What does effective literacy instruction look like? What traditional techniques are due for an overhaul? What are the best ways to improve equity in early literacy outcomes? Those are the types of questions that fueled a recent research symposium for teacher educators convened by the UNC System Office, with support from the Belk Foundation and SAS.
NCECF reported back in March on Leading on Literacy, a report commissioned by the UNC system to better understand the challenges and opportunities in teacher preparation within the UNC system. The report considered the effectiveness of the system’s teacher education programs and found that none of them improved elementary school reading proficiency any more than other (non-UNC) teacher preparation programs. The recommendation for this literacy symposium convening came out of that report as a first step towards improving teacher preparation in NC.
In addition to local experts, the symposium brought in national experts on literacy, including Barbara Foorman, Professor of Education at Florida State University, who gave an overview of effective reading instruction in K-3 classrooms, and David Kilpatrick, Professor of Psychology at SUNY Cortland, who shared national research on effective (and ineffective) reading instruction techniques.
Download the agenda from the convening.
The UNC System Office will share materials, including videos and presentations when they are available.