Content Details
ED464041 - Improving Reading in America: Are Teachers Prepared? NCREL Policy Issues
- Category
- Executive Agency Publications
- Collection
- Education Reports from ERIC
- SuDoc Class Number
- ED 1.615:
- Date Issued
- November 1, 2001
- Author
- Young, Edyth E
- Source Institution
- North Central Regional Educational Lab., Oak Brook, IL
- Sponsoring Agency
- Office of Educational Research and Improvement (ED), Washington, DC
- Publication Type
- Reports - Descriptive
- Subject
- Educational Improvement, Elementary Secondary Education, Faculty Development, Higher Education, Inservice Teacher Education, Preservice Teacher Education, Reading Instruction, Reading Teachers, Teacher Improvement
- Abstract
- This paper presents a research-based evaluation of the gaps plaguing the preparation and ongoing professional development of reading teachers, suggesting that to improve literacy, it is necessary to comprehensively redesign reading teachers' preservice curriculum and inservice training. Programs preparing preservice teachers are not providing courses or classroom experiences necessary to teach future teachers the knowledge and skills base to teach diverse pupils in a variety of contexts. Teacher preparation programs do not meet the International Reading Association's literacy standards for teaching elementary school or recommendations for credit-hour standards in teacher preparation programs. The states regulate preservice and inservice teacher preparation very differently. Some states rely on content area standards, while others have specific course requirements. Several organizations and reports have described the characteristics of effective professional development and the content necessary to improve reading instruction for reading teachers. Policy recommendations include requiring teacher education institutes to align curriculum and course requirements with research-based standards for teaching reading and requiring states to align teacher testing for each consecutive stage of certification/licensure to research-based standards for teaching reading. A sidebar presents four critical areas that must be addressed to promote effective preservice and inservice teacher training programs (e.g., understanding the psychology of reading development and knowledge of language structure and its application). (Contains 14 references.).