by Julian Roberts-Grmela, The Hechinger Report
February 24, 2026
WAKEFIELD, Mass. — One winter morning on the Woodville College on this city about 15 miles north of Boston, instructor Danielle Masse was guiding her class of kindergartners via a lesson on figuring out the sounds that make up phrases.
She instructed her college students to say aloud the phrase “mentioned,” then defined the way to separate it into two elements. The kindergartners repeated the “s” sound adopted by the syllable “ed.” Then, Masse walked the scholars via the way to make a brand new phrase from the severed sounds, telling them to substitute the “r” sound for the “s” sound after which mix the brand new “r” with “ed.”
“Pink!” the kindergartners shouted in unison.
Consultants say that with out expertise like these, some college students will battle to grow to be fluent readers as a result of they usually misidentify phrases.
Lately, a motion often known as the science of studying, which promotes specific literacy instruction in 5 areas — phonemic consciousness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary and comprehension — has influenced lecture rooms throughout the nation, together with Masse’s. It’s gained traction amid rising proof that different approaches to educating studying, corresponding to balanced literacy, don’t present sufficient specific instruction to assist college students be taught to decode phrases, leaving some younger readers with studying deficiencies which have snowballed right into a nationwide literacy disaster. As concern has unfold, greater than 40 states have enacted some type of laws to advertise evidence-backed studying instruction.
However whereas Massachusetts has taken some steps to advance literacy instruction — for instance via an effort to speculate hundreds of thousands in educator coaching and curriculum help — it isn’t among the many states which have adopted a big legislative repair. Now, although, the Bay State is poised to enact what its supporters name among the strongest studying laws within the nation — and a few educators fear it goes too far in imposing new requirements that override instructor management of lecture rooms.
Like most states, Massachusetts permits districts to make their very own selections about literacy curricula. That has meant that in lots of lecture rooms throughout the state, the type of systematic expertise instruction seen in Masse’s class in Wakefield is much less frequent. In an e-mail, the Massachusetts Division of Elementary and Secondary Schooling mentioned it estimated that solely about half of the state’s college districts “are utilizing high-quality, evidence-based curriculum to show early literacy.”
In the meantime, simply 42 % of third graders within the state met studying expectations on 2025 state assessments.
The invoice, which the Massachusetts legislature is predicted to ship quickly to Gov. Maura Healey for her signature, would require college districts to make use of state-approved curricula that embrace phonemic consciousness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary and comprehension. Underneath the laws, districts can apply for a waiver, however the remaining determination comes from the state. Comparatively few states — together with Connecticut, Tennessee and Virginia — have mandated state-approved literacy curricula because the Massachusetts invoice would do. Extra usually, states which have handed laws have targeted on coaching lecturers within the science of studying or different approaches.
In an emailed assertion to The Hechinger Report, the governor referred to as the invoice “one other step towards making certain each pupil has high-quality literacy instruction.”
Advocates of the invoice say it’s wanted as Massachusetts, the place college students have lengthy outperformed these in most different states in studying, has seen its studying scores dip in current years. “We have to defend that lead, and that requires altering and evolving and advancing on the subject of making certain that our public faculties are educating youngsters the basics,” mentioned Simon Cataldo, a state consultant who sponsored an preliminary model of the invoice within the Home.
However critics, together with the state’s largest lecturers union, say it’s overly prescriptive, particularly since Massachusetts college students nonetheless outperform their nationwide friends.
“We must be constructing on that, not saying, ‘Okay, we now not belief you lecturers, we’re going to have you ever use scripted curriculum,’” mentioned Max Web page, president of the Massachusetts Lecturers Affiliation, which opposes the invoice and helped to kill earlier variations of it lately. “The way in which studying occurs is with educators in lecture rooms supporting college students, and having a one-size-fits-all sort of curriculum just isn’t conducive to that.”
Web page mentioned the invoice erodes Massachusetts’s “lengthy custom of localism,” which empowers native college committees and educators to make the perfect selections for his or her college students. Others be aware that states which have seen scores soar after adopting science of studying approaches, notably Mississippi, haven’t mandated particular, state-approved educating supplies, per that state’s schooling company. And such a mandate comes with a monetary price, when it comes to paying for brand spanking new curricula.
Nonetheless, some consultants say that so long as Massachusetts supplies the required funding and help to lecturers because it implements the laws, it may carry constructive change.
“Given the well-documented use of curricula with basic weaknesses, it’s comprehensible that lawmakers would need to put extra guardrails in place,”mentioned Phil Capin, an schooling professor at Harvard College targeted on educational practices for studying. “I see this invoice as bringing Massachusetts according to different states which have handed extra complete studying laws, somewhat than as a very restrictive measure.”
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Lecturers in Massachusetts districts which have launched curriculum reforms on their very own lately say the method has been comparatively easy and that they suppose the invoice may assist increase entry to high quality studying instruction throughout the state. In Methuen, close to the New Hampshire border, kindergarten instructor Sarah O’Connor mentioned she helps her district’s determination to undertake a brand new curriculum this college 12 months that’s extra according to the science of studying.
“I really feel like the issue is a whole lot of older lecturers aren’t prepared to alter, they usually’re very caught at their methods,” mentioned O’Connor, who works on the Tenney Grammar College, a public elementary college, and has taught for greater than 20 years. “However I really feel like for those who go in with an open thoughts and also you learn to do one thing new, it’s truly higher than what you used to do.”
Methuen superintendent Brandi Kwong mentioned the district determined to transition towards evidence-based instruction after realizing youngsters’ progress in studying was plateauing. Kwong mentioned she publicly helps the invoice “as a result of we’re doing it and we’re seeing the outcomes.”
Mother and father say college districts want a legislative push to maneuver away from discredited curricula. Dan Lluch, an engineer and a father or mother within the Lexington college district, mentioned his three youngsters have all struggled to be taught to learn in public faculties there, particularly his baby with dyslexia. Luch blamed the district’s use of a curriculum that doesn’t align with the science of studying, which he mentioned didn’t give his youngsters foundational expertise.
“One out of 5 or 6 youngsters have dyslexic points, and so serving literacy in a manner that is identified to not align with their wants is a very huge disservice,” he mentioned. However he frightened that even with laws, his district would possibly resist adjustments, on condition that its superintendent, Julie Hackett, co-authored an opinion piece within the Boston Globe final February vital of the science of studying motion. (Hackett declined an interview request, however Sara Calleja, the district’s Ok-5 English Language Arts and literacy division head, mentioned in an e-mail that Lexington is shifting away from the curriculum Luch criticized.)
Leaders of the lecturers union increase criticisms much like these expressed by Hackett, arguing that the science of studying motion and its backers are overly prescriptive and never open sufficient to new analysis and approaches. Deb McCarthy, the union’s vice chairman, referred to as the science of studying “principally like a buzzword.”
“This state is making an attempt to hurry into this concept,” mentioned Web page, the union president. “All science is evolving. There is no such factor as, like, ‘the science of studying,’ as if it’s boxed and finished.” In the event you take solely the concept of a motion that’s in vogue now and impose a couple of particular curricula on districts for the following decade, he mentioned, “you’re not permitting for the event of latest methods.”
Susan Neuman, a professor of early childhood and literacy instruction at New York College, acknowledged that “science is all the time evolving” however mentioned that doesn’t imply it’s too quickly to behave on studying reform. “We all know that there’s necessary new data popping out, however on the identical time, now we have 25 years of information indicating these 5 pillars actually make a distinction,” she mentioned.
Timothy Shanahan, a former member of the federal authorities’s 2000 Nationwide Studying Panel and a professor emeritus on the College of Illinois at Chicago, mentioned that new analysis has developed during the last two and a half a long time, however nothing has emerged that contrasts with the panel’s takeaway from 2000 that the 5 pillars are important for many college students to learn to learn.
“We don’t have some new discovering that claims, ‘Oh, we made such a mistake on that, don’t train that,’” Shanahan mentioned. “It’s largely the identical, however with a couple of updates.”
For instance, Shanahan mentioned, the 2000 panel didn’t think about the significance of constructing writing expertise for studying to learn, however “there’s overwhelming analysis at this stage” displaying that writing improves studying means.
The Home model of the Massachusetts invoice explicitly bans three-cuing and implicit phrase studying, controversial methods that encourage college students to guess phrases based mostly on that means and form somewhat than sounding them out. That ban is absent within the state Senate’s model.
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Jill Pentimonti, an early language and literacy growth professor on the Washington workplace of the College of Notre Dame, mentioned an specific prohibition is necessary as a result of guessing methods by no means assist college students, and even hurt some.
The Senate model of the invoice, in the meantime, requires the state to supply a free accredited curriculum to all districts that want it, which, if it survives reconciliation with the Home model, could assist ease the lecturers union’s considerations that the invoice could be an “unfunded mandate.”
Joslyn Delancey, vice chairman of the Connecticut Schooling Affiliation, the state’s largest educators union, mentioned that funding was vital. When her state started requiring lecturers to make use of state-approved curricula, there was “a whole lot of frustration” amongst educators, and the pricey curriculum additionally resulted in some employees cuts, Delancey mentioned.
“Many districts in having to change their programming had to choose between the supplies from this system or classroom lecturers,” she mentioned.
Legislators, in the meantime, need to transfer the invoice ahead shortly, to make sure that college students aren’t left to languish with subpar curriculum and instruction. State Sen. Sal DiDomenico, who represents 4 communities close to Boston, mentioned he hopes it’s going to go into impact by the 2026-27 college 12 months.
“We don’t have a whole lot of time to waste,” DiDomenico mentioned. “We’re on the lookout for velocity and effectivity right here.”
Again in Wakefield, the city close to Boston the place Masse teaches, Assistant Superintendent Kara Mauro mentioned her district’s voluntary adoption of latest educating strategies and curriculum is paying off.
“Change is difficult and scary, however in the end we made a district determination,” she mentioned. “But it surely was backed with a whole lot of enter from our lecturers.”
She was not sure, although, if the method would go as easily for different districts below a state mandate.
“Generally I feel initiatives fall flat once they’re too abrupt. There’s not sufficient groundwork laid for the understanding of why the change is required,” she mentioned. But when that preliminary work does occur, she mentioned, “Everybody type of simply seems round and says, ‘Effectively, yeah, after all, we should always do that.’ It simply is sensible. It is simply in the perfect curiosity of scholars.’”
Contact editor Caroline Preston at 212-870-8965, by way of Sign at CarolineP.83 or on e-mail at preston@hechingerreport.org.
This story about phonics was produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, unbiased information group targeted on inequality and innovation in schooling. Join the Hechinger publication.
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