Turning the Page
Students in Oakland, California participated in "buddy reading," dispersing to different spots in the classroom to read aloud to each other, and practice their phonics lessons. Photo courtesy of Emily Hanford/APM Reports
Educators, parents and policy-makers are grappling with a new understanding of what children actually need to become good readers. What is the impact on English Language Learners in classrooms across the U.S.?
Editor’s note: “Sold a Story” is available in English. A special version in Spanish is hosted by palabra’s managing editor Valeria Fernández.
Haga clic aquí para leer el reportaje en español.
From the early 1990s until recently, many American schools embraced a way of teaching reading known as balanced literacy. This methodology often involved having students figure out or guess at words according to context and pictures, rather than identifying letters and sounding out words. In the past few years, however, balanced literacy’s effectiveness has faced increased scrutiny — with some educators, researchers and parents saying that its indirect approach may not be the best way to teach children — especially those with learning disabilities or who are English Language Learners.
Nowadays there’s a rapid shift underway, pivoting from balanced literacy to an approach known as the science of reading. Based on a large body of scientifically-based research, including discoveries in neuroscience about how the brain functions as it processes the written word, the science of reading utilizes phonemic awareness and emphasizes teaching the sounds that letters or groups of letters represent, and word decoding strategies.
In 2022, American Public Media released a podcast titled “Sold a Story,” which took a critical look at the balanced literacy curriculum and the educators and publishers who supported it. Today, dozens of states have moved away from the balanced literacy curriculum — replacing it with more direct and explicit instructional methods. Still, the science of reading approach has not been universally adopted, and according to the National Council on Teacher Quality, several states lack strong policies to effectively bring this approach into the classroom.
“Sold a Story” brought to light concerning statistics about literacy rates among children in the U.S. and found that, according to data released in 2022, half of Latino fourth graders were at or below basic reading levels. Poor reading skills can have negative repercussions in a child’s life beyond the classroom. Difficulty reading is linked to struggling with other subjects in school, emotional and behavioral problems, dropout rates, and future involvement in the criminal justice system. Amidst the shifting landscape across the US, what can parents — especially within Spanish-speaking and Latino families — do to ensure that their children are receiving high quality reading instruction? palabra sat down with Emily Hanford, the journalist who produced “Sold a Story” to talk about what she believes her findings mean for all students — including English Language Learners.
The interview has been edited for brevity, clarity and readability.
Emily Hanford, producer of the American Public Media podcast “Sold a Story.” Photo courtesy of Emily Hanford
palabra: You produced a podcast on the problems that some educators had and continue to have, with the balanced literacy teaching methodology. How did you become aware of this issue?
Hanford: It started with an interest in dyslexia. Some of these students who I was meeting…one student in particular — told me he had dyslexia. I didn't know anything about it and started asking the question of whether or not some of the students who were really struggling with basic reading in college had learning disabilities that had never been identified or had never gotten help. (I realized) that this was more than just dyslexia. It was that a lot of kids weren't getting the instruction they needed. I started to learn about a huge body of research which people are now referring to as “the science of reading.”
A few big takeaways are that reading isn’t something that…our brains are wired to (do). As human beings, we've been talking to each other and getting really good at talking for a long, long, long time. But we haven't actually been reading and writing for very long, and only about 5,000 years ago we started doing that. When we're born, we're born with brains that are sort of set and ready to acquire spoken language. But reading is not the same way. Being surrounded by books isn’t enough to get most people reading. What the scientific research shows is that it requires explicit instruction. Some of us need very little. Some of us need a lot, and it doesn’t have to do with intelligence.
Kindergartners in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, practice reading. The district has invested in "science of reading" training for all its elementary teachers and principals. Photo courtesy of Emily Hanford/APM Reports
palabra: The students that you mentioned earlier who had problems with reading, were they from lower socioeconomic backgrounds or did the problem cut across ethnic and socioeconomic lines?
Hanford: I think it does cut across socioeconomic lines…but as with all things in education, there are strong correlations between your family income and educational background and your education proficiency readiness. (Some) had all the advantages and went to school and reading was really hard for them. That’s because they had everything except that really good instruction in decoding how you read the words.
palabra: Can you help us understand what balanced literacy is?
Hanford: Balanced literacy came about as sort of a truce in the reading wars of the 1990s where people were fighting a lot about phonics. There was this really anti-phonics feel for a while. There was something called “whole language” (where) you don’t need to teach a child how to read the words, you can (simply) immerse them in books and they will learn to read through that process...And then balanced literacy emerged as a kind of compromise...with the idea that you teach a little bit of phonics, too. (But) balanced literacy had retained this idea that (existed) in whole language, which is that you don't have to teach kids how to read the words — they can figure it out, if you teach them all these other strategies. The problem is that when you teach little kids — who are beginning to read — that there are lots of strategies they can use to figure out words — that they don’t have to look closely at the words and sound them out — you actually teach kids the habits of a struggling reader. People who never really learn how to read very well often will do a lot of looking at the first letter and just thinking of a word that makes sense, getting the gist of it, skipping a lot of words because they can't figure them out, trying to use the context to figure out what's going on.
palabra: Based on your research, does balanced literacy make it difficult for all children to learn to read or is it mostly children who have dyslexia, cognitive challenges or are English Language Learners?
Hanford: No, I think it’s making it harder for a lot of children to learn to read. I’ve had teachers who said it’s more difficult for all kids. Some of the children can persist through it. It really doesn’t matter how you teach them — they’ll become pretty good readers anyway. It’s hard to get a really good number on that. Some of us will learn to read pretty well no matter how we are taught. But for another 40-65% of us, instruction really matters.
palabra: What have you learned specifically about how balanced literacy instruction may have impacted some English Language Learners?
Hanford: A child who is still learning to speak and understand English, who is coming into school, has pretty big needs. They still need to get a lot of help and direct and explicit lessons in learning the English language — how to speak it and understand it. They really need to learn the English alphabet — the tricky things that the English alphabet can do, which are very different from Spanish in terms of how letters and combinations of letters represent sounds and English words. Whereas for example, in Spanish ... there's a transparent relationship between the letters and the sounds.
There’s really a role for some good, direct and explicit instruction in vocabulary and language development. Balanced literacy wasn’t really doing that. We need to think of ways to really make sure we’re reaching all kids, and we’re doing it efficiently and effectively and trying to get students up to speed quickly. We have a ton of research that shows that explicit and direct instruction does that. So I think that balance literacy’s weakness was not just in not doing enough of the word reading, but it was really missing the importance of direct instruction in lots of areas, including language comprehension.
Teachers in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania use a curriculum that mixes teacher-directed whole-class phonics lessons with small-group practice. Photo courtesy of Emily Hanford/APM Reports
palabra: In your podcast you mentioned that through your investigation, you found that a third of students were reading below basic level. Was this more prevalent in urban school districts?
Hanford: According to recent data, about 37% of all students struggle to read at a basic level in the 4th grade. Looking at Hispanic fourth graders, about 50% are below basic. This is more of a problem in lower-income urban districts, but it’s also a problem (in areas) that people (would call) really high performing. It gets masked because a lot of children get tutoring and extra help outside of school when they are struggling.
palabra: Some educators from urban school districts might argue that low reading scores in urban areas with high concentrations of low-income families has been a constant for years and cannot be attributed to any one reading approach. Based on your research is there any validity to that argument?
Hanford: What we know is that instruction can be powerful. Kids can be taught things and learn them really well if they are taught well. What we haven’t been doing for 50 years is taking what has been learned about learning, and what they need to be taught, and translating that into practice in schools.
palabra: Have you come across any data that shows that students can make up for learning losses in reading? Say, people who were struggling readers, guessing at the words at (ages) 18 or 17, are they still guessing at the words at 35? And 40?
Hanford: Yes, we have some research that shows that in the absence of getting good instruction, yes, most kids who are really struggling with reading in third grade are never going to become very good readers unless something happens, unless they get some good instruction along the way. The trajectory of those long term (National Institute of Child Health and Human Development) studies shows that if you have a problem with reading early, you still have that problem later on, unless someone intervenes. (...) One thing I can say is that there's a lot of research that shows that you can be taught to read at any age. There are definitely people who really can't read very well at all, who can be taught in their 40s and 50s, and they can learn how to do it.
palabra: What steps can parents take to ensure that the reading programs being used at their child’s school align with the latest scientific research?
Hanford: I think it’s important to ask questions specifically about how you are teaching my child to read. The really important thing for parents to recognize is if they have a gut level feeling that something might be wrong with their child in reading–act on that.
An overhaul of reading instruction to focus more on phonics has accelerated the reading progress of kindergarten students in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Photo courtesy of Emily Hanford/APM Reports
palabra: What can parents, who may not speak English — Spanish-speaking parents — do to support their children at home?
Hanford: Read to them in Spanish. It’s really important to read to children in whatever language that you are confident in. Get your child really good in that language. I think that a lot of parents think that it’s not going to be helpful, but there is research that shows oral language proficiency in one language really does translate to learning another language.
We have so much evidence that parents who get involved and read to (their children), while providing them with experiences outside of school to gain knowledge and gain understanding of the outside world and meet people — those kids have such an advantage in so many ways. I think it's really important, though, to recognize that not all kids are going to be in that environment, right? And there's a reason for school. Schools have a role to play here. And I think schools can do more on the instruction side than many of them have been doing (with) this reading stuff.
Saida Pagán is a Los Angeles-based freelance journalist. Born and raised in New York City, and of Puerto Rican heritage, Pagán has reported, anchored and produced for news organizations across the United States. She received a B.A. from the City University of New York and holds a master’s degree with distinction in Strategic Communication from National University. In the past few years, Pagán has won two Golden Mike Awards, seven Los Angeles Press Club-sponsored awards for entertainment journalism and three awards from the National Association of Telecommunications Officers and Advisors for her work in government television. She invites readers to follow her on LinkedIn and subscribe to her YouTube channel: “American Stories with Saida Pagan.” @SaidaPagan
Other palabra articles by Saida Pagán: On Higher Ground, Escarabajo Power, Educación 2023, Budding Cineastas, Tales of Strength, Reimagining a Hollywood Classic, Everything for the Family, Telling Our Own Stories, Rewriting The Script
Virginia Lora is an independent audio producer, reporter and editor who works in English and Spanish, and dabbles in French. Born in Peru, she moved to the U.S. at age 13 and grew up in Miami, Florida. Much of her interest in stories that center the margins comes from her early-career experiences interviewing people in communities all over the country for an oral history project, and her own immigration experience. She earned a B.A. in History and French, as well as a certificate in Latin American & Latino studies from Amherst College, and trained in narrative audio at the Transom Story Workshop. @VirginiaLoraC
Other palabra articles edited by Virginia Lora: How I Healed Post-Layoff, Bracing for Impact, Armados pero Ansiosos