New study finds Arizona colleges may not be preparing teachers to help English learners read

A new study from the National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ) shows Arizona colleges’ teacher prep programs may not provide adequate focus on teaching English language learners how to read.

The education research nonprofit’s study reviewed programs at Arizona State University, the University of Arizona, Northern Arizona University and Rio Salado College. It looks at five components of reading and how well each program teaches them: phonic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary and comprehension.

Only 36% of Arizona’s third graders read at grade level, according to data from the Center for the Future of Arizona.

This is the first time the teacher prep review study has been done since 2023. Heather Peske, president of the NCTQ, told KTAR News 92.3 FM since then, some of the data has improved nationally.

“Roughly half of programs, 53%, earned an ‘A’. Now, this is the good news part of the story, because this is up from just 26% in 2023. … The bad news part of the story is that we still have roughly half of the programs that are not yet aligning to the evidence on how to teach reading,” she said.

In Arizona, 67% of programs reviewed earned an ‘A’ or ‘A+.’ The study looked at six Arizona programs. Five additional teacher prep programs did not provide enough information for NCTQ’s assessment.

Grand Canyon University was one of the programs that was not featured in the study. Meredith Critchfield, dean of the College of Education at GCU, explained why:

“NCTQ has a very particular method of reviewing programs and how well they prepare educators for various elements. And in this particular case, it is for the science of reading. … What we have done at GCU is we have built in a few different courses that are specifically designed toward the science of reading. One is a really science of reading focused course … (and) a second course is sort of more of … the reading foundation,” she said.

English learners need to be more of a focus, NCTQ finds

The study also looks at how the programs prepare teachers to instruct English language learners how to read.

According to the review, 50% of Arizona programs analyzed taught future teachers how to instruct English learners how to read for less than two hours during the program. Peske said that’s a problem.

“These are two groups of students, English language learners and struggling readers, who need the best teachers who have the most training and know what they’re doing. And particularly in Arizona where we’re talking about English learners… this is an area of focus that the state should consider,” she said.

Critchfield emphasized GCU’s teacher prep program integrates hands-on experience into the course as soon as the second semester of students’ freshman year.

The dean added that having students learn to work with English learners is essential for the program, with students getting hands-on experience with English learners in the classroom before completing the program.

“We can teach in the textbooks all day how best to serve students who are coming to English as a second or third or fourth language. We can teach them about the theories about language acquisition, but it means nothing until our aspiring teachers have the chance to actually sit down and work with a student who maybe speaks Swahili as their first language or Spanish as their first language,” Critchfield  said.

Funding for this journalism is made possible by the Arizona Local News Foundation.

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