed? Wouldn’t you want a research based reading program that has a proven record of success before your child falls even further behind?
To clarify, the article is a critique of
teacher education programs, not an attack on teachers. When writing
articles, we use research by respected organizations, including the
American Federation
of Teachers
and
The National Council
on Teacher Quality.
We recommend publications from these organizations to those who are
interested in reading instruction and teacher preparation. Here are some
excellent publications and reports on teacher preparation and reading:
Teaching Reading IS Rocket Science, What Expert Teachers Should Know and Be
Able to Do
by Louisa Moats, published by the American Federation of Teachers.
http://www.aft.org/pubs-reports/downloads/teachers/rocketsci.pdf
Teacher Education: Coming up Empty
- Describes a study in which leading teacher educators admit that there’s
little evidence to prove the effectiveness of teacher ed programs.
http://www.nctq.org/p/publications/docs/Teacher_Education_fwd_20080316034429.pdf
The National Council on Teacher Quality examined what aspiring teachers learn about reading instruction in college. NCTQ analyzed a representative sample of reading courses to assess the degree to which students are taught the five essential components of effective reading instruction (http://www.wrightslaw.com/nclb/4defs.reading.htm): phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension.
Among their findings:
- Most Schools Do Not Teach the Science of Reading.
- Courses That Claim to Provide a “Balanced” Approach Ignore the Science of Reading.
- Most Reading Instruction is Incompatible with the Science of Reading.
- Teacher Educators Portray Science of Reading Instruction as One Approach that is No More Valid than Others (”Anything Goes”).
- Reading Courses Reflect Low Expectations for Students, with Little Evidence of College-Level Work.
- Quality of Most Reading Textbooks is Poor, Inaccurate and Misleading.
Conclusion
Given the strength of the scientific research
in reading instruction, there is genuine cause for concern … we will not be
surprised to find that it took several decades for the science of reading to
be absorbed into thinking and practice … [that means ] yet another
generation of children have been deprived of the benefits of the science.
This Yearbook describes teacher quality and
preparation by state.
Area 6 is Preparation of Special Education Teachers by state.
Primary findings are
here.
http://www.nctq.org/stpy/primaryFindings.jsp
Scroll down to #7 for findings about the preparation of special education
teachers.