Education degree program earns literacy honor

June 21, 2021

The University of North Georgia's (UNG) elementary and special education degree program has received National Recognition with Distinction from the International Literacy Association (ILA).

UNG is the first undergraduate program to earn this honor and one of three total since it was first awarded in 2019.

Dr. Danielle Hartsfield, assistant professor of literacy and elementary education at UNG and assistant director of the Honors Program, chairs ILA's Children's Literature & Reading Special Interest Group and led UNG's efforts to receive the seal of approval.

To gain ILA National Recognition, an educator preparation program develops a written self-study to demonstrate how its curriculum meets or exceeds ILA's standards. National Recognition with Distinction is by invitation only, and a program participates in a two-day site visit that involves interviews with stakeholders and a class observation.

"Everyone can see that UNG is an excellent place to come if you want to be a literacy teacher at the elementary level," Hartsfield said. "Through this process, we were able to get feedback from our colleagues at other universities to find ways to improve our program."

Joining Hartsfield on the self-study team were faculty members Dr. Annmarie Jackson, Dr. Jennie Jones, Dr. Nicole Maxwell and Dr. Tiffany Watson.

ILA is a global advocacy organization of more than 300,000 literacy educators, researchers, and experts across 128 countries.

Hartsfield said ILA appreciated the way UNG's future teachers gain valuable one-on-one experience with students in reading labs.

"Our review team was particularly impressed with UNG and its clear emphasis on continuous improvement in teaching across all areas of literacy," Diane Kern, ILA National Recognition program coordinator, said in a press release.

This emphasis on literacy is important since 66% of Georgia students are not reading proficiently by the end of third grade, according to the Get Georgia Reading Campaign.

UNG's College of Education has previously attracted attention for its quality, including an exemplary rating of 4 in the state-required Preparation Program Effectiveness Measures (PPEM) in 2018, 2019 and 2020.

"This latest honor brings an extra sense of prestige to the program. I already knew the literacy group was doing great work, but this recognition truly brought their expertise and hard work to the forefront," Dr. Sheri Hardee, dean of the College of Education, said.

Marley Stowers, who earned a degree in elementary and special education from UNG in 2019, just completed her second year as a second-grade teacher at Lanier Elementary School in Gainesville, Georgia.

"Reading was what I felt most prepared for as a teacher," Stowers said. "It wasn't just lectures and theories. We were given specific resources and student supports for our toolkit."

Anna Leyba, a senior from Dahlonega, Georgia, pursuing a degree in elementary and special education, completed her junior year as a student teacher at Long Branch Elementary School in Dahlonega and will be a student teacher at Lanier Elementary her senior year. She said the UNG faculty and her mentor teacher at Long Branch have helped her grow.

"They want us to be part of our own education. They let us be hands-on, and they are very clear with their expectations," Leyba said. "They will explain things until we understand it."