Indiana’s largest teachers’ colleges aren’t properly preparing teachers to teach reading, according to a new study by the National Council on Teacher Quality.
In fact, of the 18 Indiana programs evaluated in the study, 11 received a D or an F grade for their ability to train teachers on the five main components of the science of reading.
The rest of the country didn’t fare much better: The study found only 25% of programs nationwide adequately teach the science of reading to teachers. Indiana ranks below the national average for the average number of components of reading its programs adequality address.
And some of Indiana’s teaching programs have already begun to make changes to their curriculum to comply with a new state law that requires schools to adopt the science of reading curriculum by the 2024-25 school year.
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Teachers’ colleges risk losing their accreditation if they don’t adopt the science of reading curriculum by 2024.
NCTQ President Heather Peske urged university leaders to start making changes immediately since only 33% of Indiana’s fourth graders can read proficiently based on the most recent National Assessment of Education Progress results.
“The fact that only one-third of fourth-grade students in Indiana read proficiently, that demands that we implement change in a way that is deliberate, focused and with this sense of expediency,” Peske told IndyStar.
The results are even more pressing for Indiana’s English language learners and students of color. Only 17% of ELL students, 15% of Black students and 26% of Hispanic students could read proficiently in the fourth grade, according to the most recent NAEP results.
Which teachers’ colleges are failing?
According to the report, two of Indiana’s largest teacher preparation programs in terms of graduates – Ball State University and Indiana University at Bloomington – are failing to prepare teachers properly on the science of reading.
The science of reading is a teaching method based on a wide body of research on how brains learn how to read. Best practices have been created that center around five main areas: phonics, phonemic awareness, fluency, vocabulary and comprehension.
The report did specify that Ball State’s program submitted additional materials to be reviewed after the deadline but prior to the study’s publication. A spokesperson from NCTQ said they anticipate an updated grade for Ball State to be released in August.
IU stands by its teacher program and told IndyStar that it meets the standards of the state and the Council for Accreditation of Educator Preparation.
“While we applaud a focus on reading, reading comprehension and a data-driven approach to reading curriculum, we remain confident in the robust preparation our programs provide,” an IU spokesperson said.
Marian University was the only program in Indiana to receive an A+, joining only 48 other programs across the nation with that grade.
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Purdue University at West Lafayette, the fourth largest teachers’ program in terms of graduates, was not included in the report, NCTQ said, because they are in the process of completely redoing their reading coursework. Eleven private Indiana colleges and universities also either refused to participate in the study or didn’t respond to NCTQ.
Other universities, like Indiana State University which received a D, also contested the report’s findings, saying that NCTQ relied on incomplete materials when evaluating their programs.
“Providing extensive course materials to organizations not directly associated with our accreditation detracts from our attention to student success and is not a wise investment of our time and faculty resources,” said Carrie Ball, professor and chair of the ISU Department of teaching & learning and director of training, school psychology doctoral programs.
NCTQ has evaluated reading curriculums before, most recently in 2020, but said this year’s evaluation came after a two-year revision process of how they evaluate teacher prep programs that involved an expert advisory panel, technical advisory group and a public comment period to get feedback from leaders in the education field.
How are colleges preparing for the future?
Most of Indiana’s teachers’ programs are starting to make changes with the help of Lilly Endowment planning grants that have gone to 31 colleges and universities to support the advancement of the science of reading in Indiana.
Purdue University at Fort Wayne, which received an F in the report, is one of those universities that received a planning grant, which a spokesperson said they are already using to overhaul their reading courses.
The study also evaluated if the programs taught approaches contrary to the science of reading – like three-cueing and running records – and found that 12 programs in Indiana still teach a contrary practice.
Running records is an assessment used by teachers when observing students’ oral reading of a passage that records the number of errors to calculate their accuracy level. Three-cuing is a method of teaching that relies on children to guess what a word might be that they don’t know by looking at context clues.
Both methods have been shown to produce inaccurate ways to evaluate children’s reading levels and distract students from decoding words, thus making it harder for them to read more complex texts, according to the report.
Indiana’s teacher programs evaluated in the study were also more likely to have instruction on how to help struggling readers more so than for English language learners.
The Indiana Department of Education will also be conducting its own analysis of Indiana’s teacher preparation programs starting July 1, 2024.
| School | NCTQ Grade | Number of Contrary Practices Taught | Number of graduates in 2022** |
| Anderson University* | A | 1 | 29 |
| Ball State University* | F | 0 | 410 |
| Huntington University | D | 2 | 21 |
| Indiana State University | D | 1 | 161 |
| IU – Bloomington | F | 0 | 260 |
| IU – East | F | 1 | 49 |
| IU – Kokomo | D | 1 | 52 |
| IU – Northwest | B | 2 | 42 |
| IU – South Bend | F | 1 | 85 |
| IU – Southeast | C | 1 | 138 |
| IUPUI | F | 2 | 246 |
| Marian University – Indianapolis | A+ | 0 | 151 |
| Purdue – Fort Wayne | F | 2 | 147 |
| Purdue – Northwest | A | 1 | 85 |
| Saint Mary -of-the-Woods College | F | 0 | 12 |
| University of Evansville | A | 2 | 37 |
| University of Southern Indiana | B | 0 | 109 |
| Vincennes University | F | 0 | 17 |
Contact the reporter at317-618-5807 or CBeck@gannett.com.
This story is made possible by Report for America and Glick Philanthropies. As part of its work in Marion County, Glick Philanthropies partners with organizations focused on closing access and achievement gaps in education.
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