The Science of Reading movement is gaining momentum nationwide
New York State Democratic Governor Kathy Hochul recently passed a 2025 budget that calls for the introduction of phonics-based reading instruction in grades 1 through 12 and funds phonics training programs for future teachers at the state’s public universities.
California’s Latino Democratic state legislator, Rep. Blanca Rubio, sponsored bill AB 2222 last year, which would require phonics instruction for prospective teachers as part of higher education accreditation programs.
A law passed in Georgia in 2023 will require future teachers to be taught reading instruction strategies based on phonics.
These examples show that after decades of American students struggling to learn to read using whole-vocabulary and context clues, many leaders – including those in deeply Democratic states – want to return to the tried-and-tested phonics approach that is now called the “science of reading,” according to education expert Lance Izumi.
Reading science focuses on phonics, vocabulary and reading comprehension and is supported by evidence, studies and research showing that it is the most effective method of teaching young people to read, he said.
“There is light at the end of the tunnel,” said Izumi The College Fix in a telephone interview on Wednesday.
Izumi is executive director of the Center for Education at the Pacific Research Institute and author of The Great Classroom Collapse: Teachers, Students, and Parents Expose the Collapse of Learning in America’s Schools, published this summer.
Ed Week recently reported that the “Science of Reading movement is sweeping state legislatures,” adding that in the past decade, “39 states and the District of Columbia have passed laws or implemented new policies related to evidence-based reading instruction.”
Izumi’s book details the uphill battle lawmakers face: A 2023 report by the National Council on Teacher Quality found that 75 percent of college teacher education programs examined failed to include proven components of “reading science.”
“Equally worrying is the NCTQ’s finding that four out of 10 teacher training programmes ‘still teach several methods that contradict long-standing research evidence, which can undermine the impact of evidence-based reading instruction.'”
But the wave of policies promoting “reading science” programs in grades 1-12 classrooms and in schools is promising, even if it’s like turning the Titanic around, Izumi said.
“Maybe we can still turn the Titanic in time – at least for the children who enter this system,” he said, adding that it is too late for the entire “lost generation of children” who were taught using this failed method.
“Practices that contradict scientific evidence include teaching methods such as balanced literacy, the three-cueing system, readers’ workshop, and leveled texts,” says Izumi’s book, which combines data with personal anecdotes from professors and teachers who have grappled with how to teach children using unproven methods.
He described the change as an “awakening,” but warned that the damage had already been done. Professors, for example, had simplified their classes and reduced the amount of reading and homework, he said.
“Given this lost generation of children who have come through the education system, will the turnaround in the education system happen in time or will we still perish because of this glitch,” he said.
“For some time at least, even under the best of circumstances, we will be dealing with an underprepared workforce.”
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IMAGE: Kathy Hochul YouTube page
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