Preparing teachers to teach children how to read is one of the most important goals for us in the College of Education at Portland State University. As Oregon’s largest and most diverse teacher preparation program, we must be leaders in continually improving our teaching methods so that every child in the state has the same opportunities to read and develop academically at each grade level. In 2018-19, the Oregon Department of Education reported that just 46.5% of third-grade students had reached reading proficiency.
At Portland State University, the need to prepare teachers to recognize dyslexia and work with students using pedagogies that are differentiated according to their needs and abilities is a high priority. Our faculty study the science of reading as complex and incorporating multiple and diverse perspectives, practices, and aspects of reading, rather than theories. For example, we include a focus on the following, amongst other foci: systematic and explicit instruction of phonics, Simple View of Reading (SVR), the systematic and explicit instruction of comprehension skills and vocabulary for all students and for students who have been diagnosed with dyslexia and other reading difficulties, the incorporation of literature into literacy teaching and learning, the role of culture in literacy learning, and the role of assessment in the differentiation of instruction and identification of learning difficulties, including dyslexia.
The Oregon Secretary of State provides the Teacher Standards and Practice Commission’s (TSPC) standards on dyslexia and other reading difficulties, adopted in 2017. PSU incorporated these mandated standards into our curriculum of the initial teacher preparation and endorsement programs, which you can read on our PSU Dyslexia Standard Implementation document. These standards have been added to syllabi and are regularly assessed for student learning impact.
In 2019, our Read Oregon program completed a major program modification with TSPC, that included a comprehensive updating of curriculum mapping, standards, course content, and program evaluation. In our Graduate Teacher Education Program, program improvement efforts have included embedding English Language Learners and dyslexia content across courses in ways that surpass the state and national accreditation standards. Further, all of the initial teacher licensure programs are fully accredited by TSPC, and our candidates exceed the bar for the nationally scored EdTPA portfolio, which focuses mainly on literacy for elementary GTEP teacher candidates.
Additionally, PSU is represented on the Oregon Department of Education’s committee who oversees Approved Dyslexia Training Opportunities. PSU is also represented on the board for the Portland chapter of DeCoding Dyslexia. As educators, we are actively pursuing new training opportunities for our students, alumni, and faculty that add to the growing base of research in these fields.
Oregon must do better to improve our literacy rates, and we are grateful for the community of folks advocating for improvement with us.