By Mary McFarlin
The United States and Washington State are facing a literacy crisis. In 2024 in the U.S., based on the National Assessment of Educational Progress, only 30% of fourth graders and 29% of eighth graders scored as proficient in reading.
While our averages in Washington are somewhat higher than nationally, we still have a long way to go – in 2024, only 31% of eighth graders performed at or above the NAEP-proficient level.
Why are literacy rates in the U.S. so low? According to investigative journalist Emily Hanford, we were “Sold a Story.” Her podcast series examines how debunked reading methods like “three-cueing” (an approach that encourages students to guess words using meaning, sentence structure, and visual clues rather than decoding them through phonics) became widespread in U.S. schools.
She reveals how influential publishers, curriculum authors, and teacher training programs promoted strategies not supported by the science of how children learn to read. Instead of basing instruction on decades of research supporting systematic, explicit techniques – including phonics – teachers relied on (and many still rely on) approaches based on “whole language” and “balanced literacy.”
The result is that millions of children – especially students with language-based learning differences such as dyslexia – were never taught how to decode words accurately.
According to the “Science of Reading,” explicit, systematic instruction that includes phonics is best for children learning to read and spell because it aligns with how the brain connects print to speech. The Science of Reading is a body of research from cognitive psychology and neuroscience showing how children learn to read; it emphasizes explicit, structured instruction in phonics, vocabulary, fluency, and comprehension.
Reading is not a natural process – unlike spoken language, it must be taught. Systematic phonics instruction helps children build the neural connections between sounds (phonemes) and letters (graphemes), allowing them to decode unfamiliar words accurately and automatically. This foundation supports fluent reading, spelling, and comprehension. Without explicit instruction, many children are left to guess words from context or pictures, which hinders reading development.
Phonics began to “go out of style” in the 1980s and 1990s with the rise of the “Whole Language” movement in the U.S. and other English-speaking countries. Whole Language emphasized meaning-making, rich literature, and natural language exposure rather than explicit instruction in phonics or decoding. Teachers were encouraged to let children “discover” how words worked through context, pictures, and experience with texts – rather than through direct teaching of letter-sound relationships.
This approach gained popularity in teacher education programs and classrooms throughout the 1990s, often replacing or minimizing systematic phonics.
“Balanced literacy” is an approach to reading instruction that emerged as a compromise between Whole Language and phonics-based instruction. It incorporates some phonics instruction but emphasizes reading strategies like using context or pictures to guess words. It often lacks the explicit, systematic phonics instruction supported by the Science of Reading, making it less effective – especially for struggling readers.
Some states are changing their legislation around reading – they are identifying students at risk for reading difficulties and implementing evidence-based reading instruction grounded in the Science of Reading.
There is a “Southern Surge” in states such as Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana. In recent years, these historically low-performing states have implemented evidence-based reading instructional practices and have shown significant gains on assessments such as the NAEP. For example, in 2013 Mississippi ranked 49th in the nation for its fourth-grade reading scores, but ranked ninth by 2024.
How did they achieve “The Mississippi Miracle?”
In 2013, Mississippi enacted a comprehensive early literacy policy, including investments in teacher training and coaching, early screening, and targeted assistance for struggling readers. Teaching practices based on the Science of Reading were implemented in classrooms across the state.
In Washington State, some legislative changes have occurred over the past several years. Starting in the 2021–22 school year, school districts have been required to screen for dyslexia indicators in kindergarten through second grade. And students in grades K-2 who display areas of weakness have been offered multitiered systems of support.
In September, our governor officially recognized October as Dyslexia Awareness Month, and recent bills aim to mandate the use of structured literacy approaches for reading intervention. Institutions such as the City University of Seattle offer programs centered on the Science of Reading, emphasizing the importance of evidence-based literacy instruction for all students.
Additionally, some state districts, such as Issaquah, are adopting evidence-based curricula aligned with the Science of Reading. Several years ago, The Seattle Times featured an article titled, “Why Wenatchee Schools Turned to Brain Science to Help Kids Read.” It discussed how the Wenatchee School District successfully adopted the Science of Reading approach to improve literacy outcomes for students.
All students, at any age, benefit from explicit, systematic, structured literacy instruction. If policy changes are implemented at the state level, Washington too can improve its literacy rates!
Mary Blomgren McFarlin, M.A., C-SLDS, author of The Morphology Kit®, spent a number of years working as a professionally certified Educational Therapist and now specializes in structured literacy as a Dyslexia Specialist.
