Teacher training programs don’t always prepare educators to use researched-backed reading methods. In a 2023 study, the National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ) surveyed nearly 700 teacher training programs across the country and found:
“Only about a quarter of the teachers who leave teacher preparation programs across our nation enter classrooms prepared to teach kids to read [in a way that’s] aligned to the science and research on reading,” says Heather Peske, president of NCTQ. The rest, she says, are investing money and time into learning methods like “three-cueing” and “balanced literacy,” which aren’t backed by research.
Thomas Dee, an education professor and researcher at Stanford University, says this disconnect between research and practice has been a long standing issue in education.“Things for which there’s good evidence of efficacy don’t always make it into [the] everyday classroom practice of teachers,” Dee says. The 2023 study from NCTQ found 40% of surveyed schools are still teaching methods that “run counter to the research on effective reading instruction.”
Read more about how many colleges are preparing teachers in the article below.
