On a mission to bolster early literacy in Oregon, Governor Tina Kotek heartily thanked the Early Literacy Educator Preparation Council during their concluding assembly. After a year's worth of work, the council has churned out its suggestions to enhance reading and writing instruction within elementary schools. Gov. Kotek showered the council with praise, underlining the significance of not only adding to the current requirements but also refining and relying on the established ones, which encapsulate dyslexia standards. “These recommendations are a significant step forward,” she affirmed, a sentiment echoed in a statement obtained by the Oregon Newsroom on June 18th.
The council, before culminating its work, voted to heartily endorse these recommendations, which originally emerged in January. Following an open call for feedback, the committee was inundated with perspectives from both educator preparation programs and the general public. Kotek emphasized on how they aspired to quickly implement the feedback into revising the recommendations. “We listened and many hours were spent taking your feedback into the revisions of the recommendations,” she stated, according to the Oregon Newsroom article.
Representative Boomer Wright, who is a part of the council and hails from Coos Bay, pointed out the essence of supporting teachers and principals. This ensures they possess the navigational skills and knowledge to fulfill what is expected of them. “These recommendations represent a way to support teachers and principals to ensure they have the knowledge and skills to do what we’re asking them to do for students,” Wright told the Oregon Newsroom, stressing the necessity for an infrastructure that provides adequate resources and back up for educator preparation programs.
Ronda Fritz, co-chair of the council and an associate from Eastern Oregon University, expressed pride in the collaborative spirit that defined the council's modus operandi. “I have been honored to serve on this council alongside an outstanding group of individuals with one goal in mind: improving literacy outcomes for all of Oregon's children,” Fritz candidly stated. She highlighted the decisive step of aligning the teacher preparation programs with scientifically grounded insights on reading acquisition. It's this synergy, she believes, that will equip educators with the essential know-how to cultivate proficiency in reading and writing among students, as highlighted in her statement to the Oregon Newsroom.
The council's well-defined recommendations are publicly available and have been broken down into three broad strokes: revisiting educator preparation program approval standards, laying out plans for rolling out the new recommendations, and setting forth updates on educator licensing standards. A cornerstone of these decisions is the junction of Reading Instruction Standards with Dyslexia Standards to form a unified and precise guideline. Additionally, new Literacy Standards are being tailored to reflect the content and models embedded within Oregon’s Early Literacy Framework, thereby establishing a clear blueprint for equipping kindergarten to 5th-grade educators with evidence-based literacy teaching practices. With an eye on progressive enactment, these new regulations are chalked out to be in place across all Oregon EPPs by the advent of the 2026-27 academic year.
The Early Literacy Educator Preparation Council was brought into existence by Governor Kotek through Executive Order 23-12, which she signed off in May 2023. It was tasked to shepherd recommendations to both the Governor and the Teacher Standards and Practices Commission (TSPC), considering a concrete implementation roadmap and time frame to bring their recommendations to fruition. Steps have already been taken by TSPC to deliberate on these recommendations. Oregon now stands at the crossroads of an educational reformation, with all eyes fixated on how these steps will rewrite the narrative of early literacy education in the state.
