Teacher educators must acknowledge and consider the nature of reading efficacy and its developmental progression if they are to design and deliver programs that produce individuals moving toward being competent and confident teachers of reading. Ninety-two candidates in varying stages of a K-6 teacher education program responded to the Reading Teachers' Sense of Efficacy Scale. Data analysis using ANOVA and Fisher's LSD post-hoc comparisons revealed student teachers (Tier 4) had higher overall perceived reading teacher efficacy (M = 131.96, SD = 12.45) than those in the first semester methodology courses (Tier 2) (M = 117.68, SD = 16.43), p = 0.001 and the second semester of methodology courses (Tier 3) (M = 121.52, SD = 13.61), p = 0.005. Additionally, Tier 4 preservice teachers had significantly higher perceived reading teacher efficacy than those in both Tier 2 and Tier 3 for 9 individual scale items (p< 0.05). The perceived increased efficacy is largely credited to positive mastery experiences during the final internship semester.