Reading Specialist Teacher Pipeline

Take a look at the pipeline for licensed Reading Specialist teachers. We are starting off the school year with charts exploring reading and literacy education issues. Welcome back to #DataVizDay!

Massachusetts offers a Reading Specialist Teacher license. Which requires advanced qualifications and professional experience. Using the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education’s License Requirements Tool, teachers must have:

• Bachelor’s degree
• Initial or Professional teaching license
• Passing score on Reading Specialist MTEL
• At least one year of teaching experience
• Massachusetts Sheltered English Immersion (SEI) Teacher Endorsement or Bilingual Education Endorsement.
• Completion of a Massachusetts Reading All Levels teacher preparation program

So teachers need to have already completed a full teacher preparation program in another field for the Initial license, passed all required MTELs, teach for at least one year and then complete another full teacher preparation program at the graduate level and another MTEL.

What does the data show?

Take a look at our Reading Specialist Teacher License Program Completers interactive chart below. A number of educator preparation programs no longer offer the Reading Specialist licensure program which also leaves educators with fewer options to complete the programs.

Well, there has been a steady decline in the number of teachers who complete Reading Specialist licensure programs in Massachusetts preparation programs. This means there are fewer teachers who have completed the comprehensive training and assessment to qualify for the license. The increased energy in Massachusetts to direct more resources to early literacy though the DESE Mass Literacy initiative and Literacy Launch may also want to consider ways to support educators in enrolling and completing Reading Specialist licensure programs.

But why? Reading Specialists are a critical to supporting all students to be on track to read at grade level by grade three and ensure struggling students are receiving the appropriate interventions aligned to the Massachusetts Dyslexia Guidelines including, and not limited to, special education services. English is complicated and many students need specialized instruction to learn to read fluently.

Elementary schools have had reading teacher roles going back to Horace Mann. Probably even earlier. Reading Specialists in today’s schools will review early literacy screening data, observe students in classrooms, administer other reading assessments, design reading programs for students and provide in-class support for teachers. At this time, there are no staffing guidelines for schools for reading teachers or other specialized support staff that include recommended ratios or differentiate which services must be provided by a licensed reading specialist.