Half of NY teacher prep programs fail in reading instruction: report

“Sign up for Chalkbeat New York’s free daily newsletter to get essential news about NYC’s public schools delivered to your inbox. Half of teacher preparation programs in New York are failing to properly train educators to teach students how to read, despite the state’s push to overhaul literacy instruction, according to a report released Tuesday. Out of 38 New York teacher preparation programs evaluated by the National Council on Teacher Quality , or NCTQ, just six received A grades , meaning that they teach all five key components of scientifically-based reading instruction: phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension. Nineteen — or half of the state’s prep programs — received failing marks, including many operated by CUNY and SUNY, the city and state university systems. Nationally, just 21% of programs received an F. More than half of New York’s elementary teacher prep programs declined to provide materials for review, among the highest refusal rates of any state. Those programs were not graded. NCTQ assigns failing grades if a program covers one or none of the five components of reading or teaches debunked practices, such as encouraging students to guess how to pronounce words they don’t know by using pictures. “New York State has one of the highest number of programs that did not meet our standards,” said Heather Peske, the president of NCTQ. “To me, it means that the state is not leveraging their authority strongly enough by reviewing and holding accountable the programs.” Nationally, teacher preparation programs have improved dramatically, NCTQ found. Just over half of programs they assessed are using scientifically grounded practices, double the share compared with three years ago. New York has only improved slightly in that timeframe. Lack of progress could hinder efforts to improve reading proficiency, the report warns, as a growing share of New York students are struggling with reading. About 41% of the state’s fourth graders were reading at the lowest level in 2024, up from 30% in 2013, according to the National Assessment of Educational Progress , which is often considered the gold standard in assessment. (Reading proficiency on state exams has ticked up over the past few years , diverging from the federal test.) New York State Education Department officials disputed the NCTQ report’s findings and emphasized several efforts to improve teacher preparation programs. “The report fails to include a substantial number of New York State teacher preparation programs, thereby presenting a limited and misleading picture of the work underway across the state,” spokesperson Karen Male wrote in a statement. Teacher prep programs lag in science of reading New York leaders in recent years have embraced the science of reading, a longstanding body of evidence about how to teach students to read. But progress has been uneven. Under legislation Gov. Kathy Hochul pushed to improve reading instruction , the state gave $10 million to the state teachers union to train 20,000 teachers in the science of reading. But the course does not fully align with the science of reading, an investigation from the Hechinger Report found . A spokesperson for the governor said the training is being reviewed by New York State United Teachers and the State Education Department. Meanwhile, many of New York’s public teacher prep programs fell short on NCTQ’s scorecard. Eight of SUNY’s 19 programs evaluated by NCTQ received failing grades. Among CUNY programs, 9 of 13 received an F. (Medgar Evers College was the only CUNY program to not provide all teaching materials for review and was not evaluated.) SUNY spokesperson Holly Liapis said the university system is working to make changes. The university’s board of trustees passed a policy in January that will require every SUNY program to be “fully aligned” with the science of reading by December, she said. “SUNY is absolutely committed to ensuring our campuses all deliver high-quality Science of Reading preparation,” Liapis said in a statement. CUNY spokesperson Noah Gardy disputed the NCTQ’s assessment, arguing the report “is not an accurate measure of CUNY’s teacher training work.” He did not explain why. The university system is spending $3 million in philanthropic dollars to “to align curriculum and support faculty development,” he said. Gardy also pointed to other efforts, including a microcredential in the science of reading available to educators and CUNY students . State education leaders say improvements are underway The NCTQ report is nonetheless optimistic that change is on the horizon, pointing to a multi-state effort that New York education leaders joined three years ago to overhaul teacher prep programs. That effort, organized by The Hunt Institute, a nonprofit affiliated with Duke University, includes an action plan calling for a slew of reforms. “There’s lots of other work happening on campuses through knowledge sharing, through changes of policy,” said Ruth Genn, the executive director of the Literacy Academy Collective and a leader of New York’s effort. “I do think it’ll be reflected in the next NCTQ report.” State Education Department officials indicated they are embracing the action plan by releasing a science of reading framework for teacher prep programs, beefing up the state’s review process for those programs, and creating a new teacher certification exam focused on the science of reading. Experts said it is often difficult to quickly reform teacher prep programs, in part because they are large bureaucracies. In addition faculty may be reluctant to change teaching practices they’ve honed for years, and have strong protections to maintain academic freedom. “There’s going to be a lag there, and that’s the painful side of bureaucracy — and it’s exhausting and frustrating,” said Javaid Siddiqi, president and CEO of The Hunt Institute. Still, he said, “New York has made progress.” Alex Zimmerman is a senior reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Alex at azimmerman@chalkbeat.org .

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