The 80 hours of science reading training Indiana has mandated for teachers, criticized by some teachers as too long and unnecessary, is more than many states but less than others.
Indiana, like all 38 states that have adopted the phonics-based approach to reading instruction, must navigate several challenges in quickly implementing it in classrooms. It’s not always a smooth change in any state, especially because experienced teachers must put aside lessons they’ve used for years and quickly learn new approaches.
Indiana lawmakers, who voted last year to order the shift to reading science, say the change is urgent and requires proper training to reverse the state’s declining reading scores, which were already falling before the pandemic. turn.
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Tempers flared at the May State Board of Education meeting, where teachers criticized the 80 hours of science reading training required for all teachers in kindergarten through fifth grade as “excessive” and “burdensome.”
Other complaints about a lack of training opportunities and unwieldy training schedules that have fueled teacher frustration are subsiding as more training opportunities and more flexibility in training times are coming soon.
Indiana’s 80-hour training requirement is on the high side compared to other states. It is almost four times as long as, for example, in neighboring Ohio. But it is also far from the highest. A few states, such as North and South Carolina, require twice as much.
Robert Morris, a teacher in the Duneland School District, told the state board in early May that the 80-hour training is unnecessarily “rigorous and time-consuming.”
“While no knowledge is wasted, it still seems excessive as a requirement,” Morris said as he was part of a crowd called to attend by the Indiana State Teachers Association, the state’s main teachers union.
Dianna Reed, secretary of ISTA, told the board that the mandatory training has “exacerbated the existing challenges of teacher burnout and retention.”
“Colleagues have indicated that they would rather let their licenses expire on the next renewal date than be subjected to even more hoops and mandates to prove their worth,” she said. “We are already experiencing a shortage of qualified teachers and these new requirements are not a signal to our teachers that their obtained diplomas are valued.”
Teachers also complained that the $1,200 stipend the state is offering to compensate for the training is $15 an hour — what retail and fast-food jobs pay.
For stronger readers in third grade, start building knowledge in kindergarten
Jeff Raatz, chairman of the Indiana Senate Committee on Education and Career Development, did not respond to questions from The 74 about why the Legislature chose 80 hours as the mandate.
Robert Behning, chairman of the Indiana House Committee on Education, defended the 80-hour requirement, noting that it is just one of many steps Indiana is taking to improve literacy.
“We want to be the best,” he said.
Behning said 80 hours may seem like a lot, but the state won’t require it until 2027, and only when teachers renew their teaching credentials. Teachers whose licenses are renewed later will have more time.
Behning also said Indiana already requires 90 hours of courses each time a teacher renews their license. Because Indiana prioritizes reading, he says, the state will consider the 80 hours of science reading training as fulfilling that full requirement, saving teachers 10 hours.
“I don’t think it’s unreasonable if we give them the time they get to do it, plus, since we count it towards relicensing,” he said.
Setting up teacher training in reading science for already practicing teachers is not easy. Training time, compensation, and online versus in-person sessions vary widely by state.
State law in Arizona and Wisconsin requires less than 50 hours of training for current teachers as they transition to the science of reading, while Florida requires 60 hours, according to experts who track reading laws.
Tennessee also requires 60 hours of training, split between online and in-person.
Some even need less. Both neighboring states Ohio and Washington DC recently announced that teachers must complete 25 hours or less of online training as part of the service.
But some states need more than Indiana.
North Carolina, whose legislature ordered a shift toward reading science in 2021, requires all teachers of kindergarten through fifth grade to take the two-year, 160-hour class.
Language Essentials for Teachers of Reading and Spelling (LETRS) lessons from Lexia Learning that many teachers consider the gold standard program in the science of reading methods.
South Carolina also approved full LETRS training for all K-3 teachers in March. This decision openly copies Mississippi, which also provided LETRS training to all K-12 teachers beginning in 2013 as one of many parts of the so-called “Mississippi Miracle” shift in reading teaching that led to significant score increases led.
The Indiana Department of Education did not respond to questions from The 74 about how many teachers need science reading training, but by some accounts the state’s universities have not trained teachers in proper reading.
The National Council on Teacher Quality found last year that while schools like Ball State and Marian University-Indianapolis taught aspiring teachers all the elements of good reading instruction, most did not. It graded multiple Indiana University campuses, including Bloomngton, with a D or F.
“Indiana ranks among the worst in the nation when it comes to the average number of components of reading adequately addressed in programs,” the council’s national Teacher Prep Review concluded.
To discourage struggling readers or not, Indiana and Ohio are taking different paths
As Indiana demands colleges change what they teach, the Indiana Department of Education has hired Massachusetts-based Keys to Literacy to provide free training to up to 9,000 teachers to help them change their teaching.
Currently, Keys offers training split between 40 hours of asynchronous online classes – which teachers can take at any time – and 40 hours of synchronous classes that require teachers to join up to 200 others online with an instructor at select times. The requirement drew criticism from teachers who said it imposes a schedule on when they prepare for lessons or have family plans.
When Keys to Literacy opened new training spots in April, they were filled immediately, leaving many teachers thinking they had no chance of free training. Some were afraid that they would have to pay for other training themselves.
But lawmakers eliminated the requirement for synchronous training effective July 1, so teachers can then take online training at any time that fits their schedule.
Jenner and Keys have also opened fall and spring 2025 sessions, making more slots and times available.
How the state will pay for additional seats or extra teachers has not yet been resolved, but Behning said the Legislature should easily approve money when it crafts a new state budget next year, if necessary.
However, the end of the synchronous training requirement on July 1 comes with compromises in how effective the training can be. Officials from Lexia, Keys and The New Teacher Project, another reading sciences provider in several states, say research on all online learning shows that some time with a live instructor yields better results, as teachers saw when teaching online during the pandemic .
Back-and-forth interaction with an instructor and other students is also valuable as teachers begin to understand the theories behind reading and find ways to use them in daily lessons.
