The history of literacy instruction in the United States by Lee-Anne Adams

1700s–Mid-1800s

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Children are taught to read through memorization of the alphabet, practice with sound-letter correspondences, and spelling lists. The prevailing texts used for teaching reading are the Bible and political essays.

Mid-1800s

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Inspired by Jeffersonian democratic ideals, some educators criticized phonics and advocated for a meaning-based approach to learning to read.

Late 1800s

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All-purpose reading materials are replaced by graded readers designed to match a child’s age and ability.

1930s–1970s

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A look-say or whole word (not whole language) approach, exemplified by the “Dick and Jane” reading series, dominates reading instruction in schools. Instruction emphasizes comprehension.

1957

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Rudolph Flesch’s best-selling book, Why Johnny Can’t Read, urges a return to phonics instruction. In a sharp political and emotional attack, Flesch accuses the whole word approach “of gradually destroying democracy.”

1960’s

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Elkonin boxes were first used by Russian psychologist D.B. El’konin in the 1960s. El’konin studied young children (5 to 6 years old) and created the method of using boxes to segment words into individual SOUNDS.

1967

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Jeanne Chall’s book, Learning to Read: The Great Debate, is published. Chall continues to advocate for direct instruction in phonics. Early 1970s: Reading Recovery was developed by Marie Clay, a New Zealand educator and psychologist.

1970s

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The whole language philosophy, which has diverse intellectual roots in Australia, Europe, and North America, emerges. The philosophy promotes a meaning-based approach to learning to read.

Mid-1970s

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Research on reading shifts from a focus on texts to an emphasis on how readers construct meaning.

1983

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Jeanne S. Chall republishes “Learning to Read: The Great Debate,” with new research findings strengthening the case for phonics.

1984

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Reading Recovery was first introduced in the United States through the Ohio State University by Gay Su Pinnell and Charlotte Huck.

1985

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Mary Clay and Barbara Watson came to Ohio to begin teaching one trainer, three teacher leaders and 13 teachers. Marie Clay introduced Elkonin Boxes as a part of writing during her reading recovery lessons with children. Classroom teachers saw the value of the tool and wanted to use them in their classroom writing as well.

1987

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Educational leaders in California, through the state’s English/Language Arts Framework, institute a large-scale, statewide adoption of Whole Language as the method for teaching beginning reading in the state’s grade schools. Many states follow California’s lead.

1988

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Researcher Marie Carbo reanalyzes Chall’s earlier research on reading, calling some of the data analysis into question. A lengthy research debate ensues.

1990

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Beginning to Read, a landmark study by psychologist Marilyn Adams, analyzes the role of phonics in beginning reading programs. The book fuels controversy over the nature of reading instruction.

1990’s

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Brain research using functional MRI (fMRI) shows that the brain reads sound by sound.

1993

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The National Assessment of Educational Progress [16], a federal study doing a state-by-state comparison of reading proficiency, ranks California fourth-graders fifth from the bottom among the fifty states. Three years later, gobsmacked Californians find they are ranked at the very bottom (just behind Mississippi). An astounding 77% of fourth graders are ranked “below grade level.” [17]

40 Professors of Linguistics in Massachusetts write a letter to the State Commissioner of Education to protest the attempted introduction of Whole Language.

1994

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Low reading scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) in California lead to a pro-phonics backlash against the whole language movement.

Mid-1990s

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Studies released by the National Institute for Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) of the National Institutes of Health indicate that children with reading difficulties benefit from explicit phonics instruction. Researchers believe the findings support phonics instruction for all students.

1995

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California adopts two statutes known as the “ABC” laws, which require, in part, that the state board of education adopt instructional materials, including “systematic, explicit phonics, spelling, and basic computational skills.”

1996

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President Clinton launches the America Reads Challenge, a program to address national literacy concerns. Legislation corresponding with the initiative identifies reading instruction as a “local decision.”

1997

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The Clinton administration proposes a voluntary national test of 4th grade reading ability.

Several California school systems are charged with violating the ABC statutes by using state funds to purchase non-approved whole language instructional materials.
Reading instruction continues to generate debate from local to national levels.

1998

leeanne30 — 2025-03-31 10:13:33 UTC

Reading researcher Linnea Ehri proposes four phases of sight word learning [18]. Her studies reveal that it is only when beginning readers can form “complete connections” between all the letters (graphemes) seen in a word’s written form and all the sounds (phonemes) heard in its spoken form, that sight word learning becomes unconscious and automatic – a process she calls orthographic mapping.

1997 – 2000

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The US Congress convenes a National Reading Panel with the mandate to examine all reputable scientific research available on how to teach children to read, and then to determine the most effective method.

The National Reading Panel completes its 480-page report, delivering a strong rebuke to Whole Language proponents. It concludes that “systematic” phonics, not Whole Language, is the best method for teaching beginning readers – and that such phonics must be taught explicitly, rather than on a “discovery” or “as-needed” basis. It also concludes that the best time to teach phonics is in kindergarten or first grade (the traditional start of formal reading instruction), before a child starts to read by other means.
Present: Many members of the education establishment (the ILA, the NCTE, professors in teaching colleges, many school administrators) do not react favorably to the National Reading Panel’s final report. However, the Panel’s multiple recommendations in support of systematic phonics can’t simply be ignored – many parents and legislators are clamoring for a “return to phonics.” What happens is that the name, “Whole Language,” vanishes from the education scene and from education journals. What takes its place is called “Balanced Literacy” or “The Balanced Approach.”

2000’s

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Brain research shows changes in the brain and reading improvement when phonics is taught to poor readers. [21] [22]

2001

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No Child Left Behind (NCLB) legislation passed. The Reading First portion of NCLB mandates phonics instruction.

2005

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Australia publishes its own national inquiry into the teaching of reading. The study closely follows the lead of the US National Reading Panel in that it rejects Whole Language and, in its place, recommends systematic phonics.

2006

leeanne30 — 2025-03-31 11:02:17 UTC

A study found that students with dyslexia that were taught spelling in a phonetic manner improved their spelling. The study also found that this type of teaching “can actually change their brains’ activity patterns to better resemble the brains of normal spellers.”

2010

leeanne30 — 2025-03-31 11:04:18 UTC

The Common Core National Standards are released with a complete section on Foundational Reading Skills which focused on systematic instruction in phonological awareness, phonics, and sight words and stated that these skills are essential for many students and has been proven to accelerate students’ reading development.

2015

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A Stanford brain wave study shows how different teaching methods affect reading development, with phonics showing increased activity of the area of the brain best wired for reading.

2018

leeanne30 — 2025-03-31 11:06:58 UTC

The article “Hard Words” by Emily Hanford sparks a new interest and conversation in how reading is taught and the science of reading. Now, states are taking notice and passing new laws to ensure that schools are using research-based reading instruction. Such legislation lands squarely on one side of the reading wars: the side backed by the science of reading. The term “science of reading” refers to the research that reading experts, especially cognitive scientists, have conducted on how we learn to read. This body of knowledge, over twenty years in the making, has helped debunk older methods of reading instruction that were based on tradition and observation, not evidence. Based on the science of reading, the 2000 National Reading Panel Report stated that students need explicit instruction in the essential components of reading: phonological awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and reading comprehension. The key differentiator between the science of reading approach and alternatives is phonics.

2019

leeanne30 — 2025-03-31 11:08:23 UTC

The National Right to Read Foundation (NRRF) summarizes the science of reading with updated brain research information.

Present

leeanne30 — 2025-03-31 11:08:51 UTC

As of March 20, 2025, 40 U.S. states and the District of Columbia have enacted laws or implemented policies promoting the "science of reading," which emphasizes evidence-based reading instruction methods. This movement has gained momentum over the past decade, with a significant number of states adopting such legislation to improve literacy outcomes.