To look inside Julie Celestial’s kindergarten classroom in Long Beach is to peer into the future of reading in California. During a recent lesson, 25 kindergartners gazed at the whiteboard, trying to ...

To the editor: In 1970, I was a student teacher and then a second-grade teacher in New York. I later became a learning and reading specialist and taught the teachers. Throughout my training, I learned ...

Can you spell deja vu? 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 ...

Last April, Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas pulled a bill on early literacy instruction and asked proponents and adversaries to reach a compromise on legislation for improving the reading skills of ...

The students in Emily Hoard’s first-grade class trace letters in their sand trays, then break down the sounds the letters make in simple words. This is what the science of reading looks like as Hoard ...

In October, the Washington Post declared the victory of phonics over whole language instruction. California was bowing to reality, joining red states like Mississippi, Alabama and Louisiana in ...

Literacy rates in the United States have been declining for over a decade, with the COVID-19 pandemic worsening the trend. Experts suggest that language development begins in utero and that reading to ...