EDITORIAL: The rise of phonics

Millions of functionally illiterate children later, some in the education establishment have rediscovered the benefit of phonics.

America’s reading instruction is a national crisis. You’re likely aware that the Clark County School District isn’t doing a great job teaching students to read. Just 24 percent of fourth graders scored proficient or better on the Nation’s Report Card. In eighth grade, it’s 27 percent.

Unfortunately, the results aren’t much better across the country. Nationally, just 33 percent of fourth graders and 31 percent of eighth graders are proficient in reading. The coronavirus-induced move to virtual learning didn’t help. But proficiency scores are only a few percentage points lower than pre-pandemic. Something has been broken for decades.

As The New York Times recently reported, there’s a movement among education professionals and parents across the country to try something new. Or, more accurately, something quite old — phonics.

Phonics teaches students to sound out letters and letter combinations. Take a simple word such as “cat.” Initially, students don’t look at the word as a whole. Teachers drill students in the sound made by each individual letter. That allows the student to sound out each individual letter, eventually blending it into a single word. As students progress, they learn to identify the sounds made by specific groups of letters, such as “ch” and “tion.”

Some words, such as “the” and “of,” have to be memorized. But most words can be decoded once a child knows the basics. Having the tools to sound out words unlocks language, especially as students move on to more difficult texts.

Many Americans, especially among older generations, learned to read this way. But some decades ago, modern education theorists decided an approach called “whole word” instruction was best. In this method, students look at the word as a whole. They either memorize it or guess its meaning from the context or pictures. This method also focuses on developing a love of books.

As it turns out, it’s a lot easier to love books when you can read the words contained within them. “Drill and kill” may not be very exciting for teachers, but it sure is effective. The phonics movement has seen a boost as cognitive science shows it’s the best way to teach reading. So do the results.

Mississippi saw its reading scores among low performers increase after passing phonics-based reading instruction in 2013. The results were especially dramatic among African American students. Scores in Washington, D.C., improved after leaders required more phonics instructions.

Now, almost 20 states have pushed forward with requirements for phonics, pushing aside the failed faddish education policies of recent years. That’s long overdue.