For most Americans, learning to read is a fundamental part of early childhood. Whether it was our parents reading to us at night or early school lessons full of colorful and rhyming stories, reading is a part of the beautiful and complicated puzzle that makes us who we are.
Our brains have been trained for years to take in the information that we see and turn it into something we understand. For students, the most crucial period for this training takes place between kindergarten and third grade. During those years, students slowly transition from learning to read to reading to learn. By fourth grade, most curriculum is being taught through reading.
The way we teach early literacy plays a huge role in a student’s ability to successfully read by the crucial fourth-grade checkpoint.
Flawed instruction can lead to reading failures
America is facing a reading crisis. According to NAEP, only 33% of fourth-grade students in the U.S. are reaching grade-level proficiency in reading.
This number is so low partly because schools have been using harmful reading practices such as three-cueing. This flawed instruction model teaches students to read based on meaning, structure and visual cues, redirecting the student from the word itself. Essentially, students are taught to guess a word based on a picture instead of sounding out the word.
Eight states banned three-cueing in 2023.
So, what is the right way to teach students to read? ExcelinEd is one of many education-focused entities that embrace and promote the research and evidence-based practice known as the science of reading.
To ensure every child can read by third grade, all educators must be trained in the science of reading, an evidence-based approach that teaches phonemic awareness, phonics/decoding, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension. This is the opposite of the three-cueing system.
Science of reading is the best way forward
The science of reading is a culmination of research that incorporates information learned through studies of developmental psychology, educational psychology, cognitive science and cognitive neuroscience.
For example, neuroscientists using functional MRI scans showed the section of the brain dealing with language was significantly more active in young students learning to read through a phonetic-based curriculum than in kids who were taught by three-cueing methods.
While the science of reading is based on phonetic learning, other skills such as oral language, alphabet knowledge, phonemic awareness and vocabulary development are critical to becoming a skilled reader.
Researchers have been able to determine the brain’s path to reading comprehension and the type of explicit instruction that is needed for students who may have difficulty learning to read.
This style of reading instruction is working for students across the country. A 2023 study on select California schools found improvements in reading proficiency using evidence-based approaches. California doesn’t mandate science of reading instruction, so the study focused on 76 of the state’s lowest-performing schools. Researchers found the science of reading approach raised test scores in English and math for third-graders in 2022 and 2023. The increase in comprehension was the equivalent of attending an additional quarter of a school year compared to other students who did not use evidence-based instruction.
As of April 2024, 38 states and the District of Columbia have passed laws or implemented new policies related to evidence-based reading instruction. For the majority of those states, that includes training teachers in how to better implement science of reading instruction.
For example, California has adopted 10 of 18 recommended early literacy policy fundamental principles, one of 12 states operating without requiring teachers to learn how to teach using the science of reading.
Science of reading can make a difference
I’ve seen the change that teaching with explicit instruction and scientifically based methods can make in a state.
From 2013 to 2019, I was the state literacy director for the Mississippi Department of Education. In 2013, the state ranked last in the nation in fourth-grade reading, according to NAEP. We set out to change that.
With courageous leadership from then-state Superintendent Carey Wright, Ed.D., (now state superintendent for Maryland) and policy know-how from state officials, we were able to implement the Literacy-Based Promotion Act to mandate research-based literary instruction and better professional learning opportunities for Mississippi teachers.
As of 2023, Mississippi ranks 21st in the nation for fourth-grade reading. Some call this change the Mississippi Miracle. It’s not a miracle. It’s proof that scientifically research-based instruction works.
Evidence-based literary instruction is the key to solving our nation’s reading crisis. Working together, as other states have done over the past two decades, we can bring more science of reading methods to our classrooms to ensure our youngest readers have a strong foundation to build on as they move through and beyond school.
Opinions expressed by SmartBrief contributors are their own.
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