The Science of Reading Needs Support Amid 2022 Foundational Literacy Reports

The science of reading might require some support in the coming year as 2022 foundational literacy reports showed shocking but not surprising results in the National Association for Educational Progress data assessment. Due to the various obstacles the education system has faced over the past several years, reading scores declined significantly in the aftermath of COVID-19 as teachers struggled to get students in the classroom to learn essential foundational skills.

How can the education system recover from these setbacks and redirect these trends to yield a more positive result? According to the Director of Foundational Literacy, Renaissance, Michelle Hosp believes the answer lies in the science of reading.

Michelle’s Thoughts:

“Foundational literacy refers to those skills. All students need to learn to be proficient. Reader’s skills such as pharmacological awareness, phonics, and vocabulary, the science of reading is a large body of research conducted over many years that informs what we know about reading and writing development, the science of reading supports skills covered in foundational literacy that students need to be taught.

In order to become proficient readers, the majority of students who struggle in reading struggle with foundational skills. What this means for our education system is that we need to be vigilant about assessing and teaching foundational reading skills to all of our students. It is a social justice issue because we know if we do not teach our students to be proficient readers by the end of the third, They are four times more likely to drop out of school.

They are going to have fewer opportunities in life and risk being caught up in the correctional system where over 80% of the population struggles to read. It is our most important job as educators to support our students to read so that they have choices and opportunities in and out of school.”