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Science of Reading
EDITOR’S NOTE More States Are Making the 'Science Of Reading' a Policy Priority������������� 2
Learning to read relies on proven techniques.
This Spotlight will help you understand new How Do Kids Learn to Read? What the Science Says������������������������������������������� 3
state laws on evidence-based instruction;
explore the science behind how kids learn
Most States Fail to Measure Teachers’ Knowledge
to read; identify the potential gaps in your Of the ‘Science Of Reading,’ Report Says������������������������������������������������������������������ 8
staff’s knowledge on the science of reading;
and consider the difficulties involved with
OPINION
teaching reading.
The Hard Part About Reading Instruction������������������������������������������������������������� 10
 Science of Reading

Published October 13, 2021

State Laws or Actions on ‘Science of Reading’

More States
Are Making
The ‘Science of
Reading’ a Policy
Priority

A
By Sarah Schwartz

s states have crafted plans

for addressing the academ-
ic disruptions caused by the
coronavirus pandemic, one
area has emerged as a policy
priority: early reading instruction.
At least 18 states and the District of
Columbia have said that they plan to use
COVID-19 relief funding through the Amer-
ican Rescue Plan or previous aid packages
to support teacher training or instruction in
evidence-based approaches to early literacy.
Four states have passed new laws or enacted
regulations that mandate teachers be taught,
and use, techniques that are grounded in the
large body of research on how children learn
to read.
While some of these developments are
designed to support students with pandem-
ic-interrupted education, they’re also part of
years-long legislative momentum on expand-
ing research-based reading instruction that which sounds represent which letters—teach- ing, reading, writing, and spelling.
started pre-COVID, said Kymyona Burk, the ing them phonics—is the most effective way Also in 2021, Arkansas banned three-cue-
policy director for early literacy at ExcelinEd, to get them reading words. But as reporting ing, a practice of word identification that
an advocacy group founded by Jeb Bush, Flor- from Education Week and other outlets has encourages students to rely on pictures and
ida’s former governor. Burk was previously the demonstrated, many teacher preparation pro- context to decipher words, not just letters.
Mississippi Department of Education’s state grams don’t teach their students how to deliv- Connecticut passed a law requiring schools to
literacy director, leading the implementation er this kind of instruction. use “evidence-based” reading materials, to be
of Mississippi’s Literacy-Based Promotion Act. selected from an approved list drawn up by a
In early 2020, Education Week reported department of education committee.
How schools are using COVID relief
that at least 11 states had enacted laws aimed While many reading researchers agree that
funds for reading
at expanding evidence-based early instruc- many teachers could benefit from more training
tion in grades K-3 over the past three years. At least 18 states and the District of Columbia in evidence-based methods, some also voiced
There’s a large, established body of re- have all said that they plan to use American Res- concerns about the unintended consequences of
search in psychology, human development, cue Plan funds or other COVID stimulus money using legislation as a lever for change.
and cognitive science focused on how people to further the “science of reading” or support “Legal remedies are a clumsy, heavy-hand-
learn to read. This literature spans many pro- other evidence-based early literacy work. ed tool. If you write a law saying you can’t use
cesses, from vocabulary acquisition to com- North Carolina’s law, passed in April 2021, three-cueing approaches, that’s easy to evade
prehension to the role of background knowl- requires teacher training in the “science of and difficult to enforce,” said Mark Seiden-
edge. One of the key findings in this research, reading,” while in Pennsylvania, teacher berg, a professor at the University of Wiscon-
though, relates to foundational reading skills, preparation programs are now mandated sin-Madison who studies reading.
which allow children to decipher print. to teach “structured literacy”—defined as a On the other hand, he said: “Nothing else
Decades of studies have shown that ex- “strong core” of foundational skills integrat- was working. And the laws are having some
plicitly and systematically teaching students ed alongside instruction in listening, speak- impact.”

2
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 Science of Reading

need to learn from things that don’t work out, I think, never going to be effective.”
Legislation makes promises but
even if experiments say they should,” he said. Laws like the one in Arkansas, which bans
has limits
three-cueing, also put pressure on curriculum
Mandating that teachers use “evi- publishers to align to evidence-based practice,
New state laws or actions on
dence-based” methods isn’t a new phenom- said Seidenberg: “If they want to continue sell-
'Science of Reading'
enon, said P. David Pearson, a reading re- ing their products in those markets, they are
searcher and emeritus faculty member at the But Burk, of ExcelinEd, said it’s crucial to going to have to change enough to satisfy the
University of California, Berkeley, Graduate help teachers develop a common understand- stipulations in those laws.”
School of Education. ing of how children learn the foundations of Aligning materials will be the next task
Reading First, the George W. Bush-era reading—an understanding that often isn’t for these states, Burk said. “We are teaching
grant program authorized under the No Child taught in their preparation programs or in teachers how to teach reading, and then
Left Behind Act of 2002, required schools to professional development. they’re going back into their classrooms and
use “scientifically based reading research” to “With legislation, we can ensure that looking at their materials and saying, ‘This
receive grant funding. these things are happening everywhere,” she doesn’t line up.’ ”
But critics of the program argued that its said. Some laws, like North Carolina’s, write
implementation put too much focus on one in this support for teachers through profes-
area of the science—foundational skills in- sional development, and detail how the state Start your day with us.
struction—leaving teachers without enough
time to work with young students on other key
will hold teacher preparation programs ac-
countable for conveying this information. EdWeek
components of literacy instruction, like build-
ing vocabulary and background knowledge
Fostering teacher buy-in will be crucial,
said Pearson. “Programs that engage the Update
and developing comprehension skills. teachers and help them develop ownership Stay on top of
With these new policies, states and districts of it, [that] make them responsible for imple- everything that
should take care not to repeat this pattern, said mentation and monitoring one another, cre- matters in K-12
Claude Goldenberg, a professor emeritus at ate a system that becomes self-monitoring.
SIGN UP
Stanford University who studies early literacy Reform efforts that don’t take into account
development in English-language learners. “We the social and cultural facets of learning are,

Published October 2, 2019 step in becoming a reader. If children can’t de-

cipher the precise words on the page, they’ll

How Do Kids Learn to Read? never become fluent readers or understand

the passages they’re reading.

What the Science Says That’s why we’ve put together this overview
of the research on early reading, in grades K-2.
It covers what’s known about how we should

H
By Sarah Schwartz & Sarah D. Sparks tions of letters predictably represent certain teach letter-sound patterns, and what we don’t
sounds. And for the last few decades, the re- know for sure yet. It touches on what else
ow do children learn to read? search has been clear: Teaching young kids should be part of early reading programs. And it
For almost a century, re- how to crack the code—teaching systematic explains why we know that most children can’t
searchers have argued over phonics—is the most reliable way to make sure learn to read through osmosis or guessing.
the question. Most of the that they learn how to read words. Here’s what the evidence shows.
disagreement has centered Of course, there is more to reading than
on the very beginning stages of the reading seeing a word on a page and pronouncing it out
Don’t children learn to read the way
process, when young children are first starting loud. As such, there is more to teaching reading
they learn to speak?
to figure out how to decipher words on a page. than just teaching phonics. Reading requires
One theory is that reading is a natural pro- children to make meaning out of print. They Infants learn to speak by listening to and
cess, like learning to speak. If teachers and need to know the different sounds in spoken repeating sounds made by adults and connect-
parents surround children with good books, language and be able to connect those sounds ing them to meanings. They don’t consciously
this theory goes, kids will pick up reading on to written letters in order to decipher words. distinguish individual sound units (called pho-
their own. Another idea suggests that read- They need deep background and vocabulary nemes) when hearing spoken language. Some
ing is a series of strategic guesses based on knowledge so that they understand the words research suggests infants learn probabilistical-
context, and that kids should be taught these they read. Eventually, they need to be able to ly—for example, hearing the sound “ball” at
guessing strategies. recognize most words automatically and read the same time as the sight of a round, bouncy
But research has shown that reading is not connected text fluently, attending to grammar, object over time makes the child associate the
a natural process, and it’s not a guessing game. punctuation, and sentence structure. two—while other studies suggest children map
Written language is a code. Certain combina- But knowing how to decode is an essential meaning to a word after experiencing it just

3
 Science of Reading

once or twice. Within the first two years, typi-

cally developing toddlers’ brains focus on the
most common sounds in their native languages

—Edweek video: What the Science Says About How Kids Learn to Read
and connect those sounds to meaning. A child
develops understanding of speech through ex-
posure to language and opportunities to prac-
tice the “serve and return” patterns of conver-
sation, even without explicit instruction.
By contrast, children do not naturally de-
velop reading skill through exposure to text.
The way they learn to connect oral and written
language depends on what kind of language
they are learning to read.
Alphabetic languages, like English or
French, use letters to stand for sounds that
make up spoken words. To read an alphabet-
ic language, children must learn how written
letters represent spoken sounds, recognize
patterns of letter sounds as words, and match The debate on how to teach early reading has raged for a century. But for the last few
those to spoken words whose meanings they decades, the cognitive science has been clear: Teaching young kids how to crack the
know. This differs from Chinese, for example. code—teaching systematic phonics—is the most reliable way to make sure that they learn
It uses a tonal spoken language, conveying how to read words.
meaning with small differences in stress or
pitch. Its writing system is partially logograph- they had much greater success on the original nitive resources that should be allocated to
ic—in which written symbols correspond di- transfer test. Neuroscience research has since comprehension. Thus, reading for meaning
rectly to a word or concept—and also includes confirmed and helped explain these findings. is hindered; unrewarding reading experienc-
words that couple symbols for meaning and When learning how to read new words in an es multiply; and practice is avoided or merely
symbols for sound. Someone reading Chinese unfamiliar made-up language, participants tolerated without real cognitive involvement.”
hanzi characters could not “sound out” unfa- had more long-term success if they were first
miliar words character by character. taught which symbols correspond to which
My reading curriculum includes
sounds, than if they tried to remember words
letter-sound instruction. Am I
as wholes. Brain imaging of these readers
What is systematic, explicit phonics providing enough phonics?
finds that the two teaching strategies tap into
instruction, and why is it important?
different neural pathways in the brain. Read- Not all phonics instruction is created equal.
Connecting printed letters on a page to writ- ers taught to connect print to meaning directly The most effective phonics programs are
ten sounds isn’t intuitive. While some young could recall words initially more quickly, but those that are systematic. The National Read-
children may make those connections them- less accurately; readers taught to connect print ing Panel found this in 2000, and since then,
selves, most do not. One set of studies from to sound and then to meaning read aloud more further research reviews have confirmed that
1989-90 illustrates this phenomenon well. quickly and correctly, better recalled the cor- this type of instruction leads to the greatest
In these studies, conducted by Brian Byrne rect meanings of words, and transferred their gains in reading accuracy for young students.
and Ruth Fielding-Barnsley, researchers taught knowledge to new words. A systematic phonics program teaches an
young children between ages 3 and 5 to read Decades of research has shown that explic- ordered progression of letter-sound corre-
whole words aloud, like “fat” and “bat.” These it phonics instruction benefits early readers, spondences. Teachers don’t only address the
children didn’t already know their letter names. but particularly those who struggle to read. letter-sound connections that students stum-
Then, the researchers tested whether That’s because small strengths or deficits ble over. Instead, they address all of the com-
the children could transfer their knowledge at the start of reading compound over time. It’s binations methodically, in a sequence, mov-
to reading a new word. They gave them the what reading expert Keith Stanovich in 1986 ing on to the next once students demonstrate
word “fun,” and asked whether the word dubbed the “Matthew Effect in Reading,” af- mastery. Teachers explicitly tell students what
was “fun” or “bun.” Very few of the students ter the Bible verse in which the rich get richer sounds correspond to what letter patterns,
could do this successfully. They couldn’t and the poor get poorer: “The combination rather than asking students to figure it out on
break down the original word into phonemes of deficient decoding skills, lack of practice, their own or make guesses.
and then transfer their knowledge of those and difficult materials results in unrewarding In one series of experiments, Stanford
phonemes to a new word. early reading experiences that lead to less in- University neuroscientist Bruce McCandliss
But children could succeed on this task if volvement in reading-related activities,” Sta- and his colleagues made up a new written
they were first given some explicit instruc- novich wrote. “Lack of exposure and practice language and taught three-letter words to
tions. When children were taught how to rec- on the part of the less-skilled reader delays the students either by asking them to focus on
ognize that certain letters represented certain development of automaticity and speed at the letter sounds or on whole words. Later, the
sounds, and taught how to segment words to word recognition level. Slow, capacity-drain- students took a reading test of both the words
identify those individual letters and sounds, ing word-recognition processes require cog- they were taught and new words in the made-

4
 Science of Reading

up language, while an electroencephalo- more frequently associated with children who

graph monitored their brain activity. Those have autism-spectrum disorders and often have
who had focused on letter sounds had more separate problems with reading comprehension.
neural activity on the left side of the brain, It may seem like these children are reading
which includes visual and language regions words as whole units, or using guessing strate-
and is associated with more skilled reading. gies to figure out what comes next in the story.
Those who had been taught to focus on whole But they are attending to all of the words’ indi-
words had more activity on the right side of vidual letters—they’re just doing it very quickly.
the brain, which has been characteristical- A systematic phonics program can still ben- Early readers benefit
ly associated with adults and children who efit these students, who may have gaps in their
struggle with reading. Moreover, those who knowledge of spelling patterns or words that from systematic phonics
had learned letter sounds were better able to
identify unfamiliar words.
they haven’t encountered yet. Of course, pho-
nics instruction—like all teaching—can and
instruction. Among students
Early readers benefit from systematic pho- should be differentiated to meet the needs of in grades K-1, phonics
nics instruction. Among students in grades individual students where they are. If a student
K-1, phonics instruction led to improvements can demonstrate mastery of a sound, there’s no instruction led
in decoding ability and reading comprehen-
sion across the board, according to the Nation-
need to continue practicing that sound—he or
she should move on to the next one.
to improvements in
al Reading Panel. Children at risk of develop- There’s another answer to this question: decoding ability and reading
ing future reading problems, children with Students may look like they’re decoding when
disabilities, and children from all socio-eco- they’re actually not. For example, a child may comprehension across the
nomic backgrounds all benefited. Later re- see an illustration of an apple falling from a board, according to the
search reviews have confirmed that systemat- tree, and correctly guess that the sentence
ic phonics instruction is effective for students below the picture describes an apple falling National Reading Panel.”
with disabilities, and shown that it also works from a tree. This isn’t reading, and it doesn’t
for English-language learners. give the teacher useful information about how
Most studies of phonics instruction test its a student will tackle a book without pictures.
immediate effectiveness—after the interven-
tion, are children better readers? Among stu-
Can cueing strategies help
dents in older grades, the results are less clear.
students to read?
A recent meta-analysis of the long-term effects
of reading interventions looked at phonics and Many early reading classrooms teach stu- incorporate phonics instruction. Cueing sys-
phonemic awareness training, mostly in studies dents strategies to identify a word by guessing tems were designed by analyzing errors rather
with children in grades K-1. Both phonics and with the help of context cues. Ken and Yetta than practices of proficient readers, and have
phonemic awareness interventions improved Goodman of the University of Arizona devel- not shown benefits in controlled experiments.
reading comprehension at an immediate post- oped a “three-cueing system,” based on anal- Moreover, cognitive and neuroscience
test. But while the benefits of phonemic aware- ysis of common errors (or “miscues”) when studies have found that guessing is a much
ness interventions persisted in a follow-up test, students read aloud. Ken Goodman famously less efficient way to identify a new word, and
the benefits of phonics interventions faded called reading development a “psycholinguis- a mark of beginning or struggling readers,
much more over time. The average length of all tic guessing game,” and cueing systems teach not proficient readers. Skilled readers instead
interventions included in the study was about students to guess at a new word based on: sound out new words to decode them.
40 hours, and the follow-up assessments were Balanced literacy programs often include
conducted about a year after the interventions • Meaning/Semantics, or background both phonics and cueing, but studies suggest
were complete, on average. knowledge and context, such as vocabu- cueing instruction can make it more difficult
lary a student has already learned; for children to develop phonics skills because it
takes their attention away from the letter sounds.
Some of my students didn’t need • Structure/Syntax, or how the word fits in
phonics instruction to learn to read. common grammar rules, such as whether
Why are you saying that all kids the word’s position in a sentence suggests I know phonics instruction is
benefit? it is a noun, verb, or adjective; and supposed to be explicit and
systematic. But beyond that, how
Depending on the estimate, anywhere from • Visual/Graphophonics, or what a word should I teach it? Does the research
1 percent to 7 percent of children figure out how looks like, such as how upper- and say anything about what content I
to decode words on their own, without explicit lowercase letters are used (suggesting a need to cover, and how should it be
instruction. They may spot the patterns in books proper noun, for example) or common sequenced?
read to them or print they see in their environ- spelling patterns.
ment, and then they apply these patterns. These There is a general path that most children
include children with a neurotypical form of Cueing systems are a common strategy in follow as they become skilled decoders. Re-
“hyperlexia”—a condition in which children whole-language programs, and also are used search can tell us how children usually prog-
may begin decoding as early as 3—but this is in many “balanced literacy” programs that ress along this path, and which skills specifi-

5
 Science of Reading

cally predict better reading performance. Take the word “bat.” In synthetic phonics,
Before starting kindergarten, children students would first learn the /b/ sound, then
generally develop some early phonological the /a/ sound, then the /t/ sound and blend
awareness—an understanding of the sounds them together to sound out “bat.” In analytic
that make up spoken language. They can phonics, students would learn the word “bat”
rhyme, break down multi-syllable words, and alongside words like “cat,” “mat,” and “hat,”
recognize alliteration. and would be taught that all these words end
A next step in the process is understand- in the “at” sound pattern.
ing that graphemes—combinations of one Before starting
or more letters—represent phonemes, the
So there’s synthetic phonics and kindergarten, children
smallest units of spoken language. It’s easier
analytic phonics—is one way better
for students to learn these letter-sound cor-
than the other?
generally develop some early
respondences if they already have early pho-
nological skills like rhyming and alliteration, A few studies have found synthetic phonics phonological awareness—
along with knowledge of the names of the let- to be more effective than analytic phonics. an understanding of the
ters of the alphabet. Most notably, a seven-year longitudinal study
And while vocabulary is important for from Scotland found that synthetic phonics sounds that make up spoken
reading comprehension, research has also taught in 1st grade gave students an advantage
found that it’s a component in decoding abili- in reading and spelling over analytic phonics.
language. They can rhyme,
ty. One study found that when children know Still, when examined as a whole, the larger break down multi-syllable
a word’s meaning, they can more quick- body of reading research doesn’t surface a
ly learn how to recognize it automatically, conclusive winner. Two landmark research words, and recognize
because the visual letters, corresponding
sounds, and meaning all map together when
reviews haven’t found a significant difference
in the effectiveness of the two methods. Other
alliteration.”
a reader recognizes a word. more recent research is still inconclusive.
There are other early skills that relate to lat-
er reading and writing ability as well, regard-
Do these strategies apply to
less of IQ or socio-economic status. Among
words that don’t follow traditional
these are writing letters, remembering spoken
sound-spelling patterns? What
information for a short time, rapidly naming
about words like “one” and
sequences of random letters, numbers, or pic-
“friend”—can those words still be
tures, and other phonological skills—like the important. Understanding phonics gives stu-
taught with phonics?
ability to segment words into phonemes. dents the foundation to read these irregular
To decode words, students need to be Yes, but not alone; spelling and semantic words. Take “friend.” While the “ie” doesn’t
taught to blend together the phonemes that rules go hand-in-hand with teaching letter produce the same sound it normally does, the
graphemes represent on the page. For exam- sounds. Words like “lime” and “dime,” have other letters in the word do. Research has sug-
ple, a young reader must learn to recognize similar spelling and pronunciation. But some gested that children use the “fr” and the “nd”
that /r/, /o/, /d/ are three sounds that to- words with similar spelling have different as a framework when they remember how to
gether form the word “rod,” but also that the pronunciations, like “pint” and “mint.” And read the irregular word “friend.”
word “rock” also contains three sounds, /r/, others have different spellings and similar
/o/, /k/ This is a process that builds on itself pronunciations, like “jazz” and “has.” Brain
When should children start to learn
rapidly. Though there are some 15,000 sylla- imaging studies find that when readers see
how to sound out words? Is there a
bles in English, after a child has learned the word pairs that are inconsistent, they show
“too early”?
44 most common sound and letter combina- greater activity in the areas of the brain associ-
tions, they will begin to sound out words as ated with processing both visual spelling and Even very young children can benefit from
they read. These include both the basic letter spoken words. This shows that young readers instruction designed to develop phonological
and vowel sounds, but also common combi- use systems of understanding of both printed awareness. The National Early Literacy Panel
nations such as “th,” “sh,” and “-ing.” There shapes and sounds when they see any written Report (2009), a meta-analysis of early liter-
are two main ways to demonstrate to children word. When those two systems conflict, the acy studies, found that teaching preschoolers
that words are made up of sound-letter corre- reader may call on additional rules, such as and kindergartners how to distinguish the
spondences. In one method, students learn understanding that words at the end of lines sounds in words, whether orally or in relation-
the sounds of the letters first and then blend of a rhyming poem (such as “has” and “jazz”) ship to print, improved their reading and writ-
these phonemes together to sound out words. likely rhyme even if their spelling would not ing ability. The children in these studies were
That’s synthetic phonics—they’re synthesiz- suggest it. generally between the ages of 3 and 5.
ing phonemes into greater whole words. The Some research has found that teaching Studies suggest progress in phonics is less
other method, analytic phonics, takes an in- common irregular words, like “one” and closely linked to a child’s age than to the size
verted approach: Students identify—or ana- “friend,” as sight words can be effective. Still, and complexity of their spoken vocabulary,
lyze—the phonemes within words, and then in these studies, children were also taught and to their opportunities to practice and ap-
use that knowledge to read other words. phonics along with sight words—and that’s ply new phonics rules. There is some evidence

6
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The Gold Standard in

Literacy Research
Spanning multiple decades, the science of reading is a body of research about how humans
learn to read. Whereas spoken language typically comes naturally, people need to be taught to 1 Phonemic Awareness

understand written language. The science of reading has revealed several key findings, including
why students may not learn to read and the kind of instruction that’ll most effectively get them on 2 Phonics
a path to literacy. The Five
Components
Concerningly, about 20% of elementary school students have serious problems learning to read,
Essential to 3 Fluency
and at least another 20% are at risk of not meeting grade-level expectations. Still, only 5% of young
Reading:
readers have cognitive impairments severe enough to prevent them from acquiring the skills they
need to become fluent readers. This means high-quality, evidence-based instruction can greatly 4 Vocabulary

impact many students’ learning trajectories. That’s where we—their teachers—come in.
5 Comprehension

The Role of Teachers What Is Structured Literacy—

and What Is Not?
Just as learning to read is a complex process,
teaching someone to read is as well. Class- The application of the science of reading
room instruction is the most critical factor in is called Structured Literacy. The name was
preventing reading challenges; however, only introduced by the International Dyslexia
51% of higher education teaching preparation Association® (IDA) to differentiate it from
programs include the science of reading. If reading instruction and programs that aren’t
teachers don’t know the science of reading, wholly based in the evidence of the science of
they cannot impart its methods. reading—but wrongfully claim to be.

This much requires a commitment on the It’s important, then, to know the two hallmarks
part of schools and districts. It’s not enough of Structured Literacy. To qualify, a program must:
to announce a switch to scientifically based • Teach all the components found to be
reading instruction. We must invest in foremost in ensuring reading success
educating our teachers before investing in
• Employ the principles that align to the
programs; the latter is only a tool. Teachers must
necessity of each component
first understand the what, why, and how behind
the science of reading. Therefore, ongoing
professional learning must be introduced.
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Putting Structured Literacy Across all grade levels, Structured Literacy Unlocking Academic Potential
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As students get older, academic success in
Evidence informs how Structured Literacy Instruction must be:
all subjects is contingent upon being able to
should be taught. Based on the science of 1. Explicit: Concepts and skills are taught read and comprehend new material. Reading
reading, we know decoding (word recognition) directly and are practiced. instruction informed by the science of reading
and linguistic, or language, comprehension are is the only proven way to help struggling
2. Systematic: Concepts and skills are
the two skills critical to reading comprehension. readers achieve proficiency—and to help
logically ordered from simple to complex.
Structured Literacy emphasizes both all readers advance their skills.
components because inefficiency in one 3. Cumulative: New learning builds on
prior learning. The impact of the pandemic on young
may lead to overall reading failure.
learners is apparent, but without proper
4. Diagnostic/Responsive: Students’
intervention, we may not realize the depth
needs and strengths are identified, and
of the problem. High-quality instruction starts
instruction is designed accordingly.
with administrators and educators committing
The Critical and to the science of reading and Structured
Dyslexia and Structured Literacy
Underpinning Components Literacy. Only then can we address reading
of Structured Literacy As mentioned previously, the number of challenges and provide every student with
students struggling to read is not indicative of the support he or she needs.
the number of students whose ability to read
is severely impaired. Dyslexia, for example, is
characterized by difficulties with accurate or
fluent word recognition and by poor spelling
and decoding abilities. Often, though, this is
Decoding: unexpected in relation to the student’s other
Phonology cognitive abilities. So, with language-based
Orthography instruction and consistent support, these
Morphology difficulties can be overcome.
The systematic decoding strategies of
Structured Literacy, which are not emphasized
by other popular reading approaches, are
especially important for students with or
at-risk of dyslexia. These students, who
needed extra support before the pandemic,
are likely to have fallen further behind since.
Research- and evidence-based practices, such
Linguistic comprehension: as those provided by Voyager Sopris Learning®,
Syntax are what educators need to teach reading
Semantics effectively. Plus, due to their proven efficacy
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 Science of Reading

that “decodable” books, designed to help stu- doesn’t have a deep enough understanding of
dents practice specific letter-sound combina- oral language, he won’t be able to understand
tions, can benefit the earliest readers. But it the words he can say out loud. Since Gough
is mixed, and students very quickly progress and Tunmer first proposed this framework,
enough to get more benefit from texts that pro- many studies have confirmed its basic struc-
vide more complex and irregular words—and ture—that comprehension and decoding are
often texts that students find more interesting. separate processes. One meta-analysis of
reading intervention studies finds that pho-
How much time should teachers Phonics is essential to a nics-focused interventions were most effec-
tive through grade 1; in older grades—when
spend on teaching about letters research-based reading most students will have mastered phonics—in-
and sounds in class?
There isn’t yet a definitive “best” amount
program. If students can’t terventions that targeted comprehension or a
mix of reading skills showed bigger effects on
of time to spend on phonics instruction. In decode words, they can’t students’ reading skills.
several meta-analyses, researchers haven’t For young students, early oral-language
found a direct link between program length derive any meaning from interventions can help set them up for success
and effectiveness. them. But understanding even before they start formal school.
The National Reading Panel report found The National Early Literacy Panel found
that programs focusing on phonemic aware- the alphabetic code doesn’t that both reading books to young children
ness, the ability to hear, identify, and manip- and engaging in activities aimed at improving
ulate the smallest units of speech sounds, that
automatically make students their language development improved their
lasted less than 20 hours total had the greatest good readers.” oral language skills.
effect on reading skills. Across the studies that
the researchers looked at, individual sessions
If children don’t learn to read
lasted 25 minutes on average.
naturally from being exposed
But the authors of the NRP are quick to
to reading, why are parents and
point out that these patterns are descriptive,
teachers encouraged to read to
not prescriptive. The studies they looked at
infants and preschoolers?
weren’t specifically testing the effectiveness of
different time lengths, and it may be that time The amount of time adults read with pre-
wasn’t the relevant factor in these shorter pro- The National Reading Panel addressed schoolers and young children does predict
grams performing better. all five of these components. The researchers their reading skills in elementary school. One
Eventually, a skilled reader doesn’t need found that having students read out loud with of the most important predictors of how well a
to sound out every word that she reads. She guidance and feedback improved reading flu- child will learn to read is the size and quality
sees the word and recognizes it immediately. ency. Vocabulary instruction, both explicit of his spoken language and vocabulary, and
Through reading the word again and again and implicit, led to better reading compre- children are more likely to be exposed to new
over time, her brain has linked this particu- hension—and it was most effective when stu- words and their meanings or pick up grammar
lar sequence to this word, through a process dents had multiple opportunities to see and rules from reading aloud with adults.
called orthographic mapping. use new words in context. They also found In a series of studies in the late 1990s of
But neuroscience research has shown that that teaching comprehension strategies can 5-year-olds who had not yet learned to read,
even if it feels like she’s recognizing the word also lead to gains in reading achievement, Victoria Purcell-Gates found that after con-
as a whole, she’s still attending to the sequence though most of these studies were done with trolling for the income and education level
of individual letters in the word for an incred- students older than 2nd grade. of the children’s parents, children who had
ibly short period of time. That’s how skilled For younger students, oral language skills; been read to regularly in the last two years
readers can tell the difference between the understanding syntax, grammar, vocabulary, used more “literary” language, longer phras-
words “accent” and “ascent.” and idioms; and having general and topic-spe- es, and more sophisticated sentence struc-
cific background knowledge are also essential tures. Moreover, an adult reading with a
for reading comprehension. child is more likely to explain or expand on
What else—aside from phonics—
This is one of the premises of the Simple the meanings of words and concepts that the
is part of a research-based early
View of Reading, a framework to understand child does not already know, adding to their
reading program?
reading first proposed by researchers Philip background knowledge.
Phonics is essential to a research-based B. Gough and William E. Tunmer in 1986. In Reading with trusted adults also helps chil-
reading program. If students can’t decode the simple view, reading comprehension is the dren develop a love of reading. “The associa-
words, they can’t derive any meaning from product of decoding ability and language com- tion between hearing written language and
them. But understanding the alphabetic code prehension. If a student can’t decode, it doesn’t feeling loved provides the best foundation for
doesn’t automatically make students good matter how much background knowledge and this long process [of emergent literacy], and no
readers. There are five essential components vocabulary he understands—he won’t be able cognitive scientist or educational researcher
of reading: phonemic awareness, phonics, flu- to understand what’s on the page. But the op- could have designed a better one,” notes cog-
ency, vocabulary, and comprehension. posite is also true: If a student can decode but nitive neuroscientist Maryanne Wolf.

7
 Science of Reading

What about independent choice

reading?
In a choice reading period—also known as
sustained silent reading or Drop Everything
and Read—students get to pick a book to read
independently in class for a set amount of
time. The premise behind this activity is that
children need time to practice reading skills
on their own to improve.
There is a lot of correlational research that
shows that children who read more are better
readers. But many of these studies don’t quan-
tify how much reading students are actually
doing. While they may specify a time frame—15
minutes of sustained silent reading, for exam-
ple—the studies don’t report whether kids spend
this time reading. That makes it difficult to know

—E+/Getty
how effective choice reading actually is.
More importantly, these studies don’t pro-
vide experimental evidence—it’s not clear
whether reading more is what makes students Published March 23, 2021
better readers, or if better readers are likely to
read more. The National Reading Panel found
that there wasn’t evidence that choice reading Most States Fail to Measure
improved students’ fluency.
Teachers’ Knowledge of the
Does it make a difference whether
children learn to read using printed
‘Science of Reading,’ Report Says
books or digital ones?

F
By Sarah Schwartz equately cover this topic. Some preparation
In the last decade or so, access to Inter- programs introduce strategies that aren’t
net-based text has continued to expand, and or many elementary school supported by research.
schools have increasingly used digitally based teachers, teaching students A 2019 Education Week Research Center
books, particularly to support students who do how to read is a central part survey of K-2 and special education teachers
not have easy access to paper books at home. of the job. But the majority of found that only 11 percent said they felt “com-
Yet some emerging evidence suggests chil- states don’t evaluate whether pletely prepared” to teach early reading when
dren learn to read differently in print versus prospective teachers have the knowledge they finished their preservice programs.
digitally, in ways that could hinder their later they’ll need to teach reading effectively be- By NCTQ’s assessment, 32 states re-
comprehension. fore granting them certification, according quire elementary preparation programs
Researchers that study eye movements to a new analysis from the National Council to address the five components of reading,
find that those reading digital text are more on Teacher Quality. as defined by the National Reading Panel
likely to skim or read nonlinearly, looking for According to NCTQ’s evaluation of state report released in 2000—phonemic aware-
key words to give the gist, jump to the end licensure tests for teachers, 20 states use ness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and
to find conclusions or takeaways, and only assessments that fully measure candidates’ comprehension.
sometimes go back to find context in the rest knowledge of the “science of reading,” ref- Ensuring that teachers are prepared to
of the text. In a separate series of studies erencing the body of research on the most teach reading before they enter the class-
since 2015, researchers led by Anne Mangen effective methods for teaching young chil- room, and incentivizing preparation pro-
found that students who read short stories dren how to decode text, read fluently, and grams to provide that training, will be es-
and especially longer texts in a print format understand what they’re reading. pecially important over the next few years,
were better able to remember the plot and For special education teachers, a group said Kate Walsh, the president of NCTQ.
sequence of events than those who read the that regularly works with students with “In normal years, we know about a mil-
same text on a screen. reading difficulties, just 11 states’ certifica- lion 4th graders haven’t learned how to
It’s not yet clear how universal these chang- tion tests meet this standard. read,” Walsh said, referencing results from
es are, but teachers may want to keep watch on Previous studies have shown that ear- the 2019 National Assessment of Education-
how well their students reading electronically ly elementary teachers often have gaps in al Progress that categorize only 35 percent of
are developing deeper reading and compre- their knowledge of evidence-based prac- 4th graders as proficient in reading. It’s pos-
hension skills. tices for teaching reading, and that many sible that the pandemic will leave students
Article annotations are available. teacher-preparation programs that don’t ad- with more ground to make up, she said.

8
 Science of Reading

Can changes to licensure tests lead

to better reading instruction?

For this analysis, NCTQ looked at con-

tent outlines, test objectives, and test prep
materials for the state licensure tests given to
elementary, early education, and special edu-
cation teacher candidates—the three groups
that are most likely to be responsible for foun-
dational reading instruction.
The organization based its evaluation of the
tests on two guiding questions: 1) whether the
tests addressed each of the five components of
reading, and 2) whether they assessed students
on any practices that aren’t supported by evi-
dence, like three-cueing—a method that teach-
es students they don’t need to rely on decoding
alone to figure out what a word says, but can
also make guesses based on pictures and syn-
tax. (Three-cueing can lessen the chances that
students will use their understanding of letter
sounds to read through words part-by-part, tak-
ing away an opportunity for students to practice
their decoding skills and making it less likely
that they’ll recognize the word quickly the next
time that they see it.)
Many of the tests that didn’t meet NCTQ’s
criteria paid little attention to two important
components of foundational skills instruction,
Walsh said: phonemic awareness (the under-
standing that spoken words are made up of
individual sounds) and phonics (how those
individual sounds are represented by letters).
These two skills are building blocks to fluent
reading, and without them, some students will
continue to struggle with reading into higher
grades.
Walsh would want to see more states start
giving tests that fully assess teachers’ knowl-
edge of the five components of reading. Giving
these tests, and holding preparation programs
accountable for students’ first-time pass rate,
would incentivize preservice programs to de-
vote real resources to teaching these skills, she
said.
Still, some education professors don’t place
much emphasis on teaching candidates how
to do explicit, systematic phonics instruction,
and resist what they often call a “one-size-fits-
all” approach, as Madeline Will reported in
2019.
Another hurdle, Walsh said, is that some
states are also wary of adding more or tougher petence Assessment, or RICA, as EdSource ternatives to the test.
assessments to teacher candidates’ plates. reported in 2019. First-time failure rates are In general, “it’s reasonable to say that
In some cases, reading instruction tests are higher for Black and Latino candidates, and teachers need to know certain things before
the only barrier between teacher candidates opponents of the assessment have argued that they get classroom responsibilities of their
and certification. In California, for example, it’s racially biased. (The majority of teachers own,” said Dan Goldhaber, the director of
one-third of prospective teachers fail the first of all races pass after multiple attempts.) The the Center for Analysis of Longitudinal Data
time they take the Reading Instruction Com- state has assembled a panel to recommend al- in Education Research at the American Insti-

9
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The critical skills to teach

How these skills must be taught

Decoding:
The reader’s linkage of the printed words Explicit
on page to their spoken equivalents. (directly taught)

Phonology • Orthography • Morphology

p a Systematic
Cm
(logically ordered skills;
simple to complex)

A+ Cumulative
Language Comprehension: (new learning building
on prior learning)
The reader’s ability to construct
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 Science of Reading

tutes for Research and an expert in teacher “We’re placing an undue burden on can- peers,” he said. “I think what we have to ask
certification, who wasn’t involved with the didates of color when the preparation pro- ourselves is, is that the right way to determine
NCTQ study. Even so, he says, any time certi- grams aren’t giving students the necessary proficiency?”
fication tests show disparate impact on differ- skills to pass this exam, and so these teacher Teacher preparation programs could set a
ent populations of teacher candidates, it raises candidates of color are now having to do extra higher bar for early reading instruction, Gold-
concerns. work,” he said. haber said, a change that would be “at least as
It’s up to professors of teacher educa- States should also be considering whether important” as stricter testing requirements in
tion, and preservice programs more broad- a paper and pencil test is the best way to de- supporting teacher knowledge and effective
ly, to make sure that what they’re teaching is termine how prepared preservice educators instruction.
aligned to what states expect candidates to are, and whether a performance-based assess- “What programs do or don’t do to try to de-
know, said Travis J. Bristol, an assistant profes- ment might be a better demonstration of can- velop teacher candidates, and teach them how
sor at the University of California, Berkeley’s didates’ skills, Bristol said. “There is evidence to teach, is really important,” he said. “And it’s
Graduate School of Education, who studies that people of color across all standardized ex- that part of the system that I think we know very
teachers’ workplace experiences. ams do not pass them at the rate of their white little about.”

OPINION
Published May 29, 2019

The Hard Part About Reading Instruction

S
By Jared Myracle

poiler alert: The hard part about

reading instruction is not fig-
uring out how to teach reading.
We actually know quite a bit
about that. There has been re-
newed interest in discussing the findings of
the 2000 National Reading Panel report on
the importance of phonics-based instruction
in the early grades. The popularity of Emily
Hanford’s radio documentary “Hard Words”
and Susan Pimentel’s Education Week Com-
mentary “Why Doesn’t Every Teacher Know
the Research on Reading Instruction?”—and
the conversations both stirred—underscore

—iStock/Getty
that how we teach reading is far from settled,
even 20 years after the publication of the pan-
el’s report. Earlier this year, I co-authored a
Commentary in this publication on the chal-
lenges we district leaders face when it comes The hard part about reading instruction The hard part is not about the funding
to the research-based findings on reading isn’t even deciding how to take action. Putting required to make these changes, either. On
instruction. We all have unfinished learning, the research about reading instruction into average, my district spent approximately $50
but the research is clear. Reading isn’t just practice has been simplified in recent years by per student to replace all of our English/lan-
about decoding words. the abundance of research-aligned curricula. guage arts curricula in every grade, kinder-
Another critical element here is the central Finding a suitable curriculum is now as easy as garten through 12th.
role that background knowledge plays in read- scrolling through EdReports.org and reading For school and district leaders, the hard
ing comprehension, which was demonstrated summaries of the “all green” options that sig- part about reading instruction is leading a
as early as 1988 by Lauren Leslie and Donna R. nify positive standards alignment, usability, highly effective implementation and sticking
Recht’s seminal baseball study: If we want stu- and quality. In my school district in Tennes- to the plan long enough for the work to have
dents to actually understand the words they see, we provided teachers with a few curric- a meaningful impact. Putting a new curricu-
are decoding, they must build a critical mass ula options from this list, gathered feedback lum in a teacher’s hand won’t get the job done.
of background knowledge in order to provide during a pilot period, and made a decision They need support in order to teach it well.
context and meaning to what they are reading. about what to use. Teachers also need time to learn how to com-

10
 Science of Reading

municate the material effectively to students, Many of the best curriculum options are After a year, the state of Tennessee defined the
and students need time to develop academi- structured this way. Embedding important growth of our district’s 3rd grade students as
cally while learning it. But “time” is not a wel- historical figures and events, science con- “above expectations.” But deeper reading pro-
comed word in education. cepts, exposure to a diverse array of cultures, ficiency improves at a slow pace.
The good news is that students respond and well-known fables and folktales in a co- The knowledge-building required to turn
quickly when teachers deliver systematic herent sequence within individual grades proficient decoders into proficient readers is
phonics instruction. Students in the early and across grade levels allows students to a long haul, especially for students living in
grades can more readily recognize letters gradually connect meaning to otherwise un- poverty. Comprehension is dependent on un-
and letter sounds, segmenting, and blending familiar topics as they read. But the key word derstanding the vocabulary involved in any
if they are receiving systematic phonics in- here is “gradually.” given reading topic, but the topics on high-
struction. (David Liben’s “Why a Structured Vocabulary is like a tiny snowball at the top stakes reading assessments rarely align with
Phonics Program is Effective” is a great sum- of a hill. If you can guide it down the right path, the exact topics that students read about in
mary on this topic.) it will gradually grow bigger on its own. It just the classroom.
In my district’s first year of implementa- takes a plan and patience. So how do we fix it? We rely on the research
tion with our chosen curriculum (Core Knowl- As a leader, developing this kind of vision about systematic phonics instruction, and we
edge’s Skills Strand), we doubled the number for reading instruction requires the constant keep students reading books, articles, and lit-
of kindergarten students who scored above switching between a long-term and a short- erature embedded in a coherent path of topics
average on a phonics screener. This progress term view. Seeing gains in foundational read- designed to build their background knowledge.
was mirrored by significant gains in the oral ing skills happens early and often. On the It can be frustrating that there is no way to fast
reading fluency of our 1st graders. Great in- other hand, navigating a multi-year process track knowledge-building. You just have to
struction with strong materials can close skills of building students’ background knowledge trust the process, and take it day by day.
gaps for our youngest students in a relatively is a more demanding journey. But the sooner The education field is notorious for giving
short amount of time. we can all agree that there isn’t a bright and up when the results aren’t immediate. But we
While students are making strides with shiny program that will save us tomorrow, should stick it out on this one and listen to the
their decoding skills, they must also be build- the sooner we can do right by our students by research on reading instruction. The rewards
ing the background knowledge on a wide ar- focusing on what will have the biggest impact will come.
ray of topics needed to understand what they in the long run.
read. Instead of learning to read and then If you pursue this course of action, your Jared Myracle is the chief academic officer
reading to learn, students can and should do 3rd grade reading scores will be great, right? at Jackson-Madison County public schools
both at the same time. Maybe. It is possible to see signs of progress. in Tennessee.

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