Texas's Performance
Strong
Why does this matter?
Licensure tests provide a scalable and reliable measure that, with other evidence, can determine whether teachers are well prepared in the science of reading. While this is an area ripe for further research, the available evidence suggests that various measures of teachers’ knowledge of scientifically based reading instruction correlate with their students’ reading achievement gains.1 States with strong licensure tests can use results as indicators of programs’ strengths or shortcomings. The tests can also help verify that people who earn a teaching license truly do understand the science of reading.
Why does Texas stand out?
Texas requires the use of an acceptable licensure test for elementary teacher candidates. All elementary teacher candidates are required to pass the licensure test. Additionally, Texas publishes pass rate data.
Texas leverages a strong reading licensure test, the Science of Teaching Reading Exam, and uses the results as one piece of evidence, along with several others, to inform program approval decisions. Texas considers the percentages of candidates who pass the examination within the first two attempts as part of its approval decision process.
What are the key actions Texas
should take?
Key Resources
State of the States 2024: Elementary Reading
Explore five policy actions states can take to strengthen implementation of the science of reading.
State Reading Policy Action Guide
Discover how states can implement and sustain strong reading instruction.
References
- Spear-Swerling, L., & Zibulsky, J. (2014). Making time for literacy: Teacher knowledge and time allocation in instructional planning. Reading and Writing, 27(8), 1353-1378; Moats, L. C., & Foorman, B. R. (2003). Measuring teachers’ content knowledge of language and reading. Annals of Dyslexia, 53(1), 23-45; Hudson, A. K., Moore, K. A., Han, B., Wee Koh, P., Binks-Cantrell, E., & Malatesha Joshi, R. (2021). Elementary teachers’ knowledge of foundational literacy skills: A critical piece of the puzzle in the science of reading. Reading Research Quarterly, 56, S287-S315; Piasta, S. B., Connor, C. M., Fishman, B. J., & Morrison, F. J. (2009). Teachers’ knowledge of literacy concepts, classroom practices, and student reading growth. Scientific Studies of Reading, 13(3), 224-248.