The Latest in Literacy, 2/21/26
Phonics Wars, Texas book mandates, Sweden's pivot on books, a teacher's meta-analysis on comprehension, and more
Welcome to the second edition of this newsletter, launched last week, as the Southern Surge hit the New York Times and Congress called for a new National Reading Panel.
Here’s why I think we need this sort of roundup. Please share your thoughts on must-read articles in the comments!
Hot Topic: The Phonics Wars
Everyone is asking, and Tim Shanahan answers: Are we teaching too much phonics?
Holly Korbey takes on the question in The Phonics Wars. As educators increasingly question OG-style phonics approaches, she reports on the growing interest in Linguistic Phonics.
I’m here for these conversations. The oral-only phonemic awareness debacle offers an important lesson: the Science of Reading community isn’t always very Sciencey.
My prediction: this will be the conversation of 2026. If it opens up more room in the instructional day, it’ll be worth it.
Hot Topic: Texas Book Mandates
Texas is moving to mandate books in K-12 curricula. You know I worry about books going MIA, and Texas has a good list of candidates, so there’s cause to cheer.
Still, I have mixed opinions about Texas’s approach, and Natalie Wexler does, too.
Robert Pondiscio makes a compelling case for Texas’s approach. “Language proficiency depends on access to a common stock of knowledge that writers assume and readers recognize,” and mandatory book lists help us get back to a literary canon.
In The News
“Screen-based learning led to falling literacy rates” in Sweden, and now there’s a major push to return books to classrooms.
Researchers identify differences in the brains of dyslexic students—and show that these brain regions can be strengthened with intervention.
The Literacy Zeitgeist
Teacher Nate Joseph went down the rabbit hole on reading comprehension research, and he just published a peer-reviewed meta-analysis on his findings. [Post-script: this meta was soon questioned by the field.]
The Kids Aren’t Reading for fun, and Chad Aldeman has the stats to prove it.
Faith Howard realized she was “doing fluency wrong,” largely due to lackluster passages. Steal her new tactics!
Samantha Lippert is on a mission to get 100% of her students to Oral Reading Fluency benchmarks. Read about her plan.
Are you the next Goyen Literacy Fellow? They’re accepting applications.
EduChatter
Parents are opting out of ed tech and organizing to root Chromebooks out of classrooms.
What else do parents say about K-12 Ed nowadays? A massive national survey reports on parent attitudes about schools. A standout finding: 1 in 4 students has received tutoring in the last year.
Coming Attractions
Faith Howard and Anajette McNeely are presenting on elementary-secondary reading connections, with tips and lessons learned, on 2/24.
Mark your calendars for ResearchEd NYC on May 2nd. Zaretta Hammond and Nidhi Sachdeva will keynote. I’ll be presenting, and hope to see you!
Beyond the Edusphere
The more time children spend outside, the better their ADHD symptoms tend to be, according to a study from the Files of the Predictable.
Thanks for reading! Nominate a story for this newsletter here.
Thanks for the shout-out!
I agree with Robert Pondiscio. People need to have a shared body of knowledge as a baseline ( which doesn't mean other stuff can't or shouldn't be taught)
And in our society there will be a significant amount of judeo, christian literature, as part of that knowledge.
For example, if I reference the prodigal son you would need to know what i'm talking about. Same as you would.If I made a reference to romeo and juliet.