Nicholls State University gets recognition from the National Council on Teacher Quality as the top teacher prep program for early reading instruction, receiving an A+ rating. Nicholls head of teacher education Dr. Alyson Theriot says students who struggle with reading will struggle with just about every other subject.
“The importance of being able to teach a young child how to read might be the most important thing that we teach our teacher candidates how to do,” said Theriot.
Theriot says the reason for success is covering the five essential components of reading including phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension, as well as the ability to work with local school districts and mentor teachers.
“They are able to go out into real classrooms and put into practice what we teach them at Nicholls and I really think that that is what leads to this rating and the success,” said Theriot.
Theriot says feedback received from those that have gone through the program is further verification of the program’s effectiveness.
“I will have students constantly reach out to me after they’ve graduated from Nicholls and moved on who still cite the notes that they received in our courses as being helpful to them in the field,” said Theriot.