4:16 p.m. June 2, 2025: An earlier version of this report incorrectly said teaching phonics was new to Long Beach Unified. Some phonics has been taught in the district for years, but a new focus on ...

The battle over the best way to teach children how to read has re-erupted in the California Legislature, as dueling factions haggle over a bill that would mandate a phonics-based style of reading ...

A third-grader works through a phonics lesson in Washington, Ill. Editor at Large As a teacher in Oakland, Calif., Kareem Weaver helped struggling fourth- and fifth-grade kids learn to read by using a ...

The stakes are high, as California’s reading scores have stagnated since the pandemic. Nearly 60% of third graders weren’t reading at grade level last year, with some student groups faring even worse.

California took a big step toward overhauling its reading curriculum last week when Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill pushing for phonics-based instruction in elementary and middle school classrooms.

Test scores at 66 of the state’s lowest-performing schools strongly outpaced similar schools after educators adopted phonics-based instruction, offering some of the most compelling evidence to date ...

Phonics is a cornerstone skill, both in the context of the Science of Reading as well as across curricula. If students do not have the basic ability to read words on a page, any other instruction a ...

The reading wars have become a tool used to further polarize and divide an already fraught educational climate, and the victims of this war are our nation’s students. At the forefront of conversations ...

Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights. Natalie Wexler is an education writer focusing on literacy. Oct 10, 2023, 12:05pm EDT Oct 13, 2023, 02:47pm EDT This article is ...