To best prepare future teachers, educator preparation programs (EPPs) must align instruction to the expectations future teachers will face once they are in a Tennessee classroom. The 2021 Tennessee Literacy Success Act requires school districts to adopt and purchase high-quality instructional materials (HQIM) aligned to the science of reading, a body of research that explains how students learn to read and write and the instructional practices that best support literacy development.
Key components of the science of reading include reading comprehension, fluency, phonemic awareness, phonics, and vocabulary. These components are the building blocks that future educators must be trained in to be prepared to teach literacy effectively. As Tennessee continues to prioritize evidence-based literacy instruction, understanding how well future teachers are being prepared to deliver that instruction becomes increasingly important.
The National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ) helps provide a critical external evaluation of how well elementary EPPs across the country are preparing their new teachers through reviews conducted every three years. Today, NCTQ released its latest assessment of how well EPPs are preparing future teachers to teach literacy to elementary students. These updated data are disaggregated by state and EPP, allowing Tennessee to understand how prepared new educators are to teach literacy.
Insight #1: More Tennessee EPPs are aligned to the science of reading than ever before.
Because Tennessee requires that HQIM be rooted in the science of reading, NCTQ’s assessment can also indicate how well prepared future teachers in Tennessee will be to use the HQIM their districts provide. NCTQ examines dedicated instructional hours, course materials, opportunities to practice teaching science of reading concepts, and whether teacher candidates submit graded assignments that assess their knowledge on the science of reading. Based on the assessment of those factors, EPPs are given scores ranging from F through A+.
The ranking of an A/A+ represents sufficient coverage in each of the five components of the science of reading. For each component that an EPP does not sufficiently cover, the letter grade awarded by NCTQ decreases toward a ranking of F. An F ranking is awarded when only one or no components of the science of reading are adequately covered by an EPP. An important distinction is that NCTQ’s assessment strictly examines course materials and experiences — not program or faculty effectiveness — to measure EPP alignment of teacher candidates’ learning with the science of reading.
In 2023, fewer than 25% of assessed Tennessee EPPs earned an A or A+ rating for their literacy instruction. By 2026, that share has more than doubled, with over half of assessed programs now earning top marks. At the same time, the number of programs receiving a D or F has declined, meaning more programs are properly preparing candidates to enter classrooms with strong training in evidence-based literacy practices.
Insight #2: EPPs participating in SCORE’s Lead in Literacy Network experienced continued success and growth.
During the 2023-24 school year, SCORE launched the Lead in Literacy (LIL) network – a collaborative community of practice that brings together EPPs and their district partners to align on a vision for excellent literacy instruction. Grounded in the science of reading and the use of HQIM, LIL faculty intentionally align their courses with both Tennessee’s EPP Literacy Standards and the International Dyslexia Association’s Knowledge and Practice Standards for Teachers of Reading, which are considered the gold standard for structured literacy instruction. These EPPs work with their district partners to codesign rigorous, authentic practice opportunities for candidates through aligned field experiences and clinical placements. This combined work ensures that teacher candidates are prepared to deliver high-quality literacy instruction upon entering the classroom.
NCTQ’s 2026 report highlights promising improvements from EPPs within the LIL network. Since 2023, LIL partner EPPs have maintained or significantly improved alignment of their undergraduate programs with NCTQ standards.
- Middle Tennessee State University (MTSU) and Tennessee State University (TSU) maintained high marks, both earning an A+.
- Tennessee Tech University (TTU) improved from a B to an A, marking improvement in strategies for teaching fluency, phonemic awareness, phonics, and vocabulary.
- Belmont University saw significant growth, moving from an F to a C, with notable improvement across all measures and approaching the threshold for a B rating.
Insight #3: These improvements to EPP alignment with the science of reading are correlated with better prepared teachers.
These strong scores mirror trends we see on the Tennessee Educator Preparation Report Card. Publicly reported data around pass rates for the Literacy Praxis, as well as first-time pass rates for the state-required Tennessee Early Literacy Assessment (TELA), show that candidates from EPPs in the LIL network are outperforming the state average. The average TELA first-time pass rate for LIL EPPs was 45%, nearly 12 percentage points higher than the state average of 33.6%. Nearly a third (31%) of candidates who passed the TELA on their first try were from LIL EPPs, despite their overall share of the testing pool being only 10%. When we look at the Literacy Assessment Praxis pass rate, we also see candidates from LIL EPPs slightly outpacing the state average, with a pass rate of 89.5% compared to the statewide pass rate of 88.2%. Both objective measures indicate that efforts to strengthen coursework and preparation are beginning to impact the quality of candidates entering the Tennessee teaching force.
Insight #4: Graduate-level EPP programs, which prepare job-embedded teachers, are far less aligned with the science of reading.
Undergraduate EPP programs are the traditional path to becoming a teacher, with four years of undergraduate coursework and a year-long clinical placement to practice teaching. Meanwhile, graduate EPP programs in Tennessee provide an alternative pathway into the teaching profession through job-embedded teaching. For those who have already earned a bachelor’s degree outside of the teaching profession, graduate-level programs and job-embedded teaching offer an accelerated pathway into the classroom. However, these accelerated pathways for elementary educators are notably less aligned to the science of reading than undergraduate programs. Nearly half of graduate-level EPPs are poorly aligned with the science of reading, with 45.5% failing to adequately cover more than two components of the science of reading.
This is concerning, as the job-embedded teachers trained by these graduate-level programs are often the teachers filling vacancies in schools with higher proportions of economically disadvantaged students. As a result, the students who stand to benefit most from strong literacy instruction may be more likely to be taught by educators whose preparation is less aligned to the science of reading. If Tennessee wants to best serve students from low-income backgrounds, it is critical that job-embedded teachers receive training with strong foundations in the science of reading.
Tennessee’s literacy gains depend, in part, on well-prepared educators. These findings show encouraging progress in aligning teacher preparation to the science of reading while highlighting opportunities to strengthen preparation across all programs. To better understand the progress Tennessee EPPs are making, we encourage you to explore the publicly available data in NCTQ’s 2026 report.
Dr. Zachary Hyder is SCORE's director of research. Mary Kate Hillis and Nina Brown are graduate fellows at SCORE and students at Vanderbilt University.