Policy Backgrounders

Reading Instruction Revamped Across the Country

March 01, 2024

Trusted Insights for What’s Ahead™

In the past decade, almost three-quarters of US states have established new laws to revamp reading instruction; most legislative action has taken place following the COVID-19 pandemic. Some states are seeking increased funding for these initiatives in this year’s state budgets now being discussed in legislatures.

• The transformation in reading instruction is likely a response to pandemic learning loss, which was demonstrated through a historic, 30-year decline in student achievement on the National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP) in 2022.
• This shift is bipartisan, with both Republican and Democratic state leaders driving a shift toward an approach to reading instruction termed the “science of reading.”
• The movement is both widespread and state led. It includes the states with the five highest levels of public school enrollment: California, Texas, Florida, New York, and Illinois.
• The approach is driven by learnings from brain development science revealing that reading must be taught explicitly, unlike the natural development of language in the right environment. This departs from some prevailing practices that minimize explicit, traditional instruction.