Although the educational landscape in America is largely depressing right now, there is hope that better times are ahead. Today, states—both red and blue—are passing laws that emphasize teaching reading using proven, evidence-based methods like phonics.
The inability of American children to read properly is appalling.
On the 2022 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) fourth-grade reading test, 66% of test takers did not meet the required level.
The results for the eighth-grade reading test were even worse: 69% of the students who took the test were unable to demonstrate the required knowledge.
These poor reading scores are due to too many schools using ineffective teaching methods, such as balanced reading and writing instruction based on the so-called “three-cue method.”
According to a 2023 study by the National Council on Teacher Quality, when teaching reading with three cues, children are taught to use one of three strategies: ‘Use the context to guess what the word might be,’ ‘Look at the picture to guess what the word might be,’ and ‘Look at the first letter to guess what the word might be.’ If the guess makes sense, check to see if it ‘looks right.'”
In other words, instead of saying letters and combining them to form a word, the three-clue method encourages children to guess what the word might be.
But as the NCTQ study shows, “Despite widespread use by special education teachers in grades K-2 and elementary schools, reading experts advise against guessing techniques because they represent a missed opportunity to help children practice decoding (i.e., pronunciation) and because they are an ineffective strategy for reading challenging texts.”
In fact, the ineffectiveness of the three-clue technique has become so obvious that one of the method’s major promoters, the Reading and Writing Project at Teachers College, Columbia University, was disbanded last year due to increasing criticism.
The principal of a school in Georgia said her school used the three-clue method, but “we had no data to support our approach.”
Fortunately, policymakers are finally implementing reading instruction programs that have been proven to be effective.
In the past year, 17 states have passed laws or adopted policies encouraging schools to embrace reading science, emphasizing techniques such as phonics, which maps speech sounds to letters, and letter combinations that give students the ability to sound out words when they see them on a page.
As the NCTQ reports, more than half a century of reading research shows that the use of reading science teaching methods “could dramatically reduce the rate of reading failure.”
The states that are turning to reading science span the entire political spectrum.
In 2023, the predominantly Republican state of Indiana passed a law requiring school districts to implement curricula based on reading science and banning the use of the three-key teaching method.
This year, in deep-blue New York, Governor Hochul’s “Back to Basics” initiative was passed in the 2024-25 state budget. It is intended to increase funding for programs to promote reading science.
There is evidence that student reading performance improves when states switch to reading science instruction.
According to NCTQ, there was a dramatic improvement in fourth-grade NAEP scores in Mississippi when it switched to a comprehensive reading science approach, including among historically marginalized groups such as black and Hispanic students.
Unfortunately, while some states are turning to reading science, others are encountering obstacles from special interests.
In California, a bill by Democratic Rep. Blanca Rubio to include reading science in teacher training and curriculum decisions failed due to opposition from the powerful California Teachers Association. The union argued that reading science is still evolving and that teachers should be free to choose which instructional method they use. Yet the overwhelming body of research shows that reading science is the best method for teaching reading, and unfortunately, many teachers lack the training necessary to effectively teach these skills to their students.
Yet, as Rubio told me in an interview for my new book at the Pacific Research Institute, “The Great Classroom Collapse,” many Democratic and Republican lawmakers have joined forces to support her bill because, on this issue, “they don’t care about their political ideology; they care about the future of children.”
“Teachers have unions,” Rubio said, “but students don’t.” “We are the only ones who have to stand up for the children.”
Despite these setbacks, the momentum is on the side of reading instruction that actually works. As Hochul said, “We are throwing out outdated reading instruction methods and getting back to basics, using phonics, reading comprehension, and other effective techniques to put our children on the path to success.”
Lance Izumi is senior director of the Center for Education at the Pacific Research Institute. He is the author of the new book “The Great Classroom Collapse: Teachers, Students, and Parents Expose the Collapse of Learning in America’s Schools.”.”
