Last year a select committee made up largely of teacher educators appointed with the approval of the ILA Board began an extensive effort to produce the 2017 revision of the Standards for Literacy Professionals, last revised in 2010. These standards, once reviewed and accepted by the Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation (CAEP), will become part of CAEP’s program evaluations thereafter.
The committee’s first draft of the standards pertaining to specialized literacy professionals, including reading/literacy specialists, literacy coaches, and literacy coordinators, will be unveiled at a session on Saturday, July 9 at 1:30 p.m. during the ILA 2016 Conference & Exhibits in Boston.
Aside from being the first to hear about the key changes, attendees will have an opportunity to provide feedback and give input to help shape the final version of these standards. This session is ideal for administrators, reading teachers, literacy specialists, researchers, and teacher educators.
“The results of the working committee include a major shift for reading specialists,” said Rita Bean, cochair of the committee and professor at University of Pittsburgh. Among other changes, the Standards will now align to ILA’s research brief The Multiple Roles of School-Based Specialized Literacy Professionals.
“We needed to understand key shifts,” said Diane Kern, also cochair of the Standards committee and associate professor at the University of Rhode Island. “Folks are not just reading specialists, they’re literacy specialists.”
“We’re preparing not only literacy specialists, but an expert literacy teacher who can take on a role of leadership,” Kern said. The Standards are used to inform teacher preparation accreditations around the world. “ILA is the association others are looking to for guidance and leadership as they write their own standards.”
The draft standards will be published on ILA’s website following the conference session for educators to review. A public comment period will open in April 2017.
TheILA 2016 Conference & Exhibits will be July 9–11 in Boston, MA, with more than 6,000 attendees eager to cultivate new teaching practices. With over 300 sessions, including several new additions to the schedule, and the popular Preconference Institutes on July 8, the weekend is sure to be a memorable one. Learn more about what’s coming up at this summer’s conference at ilaconference.org.
April Hall is editor of Literacy Daily. A journalist for 20 years, she has specialized in education, writing and editing for newspapers, websites, and magazines.