K-5 Literacy Endorsement is the Key to Raising Reading Scores in Arizona
Reading is the foundation for success in every subject, from science and math to history and the arts. Yet, it remains a challenge for too many Arizona students.
Just over a third of Arizona third graders passed the state’s reading exam in 2025, according to the Arizona Education Progress Meter. That matters because third grade marks a critical transition point, from “learning to read” to “reading to learn.”
Arizona is taking a major step to address this challenge. Recognizing that effective reading instruction begins with well-prepared teachers, state lawmakers established the K-5 Literacy Endorsement in 2021. This endorsement ensures that educators who teach reading in kindergarten through fifth grade receive specialized training in the Science of Reading and demonstrate their knowledge by passing the Foundations of Reading assessment. Teachers must acquire the literacy endorsement by 2028.
How the K-5 Literacy Endorsement Prepares Teachers
The goal is simple: equip teachers with evidence-based instructional practices so that more Arizona students become proficient readers. When students are not reading proficiently by the end of third grade, they are four times more likely to drop out of high school.
The training required for the K-5 Literacy Endorsement is grounded in the Science of Reading, which draws on decades of research on how children learn to read, emphasizing explicit instruction in foundational skills, including phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension. These evidence-based practices give teachers the knowledge and tools proven to help students become stronger, more confident readers.
Arizona joins a growing number of states embracing this approach. Mississippi, Tennessee and Louisiana are among those reporting significant gains in reading achievement after investing in teacher training, literacy coaching, and evidence-based literacy practices taught through the Science of Reading.
The K–5 Literacy Endorsement is also a key priority in Read On Arizona’s Arizona Literacy Plan 2030, which identifies expanding Science of Reading training for educators as a critical strategy for improving reading outcomes.
Though momentum is building in Arizona, there is still much to be done. More than 11,000 educators have earned the K-5 Literacy Endorsement after completing training requirements and passing an assessment, but that only represents about 12% of the teachers who will ultimately need the credential by 2028, according to the most recent data from the Arizona Department of Education (ADE).
To accelerate the progress, Helios is funding a structured literacy initiative led by WestEd and the Arizona K12 Center that provides teachers with Science of Reading training, instructional coaching and classroom support. ADE also created a webpage that serves as a central hub for educators seeking to understand and meet the state’s literacy endorsement requirement. The webpage provides a list of approved courses, including some led by ADE, that meet requirements for the endorsement.
Q&A with Arizona Teacher Earning Literacy Endorsement
So what does the training required for the K-5 Literacy Endorsement look like in practice, and how is it changing instruction in Arizona classrooms?
To answer those questions, we spoke with Kalleanah Smith, a fourth-grade teacher at Anza Trail Elementary School in Sahuarita, Arizona, who is participating in the Helios-supported initiative with WestEd and the Arizona K12 Center.
HELIOS: Why is continued, explicit reading instruction important at this stage of a student’s educational journey?
KALLEANAH: As a fourth-grade teacher, I see reading instruction evolving from “learning to read” to “reading to learn” as students build on the foundational skills they developed in the primary grades. While early elementary instruction focuses on phonics, decoding, fluency, and basic comprehension; fourth-grade students are expected to apply those skills to analyze information, compare perspectives, make inferences, and support their thinking with evidence from the text. As students move into upper elementary grades, reading also becomes the primary way they learn new concepts across all subject areas, making strong reading skills essential for academic success.
Ideally, all students would enter fourth grade ready to make this transition. However, throughout my nine years as an educator, I have taught many students who entered my classroom with significant reading gaps. Because of this, continued, explicit reading instruction remains essential. Providing targeted instruction helps students strengthen foundational skills, close learning gaps, and develop the confidence and comprehension needed to successfully transition from “learning to read” to “reading to learn.”
HELIOS: Some educators view the K-5 Literacy Endorsement as just another mandate or burden. What has your experience been with the training?
KALLEANAH: Teachers have a lot on their plates, so it’s understandable to feel hesitant about taking on another commitment. Thankfully, WestEd’s Arizona Structured Literacy for Success coursework and the Arizona K12 Center’s coaching support have been manageable and beneficial to my professional development. It has helped me to reflect on my current teaching practices, guided me to become more intentional in my reading instruction, and has strengthened my understanding of how students develop as readers. By applying the research-based reading strategies I have been learning, I have been able to better meet my students’ diverse reading needs.
HELIOS: Share a strategy or practice you’ve learned through the Science of Reading training that you now use.
KALLEANAH: Being a former college soccer athlete, I have always valued active participation, purposeful practice, and engagement—principles that I strive to bring into my classroom. The Science of Reading training reinforced the importance of repetition, explicit instruction, and multisensory approaches to help students retain and apply new skills. This has helped me refine my practice by intentionally incorporating purposeful movement and multiple pathways for learning during small and whole group instruction.
For example, my students practice decoding multisyllabic words by using color-coded word parts, identifying and discussing each morpheme’s meaning, clapping and blending syllables, reading words as a whole, and applying word parts to build new words. By connecting active learning to how the brain learns best, I am able to create meaningful literacy experiences that build students’ confidence and independence as readers.
HELIOS: How has the training changed the way you identify and support students who are struggling readers?
KALLEANAH: The Science of Reading training has deepened my understanding of the foundational skills that drive reading development. While I have always used assessment data to identify student needs, this training has helped me better understand what that data reveals and how skills — such as phonics, decoding, fluency, and word recognition — affect a student’s ability to become a successful reader. Instead of focusing only on what students are struggling with, I can better understand the root cause and provide targeted instruction.
This training has given me additional tools and confidence to support students who may still need foundational reading instruction while helping them access grade-level texts. It has reinforced the importance of continuing explicit literacy instruction in the upper elementary grades and ensuring that every student has the support they need to grow as a reader.
HELIOS: Reading comprehension is one of the biggest literacy challenges students face. How has the Science of Reading training helped you strengthen comprehension instruction?
KALLEANAH: The Science of Reading training deepened my understanding of Scarborough’s Reading Rope and how comprehension develops through both word recognition and language comprehension. It helped me take a more purposeful approach by placing greater emphasis on oral language, explicit vocabulary instruction, and morphology as essential components of comprehension.
During reading lessons, students discuss new vocabulary, analyze word parts, and use visuals to make meaning of the text before applying these skills independently. This approach has strengthened my comprehension instruction and better equipped my students to understand and engage with increasingly complex texts.
HELIOS: Since implementing these practices, what changes have you seen in your students?
KALLEANAH: I have observed greater confidence, engagement, and growth in my students’ reading skills. They are more willing to approach challenging texts, apply decoding strategies independently, and participate in discussions about their thinking.
One example involved students who lacked confidence in their spelling and ability to decode unfamiliar words. Through systematic instruction that focused on breaking words into sounds and syllables, analyzing meaningful word parts, and applying new vocabulary through writing and interactive activities, students strengthened their spelling, writing, and comprehension skills.
As students developed a stronger understanding of how words work, they also became more confident readers who applied these strategies independently across literacy tasks. Their attitudes toward spelling and literacy shifted from feeling challenging and overwhelming to feeling successful, engaged, and invested in their learning.
HELIOS: Why is it important for Arizona teachers to earn the K–5 Literacy Endorsement?
KALLEANAH: The K–5 Literacy Endorsement equips Arizona teachers with the knowledge and tools needed to provide evidence-based literacy instruction that meets the needs of all learners. The Science of Reading helps educators better understand how students learn to read and how to adjust their teaching practices to support growth. It provides a clear pathway for building literacy skills, starting with foundational skills and moving toward more complex reading abilities.
Earning this endorsement strengthens teachers’ instructional practices and helps ensure students receive the strong literacy foundation they need to become confident readers and lifelong learners.
