Assessing College Students' Literacy Knowledge and Practice Growth to Impact Future Teaching: Pre-Service Teacher One-on-One Intervention Outcomes Survey

Preparing pre-service teachers is a crucial element to consider when looking to improve student success. Many teachers are not given sufficient resources and feel unprepared when entering the profession particularly around the topic of reading instruction. This study examined the effectiveness of an undergraduate course, with an embedded community partnership, designed to train pre-service teachers in the areas of literacy assessment and intervention. In addition to this, upon completion of the course, pre-service teachers are required to take a state proctored exam, measuring the knowledge and ability to apply content that is taught throughout the course. Pre-service teachers must pass the exam in order to go on to the next phase of the education program. We measured the efficacy of the course by administering (a) a teacher knowledge survey focusing on knowledge and practice growth, and (b) the state-based literacy exam pre-service teachers are required to pass as part of their teacher training program. We found that the course, paired with the community-based individualized tutoring program, provided pre-service teachers the opportunity to gain significant knowledge about teaching literacy. They were able to immediately embed evidence-based instruction into their tutoring sessions, and they felt confident about their ability to do this.