An A from the National Council on Teacher Quality places the small Lakeland, Florida college among a select group of programs teaching all five science of reading components.
For the past several years, a small group of U.S. teacher preparation programs has been rebuilding its reading coursework around the "science of reading," a framework built on five evidence-based components: phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension. On June 15, 2026, Florida Southern College in Lakeland, Florida said its undergraduate Elementary Education program has joined that group, announcing an A rating from the National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ) in the nonprofit's "Teacher Prep Review: Decoding Progress in Reading Preparation" report.
The college's program covers all five science of reading components, the release said, and works in part through the Carol Jenkins Barnett Center for Early Childhood Learning and Health, which provides clinical training to teacher candidates before they enter their own classrooms.
The recognition places Florida Southern among the 53 percent of reviewed programs that earned an A in NCTQ's 2026 review — up from 26 percent in 2023 — placing it in a select group nationally recognized for evidence-based reading instruction, according to NCTQ's published findings. Independent verification of the specific A rating and the size of that group against NCTQ's published review is now available.
The framework that earned the recognition is contested. While its core components rest on decades of research in cognitive science, education researchers and literacy organizations have published substantive critiques of how the framework has been rolled out in state policy: concerns that the approach can narrow elementary curricula, marginalize writing and comprehension instruction, and leave new teachers underprepared for the needs of English learners. NCTQ itself notes that even most A-rated programs, including those covering all five science of reading components, still fall short of fully preparing candidates for diverse learners including English learners and students with dyslexia. The reading instruction debate now playing out in statehouses and school board meetings across the country runs through those critiques as much as through the research base.
The practical question for parents, K-3 teachers, and school districts is what a teacher candidate actually learns inside a program that earns this kind of rating, and how many other programs are moving in the same direction.