On Monday, Governor Tina Kotek joined the Early Literacy Educator Preparation Council for their final meeting to offer gratitude to council members for their work over the past year and provide comments on their final recommendations to strengthen educator preparation programs for teaching reading and writing in Oregon elementary schools.

The council voted to approve the recommendations in its final meeting. In January, the council released initial recommendations to revise educator and school administrator preparation program standards for literacy instruction. Members of educator prep programs and the general public were able to submit feedback to the recommendations.

“These recommendations are a significant step forward,” Governor Kotek said. “I appreciate that the council has not just layered on new requirements. They have also tried to streamline existing standards and build on the things we’ve had and continue to be important, like dyslexia standards. In addition to the council, I want to thank Oregon’s educator preparation program faculty and leaders who took the time to share their perspectives with us. We listened and many hours were spent taking your feedback into the revisions of the recommendations.”

“We must always do what’s in the best interest of our children,” said Rep. Boomer Wright (R-Coos Bay), who served on the council. “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. And to make sure that happens well, we also need to set up the right level of resources and support for our educator preparation programs to meet the new expectations the Council has recommended.”

"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,” said Ronda Fritz, council co-chair and Associate Professor at Eastern Oregon University. “We were able to move the standards for Oregon's teacher preparation programs to reflect what science tells us about how children learn to read as well as the content and methods that are critical for ensuring proficient readers. I believe these standards will give educator preparation programs a clear roadmap for designing courses and programs that will produce teachers with the essential knowledge and skills to create proficient readers and writers."

“I am proud to have been part of the collaborative process that brought together so many different Oregon stakeholders to lay the groundwork for our educator preparation programs,” said Susan Gardner, council co-chair and Dean of the College of Education at Oregon State University. “We had a wide range of expertise on this council – elementary school teachers and administrators, higher education faculty, state agency leaders, and our passionate representatives and senators. This made for a powerful team that brought together so many voices and perspectives, adding richness to the work we produced together.”

The final council recommendations can be found here and a document summarizing the recommendations can be found here. The recommendations were broken into three sections: educator preparation program (EPP) approval standards, implementation recommendations, and educator licensing standards recommendations.

Key takeaways from the recommendations on educator preparation program approval standards include:

• Combining Reading Instruction Standards with Dyslexia Standards into one cohesive standard. This will streamline standards that are focused on teaching reading and writing.
• Creating new Literacy Standards that relate to the content of Oregon’s Early Literacy Framework and the models of reading acquisition embedded in the Framework. These standards are designed to guide the preparation of Kindergarten through 5th Grade teachers and administrators on evidence-based practices for teaching literacy.

Key takeaways from the implementation recommendations include:

• Phase in the proposed recommendations so that all Oregon EPPs are implementing new standards by the fall of the 2026-27 academic year.
• State support for Oregon EPPs to adapt to the new standards.
• Ensuring that all educators, including experienced teachers and graduates of out-of-state EPPs, are supported and held accountable for meeting high standards for literacy instruction.
• Investing in the implementation infrastructure needed to enable consistent, research-aligned implementation of new standards in educator preparation and in schools.

Key takeaways from the recommendations on educator licensing standards include:

• Preliminary licensure requirements for all newly licensed educators should take effect in 2027.
• Consider funding and capacity needs, develop processes for how all educators can demonstrate competency of standards, and minimize economic barriers to certification.

Governor Tina Kotek established the Early Literacy Educator Preparation Council through Executive Order 23-12 in May 2023 to strengthen the preparation of teachers and school administrators to instruct elementary students on reading and writing.

The council was directed to create recommendations as an advisory body to the Governor and the Teacher Standards and Practices Commission (TSPC) and consider an implementation plan and timeline to align to the Council’s recommendations. TSPC has already begun considering the Council’s recommendations.