As ubiquitous as colored pencils and alphabet posters, lists of “sight words” have long been a fixture in kindergarten and 1st grade classrooms. These inventories identify some of the most commonly ...

Rauno Parrila's research on reading has been funded by the Social Sciences Research Council of Canada, Government of Alberta, Alberta Teachers' Association, Australian Research Council, Finnish ...

A new study has found evidence of big gains in students’ reading ability from using one specific phonics program—and suggests that consistent implementation is key to getting the strongest results.

Fletcher, Savage, and Sharon (Educational Psychology Review, 2020) have raised a number of conceptual and empirical challenges to my claim that there is little or no evidence for systematic phonics ...

To look inside Julie Celestial’s kindergarten classroom in Long Beach is to peer into the future of reading in California. During a recent lesson, 25 kindergartners gazed at the whiteboard, trying to ...

When people read for fun, they look for the good stuff — a bestseller or a friend’s favorite. Lately, I’ve read a lot of texts my friends send my way — specifically, their kids’ school literacy ...

Since 2012, England has taken an increasingly narrow approach to how primary school teachers should teach reading. The policies on teaching reading have insisted that an approach called “systematic ...

America’s kids aren’t learning how to read, a skill which forms the building blocks of nearly every other subject or discipline and a lifelong capacity for acquiring knowledge. That’s why it’s ...

Can you spell deja vu? The battle over the best way to teach children how to read has re-erupted in the California Legislature, as dueling factions haggle over a bill that would mandate a ...

4:16 p.m. June 2, 2025: An earlier version of this report incorrectly said teaching phonics was new to Long Beach Unified. Some phonics has been taught in the district for years, but a new focus on ...