Reading instruction reform continues to gain acceptance, but about a third of teachers are still using “discredited” methods to teach kids how to read and aren’t fully committed to the science of reading, according to a new report cited in The 74.
In a survey of more than 1,200 K-3 educators in the fall of 2025, researchers at the Fordham Institute, an education reform nonprofit, found 30% of teachers don’t “favor phonics,” a core component in the science of reading that teaches students how letters represent sounds and how to blend sounds together.
The number of teachers “less informed and committed” to the science of reading is even greater in high poverty schools, according to the From the Teacher’s Desk: A Science of Reading Progress Report.
About half of all surveyed K-3 teachers said they teach with a “structured approach” which includes a mix of “instruction in phonics, decoding, and related skills,” the report said. Nearly one in three teachers use a “balanced approach,” where students are asked to figure out unfamiliar words through context clues or pictures. This practice, known as cueing, has been banned in some states.
Thirty percent of teachers reported favoring both phonics and cueing for reading instruction and 2% said they preferred cueing over phonics, according to the report.
Researchers said “significant bumps, detours, and even ‘reading wars,’” around the best way to teach kids to read partly accounts for teacher hesitancy and/or inexperience with parts of the science of reading.
As of late March, 42 states, and Washington D.C. have implemented laws around the science of reading, according to EdWeek. Still, some teachers expressed concerns that the “pendulum swings too far to one side and we need balance.”
“While I support our current emphasis on phonics, I worry that kids are going to lose out with less comprehension and vocabulary instruction,” one teacher said in the report, with another adding “the pendulum swings like political winds. Let us teach. Please!”
The shift to the science of reading has led to “far more non-fiction texts” at the “expense of rich literature” and “guided reading … is out, phonics-based small groups are in,” was another opinion expressed.
Educators who are more positive about the science of reading said the growing emphasis around phonics has “drastically changed how quickly students are able to learn to read,” according to the report.
“They are happier learners because they aren’t as frustrated with reading,” one teacher said. Another added: “the shift to the science of reading has been huge … and has profound effects on teaching kids to read.”
Phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary and comprehension are the foundations of the science of reading. But most of the focus has centered on phonics.
Doubts about the science of reading concerns researchers, says David Griffith, one of the report’s co-authors.
“There is abundant evidence that phonics is successful,” says Griffith, “and what the research shows is that you need to know how to decode words in order to learn how to read. … If kids don’t learn to do this, then they won’t learn to read, and if they don’t learn to read, they won’t learn much else.”
Teacher knowledge around the science of reading is inconsistent, according to the report. More than 40% of teachers hadn’t “fully internalized the importance of knowledge and vocabulary to reading comprehension.”
“The chaotic information environment that the typical teacher is subject to,” has been the biggest hindrance to implementation, says Griffith.
“An older teacher tells you one thing. Your curriculum tells you something else,” he says. “You read an article online written by some think tank and it tells you a third thing. Teachers want to do the right thing, … [but there’s a] lack of clarity … about points that really should be clear.”
Most K-3 teachers have received some type of professional development in the science of reading, the report found. Those who completed courses have a better understanding of the evidence-based approach than those who rely on what they were taught in higher education and teacher preparation programs.
Even with professional development, teachers’ knowledge of the science of reading declined as the grade level increased, with kindergarten teachers “exhibiting the deepest knowledge and third-grade teachers exhibiting the least understanding,” according to researchers.
“If we could somehow improve the quality of pre-service preparation, we would really be making progress, because it is hard to change the practices of teachers who have been teaching for 15 to 20 years,” Griffith says. “It would be enormously helpful if teachers got the right message at the start of their careers.”
Fordham researchers called for colleges of education to require instruction aligned to the science of reading.
Teachers in states with reading-aligned licensure tests had a deeper understanding of the evidence-based reading model, according to the report. Researchers recommended licensure tests for better implementation. Other suggestions: mandates for K-3 teacher training to be completed within their first three years in the classroom, and states establishing approved curriculum lists.
The 74
