September 2022 marked the beginning of the Curriculum for Wales rollout. In the United States – my home country – 2022 was also the school year the nation’s largest school district (New York City) changed its approach to teaching children how to read [1] Amid these changes, let’s take a look at how the “Reading Wars” are playing out in the United States, England, and Wales.
Previously, the New York City school district had endorsed the “balanced literacy” approach pioneered by Lucy Calkins, an American theorist inspired by 1970s England’s approach to education [2]. Balanced literacy, a close cousin of the “whole language” approach [3], is a reading philosophy involving guided and independent reading, encouraging children to use context and picture clues to derive the meaning of words rather than “sounding them out.” As practiced, this approach often lacks a consistent emphasis on phonics, or learning what letters and letter combinations sound like when read aloud, which allows readers to “decode” unfamiliar words.
Developments in cognitive science, persistently low reading scores, and activism by parents of children with dyslexia have led to a changing tide in the US education landscape, with many school districts realising that the balanced literacy approach as implemented was disadvantaging children. This is especially urgent for children from low-income families and Black and Latinx children, about one if five of whom are proficient in reading by the fourth grade, as compared to just over one in three children in American schools on average [4]. As such, many American school districts have begun promoting a phonics-based “science of reading” approach. Even Calkins, who developed the balanced literacy approach, has suggested a “rebalancing” with phonics is needed and has modified her own curriculum [5]. All of these moves have been subject to criticism [6]
The Reading Wars have been similarly heated on this side of the Atlantic – though probably more in England than in Wales. In the early 2000s, teaching reading in England followed a “balanced instruction” approach, with some (non-systematic) phonics teaching. However, the 2006 publication of the “Rose Report” catalysed changes in both policy and classroom practice in England. These included the introduction in 2012 of phonics-related assessments such as the Phonics Screening Check for England’s Year 1 learners in maintained schools, the requirement that the results of this test be used in inspections of school effectiveness, and the 2014 national curriculum which further emphasised synthetic phonics [7]. A high-profile 2021 study from University College London (UCL) researchers underscored that the teaching of reading in England has “changed significantly for the first time in modern history” as a result of specific policy changes. It is now heavily centered on synthetic phonics, leading to heated public debate [8] and reports that England’s approach is “failing children.” [9] The UCL paper argues an overemphasis on synthetic phonics at the expense of other reading skills is dangerous, suggesting a greater focus on “contextualized reading teaching.” It also offers a critique of direct national government control over curriculum and pedagogy [10].
Wales did not follow in England’s footsteps in conducting a “Rose Review” of its own [11] but the country has not been spared from the Reading Wars [12] and literacy has been the subject of debate in Wales over the last two decades. For example, the introduction of a statutory Literacy and Numeracy Framework in 2013 was partly a response to the perceived ineffectiveness of a non-statutory Skills framework that had been in place since 2008. It also followed PISA test results [13] which showed Welsh learners underperforming in reading and mathematics as compared to those in other UK and OECD nations [14].
Compared to much of the US and England, Wales seems to have struck a middle ground in its embrace of phonics, emphasising context and learner needs according to school and teacher discretion. Literacy remains a priority and mandatory cross-curricular skill in the new Curriculum for Wales [15]. Reading skills are developed as part of the “Languages, Literacy, and Communication” Area of Learning and Experience, which relies on the concept of a language learning continuum, at the beginning of which are early steps in language learning, such as grapheme-phoneme correspondence. The new curriculum underscores the importance of phonological and phonemic awareness, taught systematically and consistently “when appropriate for the learner.” This should take place alongside other activities to build vocabulary and comprehension in language-rich environments [16]. It is consistent with Wales’ historic approach to reading teaching, which has allowed teachers to take local approaches, with varying levels of use of synthetic phonics [17]
A prominent feature of the Reading Wars is the debate around who makes curricular decisions for a nation’s schools. Curriculum for Wales places significant emphasis on curriculum development at a school level [18] In contrast, England’s national curriculum and related assessments are much more directive over teachers’ approaches to reading instruction. When looking at developments in the United States’, which does not have a national curriculum, it is notable that New York City school district’s decision to require teachers to implement one of several phonics-based curricula for young learners is a striking departure from the typical approach of “curricular choice” for school principals [19]
With consistent calls for teacher perspectives and research evidence to both be centered in any decisions made in relation to the Reading Wars [20] and in a context where children’s communication skills are developing even more variably since the Covid-19 pandemic [21], it is clear that a considered approach to literacy is more important than ever.
[1] https://ny.chalkbeat.org/2022/5/12/23069423/nyc-schools-dyslexia-phonics-curriculum-eric-adams, https://www.vox.com/23815311/science-of-reading-movement-literacy-learning-loss
[2] https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/06/podcasts/the-daily/reading-school-phonics.html?showTranscript=1
[3] https://www.newyorker.com/news/annals-of-education/the-rise-and-fall-of-vibes-based-literacy
[4] https://time.com/6205084/phonics-science-of-reading-teachers/
[5] https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/22/us/reading-teaching-curriculum-phonics.html
[6] https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/25/nyregion/nyc-public-schools-reading.html
[7] https://bera-journals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/rev3.3314, p.9
[10] https://bera-journals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/rev3.3314
[11] https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/wales-wont-follow-phonics-reading-2391730
[12] See, for example, this letter to the First Minister https://rrf.org.uk/2021/06/05/a-letter-to-the-first-minister-of-wales/ and the Minister for Education and Welsh Language’s response. https://rrf.org.uk/2021/06/05/a-letter-to-the-first-minister-of-wales/
[13] https://www.oecd.org/pisa/aboutpisa/
[17] https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/phonics-gets-english-call-2363611
[19] https://ny.chalkbeat.org/2022/5/12/23069423/nyc-schools-dyslexia-phonics-curriculum-eric-adams
[20] https://bera-journals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/rev3.3314 , https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/25/nyregion/nyc-public-schools-reading.html
[21] E.g., https://doi.org/10.1177/0194599820978247 and policy responses e.g., https://www.gov.wales/250k-early-years-speech-language-and-communication-support
