PennWest gets high marks for literacy education

They come in a National Center on Teaching Quality report that’s mostly critical of Pennsylvania colleges.

By KELLEN STEPLER
TribLive

Future teachers know how to read but often don’t understand the logic governing the English language, says Keely Baronak, dean of Carlow University’s College of Education and Social Work.

That’s why, in 2019, Carlow leaned into teaching its future educators a “structured literacy” model.

The method, Baronak said, is systematic, explicit instruction in connecting sounds to letters to teach children how to read. Structured literacy helps students learn the hows and whys behind the English language, Baronak said.

For Carlow, that’s paid off. The university’s undergraduate education program scored an A+ from a national group evaluating how colleges train their teachers.

But of 23 programs evaluated in Pennsylvania, only four — including Carlow and Pennsylvania Western’s undergraduate education programs — received A+ grades in a National Center on Teaching Quality report that reviewed progress in reading preparation.

The report analyzed how well future teachers are prepared in the components of scientifically based reading instruction: phonics, fluency, vocabulary, comprehension and phonemic awareness, which is the ability to identify units of sounds in spoken words. Course syllabi, curricula and lecture material were reviewed.

Nationwide, however, over a little more than half of programs reviewed scored an A or A+.

In Western Pennsylvania, the undergraduate programs at Grove City College and Slippery Rock University, and the graduate program at PennWest, scored Bs. The undergraduate program at Indiana University of Pennsylvania scored a C. Nine state programs — none in Western Pennsylvania — scored an F.

State public schools must teach the structured literacy curriculum by the start of the 2027-28 school year.

English’s logic

PennWest aligned its programs to structured literacy when its campuses — Clarion, California and Edinboro — merged in 2022, said Kristin Webber, a PennWest education professor who specializes in literacy.

PennWest graduation requirements outline certain hours to be spent student-teaching structured literacy. Future teachers take specialized classes on targeted word recognition, targeted learning comprehension and emergent literacy, said Chrissy Boryenace, an education professor at PennWest Clarion.

But the professors note the college students are learning how to teach reading in a way they themselves weren’t taught growing up.

The predominant approach to reading in many schools, for decades, used a method that fostered a love of reading in children by focusing on stories and deemphasizing skills-based instruction.

“When you dive in, there’s logic in English,” Webber said. “Students say, ‘I never knew this, I was never taught this.’ It’s really eye-opening to them and when they’re student teaching, with reading, writing and decoding words, they’re like, ‘Wow, this works.”

Baronak said structured literacy helps teachers understand the English language better and, in turn, they can address and identify reading issues their students experience.

“Our students love knowing this information,” she said. “They know how to read but not the logic behind it.”

Reciprocal effect

Educators and experts have raised concerns about declining literacy rates in recent years.

Just less than half of third-grade students scored proficient or advanced on the reading section on state assessments. Ten years ago, that percentage was 62%.

Local professors believe the field experience their students get can be advantageous both for future teachers and the students they serve.

Slippery Rock requires its early childhood education students to pass three literacy courses that focus on the state’s structured literacy requirement, said Christine Walsh, professor of curriculum, instruction and educational leadership.

Field visits to early childhood centers and local schools allow Slippery Rock students to witness how the science of reading is implemented in practice.

Professors support the future teachers with feedback and coaching before, during and after the field visits, Walsh said.

In one example, the future teachers assess students’ structured literacy skills, analyze the data and develop lesson plans to address those needs.

Walsh describes the experience as reciprocal for both students and future teachers.

PennWest’s Boryenace hopes that, in her community, those learning experiences can grow.

“Children need explicit instruction that builds upon itself, and to be reading books that build upon that same type of cadence,” said Carlow’s Baronak. “That’s not to say literacy is not important — we should always be reading to children.”