ANNA SHAPIRO, LAURA BELLOWS
Translating
Reading
Science into Practice—
Foundational Reading
Instruction in Public
Elementary Schools
Findings from the Spring 2024 American
Instructional Resources Survey
I
mproving the reading achievement of U.S. students is a long-standing challenge. Fewer than one-
third of 4th- and 8th-grade students achieved proficient or advanced scores in reading on the
2024 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP)—a historically low level (Nation’s
Report Card, undated). Moreover, the scores of the lowest-performing readers appear to be
declining more steeply, further widening the reading achievement gap (Turner and Mehta, 2025).
There is a growing recognition that some prevalent methods of early reading instruction might
be drivers of low reading achievement (Moats, 2020). For example, three-quarters of teachers in a
2019 survey reported using three-cueing, which teaches children to use clues about a word’s mean-
ing, syntax, and letters and sounds to identify unfamiliar words (Kurtz et al., 2020). This method,
which is prominent in many popular reading curricula, is not aligned with the science of reading
(Schwartz, 2020).
The science of reading refers to the base of research on how children learn to read and what
instructional practices are most effective. Although evidence-based practices continue to evolve
with new research, some early reading practices, such as providing students explicit instruction
on how to decode unfamiliar words using knowledge of letter and sound relationships, developing
students’ vocabulary, and practicing reading fluency with students, have been shown to be critical
for students’ development of strong reading skills (Foorman et al., 2016).
Research Report
