Publications

Teaching children to read and write is a fundamental function of schools, and literacy is a key measure of the quality of a country’s education system. This study is a comparative analysis of Ireland, Northern Ireland, Wales, Scotland and England that describes the similarities and differences between the literacy policies and practices in each country, how they arise from and interact with the social and historical context, and how they have produced substantially different results. In doing so, it also aims to gain a better understanding of how Australia might be able to improve the literacy achievement of its students.

The depth, breadth and volume of articles, books and presentations on scientific reading research is enormous and growing every day. It can be overwhelming even for researchers, educators and practitioners who have been immersed in the literature for decades. Interpreting the research and translating it into classroom practice requires specialised knowledge and a lot of time, and the prospect can be daunting and demotivating for busy teachers who are newly aware of the Science of Reading. But there is a clear pathway through it to great teaching by thinking about simplicity and opportunity cost. One way to think of this is to keep the main thing the main thing – and the main thing is getting students reading fluently and with comprehension, and giving them lots of supported opportunities to do so.

In recent years, there has been a spike in the popularity of literacy programs that claim to train young students in attaining phonemic proficiency. Nevertheless, there remains confusion about how certain instructional strategies related to phonemic proficiency fit into the ‘science of reading’. The aim of the present article is to address some of this confusion by investigating in depth one popular program that promotes such strategies: Equipped for Reading Success (Kilpatrick, 2018).

This is a revised version of this publication. An explanation of the revisions is available here.

Five from Five and Learning Difficulties Australia have collaborated on an evidence-based framework for schools to dramatically reduce the number of children who finish primary school unable to read proficiently and support struggling readers in secondary school.

This report adds to the evidence supporting the need for urgent and dramatic improvement in initial teacher education by looking at the extent to which literacy units in undergraduate initial teacher education courses provide evidence-based information on how children learn to read; and the most effective ways to teach them

Reading Recovery is an early intervention program for students in Year 1 who are having difficulty learning to read. Yet numerous studies of Reading Recovery have provided no sound evidence that it has sustained positive effects on children’s reading achievement, despite its widespread use and high cost.

80 corrections, clarifications and comments on Ewing, R. (2018). “Exploding SOME of the myths about learning to read: A review of research on the role of phonics”. Sydney: NSW Teachers Federation

A simple, five-minute Phonics Screening Check could identify at an early stage school children who are at serious risk of struggling with reading skills. Read about why Australia should adopt the year 1 phonics screening check.

Read how scientific evidence for effective teaching of reading can improve instruction that will have significant and sustained impact on literacy in the early years.

What is Systematic Synthetic Phonics? – (2018) This research brief describes systematic synthetic phonics  and examines the research base behind it.

Language, Learning and Literacy (L3) – (2018) This research brief examines the research base, content and pedagogy for the ‘whole class’ literacy program L3  developed by NSW Government.