The Reading Wars Are Over. Who Won?

The Combatants: A Brief History of How We Got Here

The Reading Wars pit two fundamentally different philosophies against each other. In one corner: phonics, the method that teaches children the relationship between letters and sounds, systematically building their ability to decode words. Think of it as giving kids the keys to the English language’s front door. In the other corner: whole language (later rebranded as “balanced literacy”), which argued that reading is natural—children will pick it up through exposure to rich literature, context clues, and pictures, much like they learn to speak. This approach essentially handed children a grappling hook and hoped they’d figure out how to scale the building. (Lexia Learning)

The roots of this conflict trace back to the mid-1800s, when Horace Mann, the so-called “father of American education,” railed against teaching the alphabetic code as an impediment to reading for meaning. Mann dramatically called letters “bloodless, ghostly apparitions.” (Harvard University research) One imagines him fainting onto a chaise lounge after such declarations. His ideas gained traction, and by the early twentieth century, the “look-say” method—teaching children to memorize whole words by sight—became standard practice. This gave us the Dick and Jane readers, which many Boomers remember fondly, though perhaps not for their literary merit.

The tide began to turn in 1955, when Rudolf Flesch published Why Johnny Can’t Read—and What You Can Do About It. Flesch argued that the absence of explicit phonics instruction was preventing children from learning to read properly. The book became a bestseller and sparked the modern reading wars. But the whole language movement proved resilient. By the 1970s and 80s, proponents like Kenneth Goodman—who famously described reading as a “psycholinguistic guessing game”—had pushed whole language back into dominance in American schools. (Lexia Learning)

The Science Speaks: What Actually Works

Here’s where things get uncomfortable for the whole language camp: the research has been remarkably consistent. In 2000, the National Reading Panel—a government-formed body that conducted an exhaustive examination of reading research—released its findings. The verdict? Explicit phonics instruction was crucial to teaching young readers. Whole language, as a primary instructional approach, simply wasn’t cutting it.

The Panel identified five essential components of effective reading instruction: phonemic awareness (the ability to identify and manipulate individual sounds), phonics (letter-sound relationships), fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension. Notice that the foundation—phonemic awareness and phonics—involves systematic, explicit instruction in how the written code works. You can’t build vocabulary and comprehension on a foundation of guesswork.

Despite this evidence, adoption was slow. What emerged was an uneasy compromise called “balanced literacy,” which theoretically combined the best of both approaches. In practice, however, phonics elements often got short shrift. As Stanford’s Michael Kamil, who sat on the National Reading Panel, observed: “It wasn’t a true compromise.” The approach frequently led students to guess at words rather than decode them—precisely what the research warned against. (WHYY)

The Dam Breaks: Recent Developments

The real turning point came in the early 2020s, catalyzed by investigative reporting and the pandemic’s stark exposure of learning gaps. Emily Hanford’s 2022 podcast “Sold a Story” documented how influential authors like Lucy Calkins had promoted methods that cognitive scientists had debunked decades earlier. The podcast reached millions of parents and educators, sparking outrage and demands for change.

Lucy Calkins’ Units of Study curriculum, once used in an estimated one in four American schools, came under withering scrutiny. A 2020 report from Student Achievement Partners delivered a thorough dismantling, finding insufficient time and attention to phonics and explicit reliance on the discredited “three-cueing” system—encouraging children to guess words from pictures and context. The report found that Units of Study particularly failed English language learners and at-risk students, who are the least likely to develop phonics skills on their own.

The fallout was swift. In 2023, Columbia University’s Teachers College parted ways with Calkins’ Reading and Writing Project, which was rebranded as “Advancing Literacy.” New York City schools began mandating supplemental phonics programs. In December 2024, Massachusetts parents filed a lawsuit against Calkins, Fountas and Pinnell (another balanced literacy duo), and their publishers, alleging fraudulent claims that their curricula were research-backed.

The Numbers: State-by-State Adoption

The legislative response has been remarkable. As of late 2024, 40 states and the District of Columbia have passed laws or policies mandating evidence-based reading instruction—what has come to be known as the “science of reading” movement. (Education Week) Half of the states have enacted such laws since 2022 alone, many explicitly citing the “Sold a Story” podcast as inspiration. (APM Reports)

In 2024, 15 states adopted new policies strengthening their commitment to science-of-reading instruction. Key developments include: Alabama’s State Board of Education officially banned the three-cueing instructional method and updated educator preparation standards; Maryland’s State Board called for statewide adoption of science-of-reading instruction beginning with the 2024-25 academic year; Indiana required school districts to adopt science-of-reading aligned curriculum by fall 2024 and mandated literacy endorsements for new K-5 teachers; California introduced legislation (AB 2222) to mandate evidence-based literacy instruction statewide; and New York Governor Kathy Hochul proposed $10 million to train 20,000 teachers in the science of reading.

At least 17 states have now banned the three-cueing method, including Arkansas, Louisiana, Virginia, Indiana, Ohio, and Texas. These bans target the practice of teaching children to guess at words using pictures and context—a cornerstone of balanced literacy that research has consistently shown harms struggling readers most.

The Mississippi Model: Proof It Works

If you want evidence that these reforms actually improve outcomes, look to Mississippi—yes, Mississippi. In 2013, the state ranked 49th in the nation for fourth-grade reading. It was the butt of every education joke. Then Mississippi implemented its Literacy-Based Promotion Act, a comprehensive approach that included mandatory science-of-reading training for teachers, universal literacy screening three times yearly for K-3 students, intervention programs, and a third-grade retention policy for students who couldn’t pass a reading test.

The results have been called the “Mississippi Miracle.” By 2022, Mississippi ranked 21st nationally in fourth-grade reading on the NAEP—the Nation’s Report Card. In 1998, just 47% of Mississippi students performed at or above the basic proficiency level; by 2022, that figure had jumped to 64%, slightly above the national average. (Education Week) After adjusting for demographics, Mississippi now ranks first in the nation in both reading and mathematics. African American students in Mississippi outperform their peers in 47 other states. Hispanic students lead the nation for their demographic in reading. (Wikipedia – Mississippi Miracle)

Research by Noah Spencer at the University of Toronto found that students exposed to Mississippi’s program from kindergarten through third grade gained the equivalent of one year of additional academic progress in reading—a 0.25 standard deviation improvement. The program costs just $15 million annually, or about $32 per student. Based on increased lifetime earnings from improved literacy, every dollar Mississippi spends yields approximately $32 in economic returns. (The Conversation)

Other southern states have followed Mississippi’s lead and are seeing similar results. Louisiana went from ranking 42nd nationally in NAEP reading scores for low-income fourth graders in 2019 to 11th in 2022. Alabama jumped from 49th to 27th in the same category. These three states were among only a handful to show modest reading gains during the pandemic, when most states saw devastating losses. (PBS NewsHour)

The Grim Statistics: Why This Matters

Despite the momentum toward evidence-based instruction, national reading scores remain troublingly low. The 2024 NAEP results, released in January 2025, showed fourth-grade reading scores down 2 points from 2022 and 5 points from 2019. Only 31% of fourth graders scored at or above proficient—meaning nearly seven in ten cannot read at grade level. Most alarmingly, 40% of fourth graders performed below the NAEP Basic level, the highest proportion in over 20 years.

Eighth-grade results were even more troubling: one-third of students performed below basic proficiency—the highest share in NAEP history. These students often cannot determine the meaning of a word in context or identify basic literary elements like the sequence of events. No state saw reading gains compared to 2022. The only silver lining: Louisiana was the sole state to show fourth-grade reading growth, up 6 points from pre-pandemic levels.

The consequences of illiteracy extend far beyond school walls. Students who can’t read proficiently by third grade are four times more likely not to graduate from high school. According to the National Assessment of Adult Literacy, 70% of the U.S. prison population cannot read above a fourth-grade level. (The Hechinger Report) The reading crisis is not merely an educational issue—it’s an economic and social justice emergency.

What Happens Now: Implementation Challenges

Passing laws is the easy part. The hard work is implementation. Mississippi’s success required years of coordinated effort: training over 30,000 teachers through programs like LETRS (Language Essentials for Teachers of Reading and Spelling), hiring 52 literacy coaches deployed to 86 schools, updating curriculum, and engaging parents in individual reading plans for struggling students. Mississippi invested in professional development not just for classroom teachers but for principals, assistant principals, and teacher preparation faculty. (Education Week)

Other states face steeper challenges. Indiana requires new K-5 teachers licensed after June 2025 to earn a literacy endorsement requiring 80 hours of professional development and a written exam—but current teachers are not required to complete the same training. (Chalkbeat) North Carolina committed to having all elementary teachers complete LETRS by 2024, while Texas requires teachers to complete a reading academy or demonstrate proficiency. (NCTQ) These inconsistencies in approach and rigor may produce inconsistent results.

Funding remains a persistent obstacle. California’s proposed literacy reforms face uncertain futures as the state heads into lean budget years. Mississippi’s success came despite being one of the lowest per-pupil spenders in the country—suggesting that strategic investment matters more than absolute dollars—but sustained reform requires sustained funding for coaches, materials, and ongoing professional development.

The Bottom Line: Science Over Ideology

The reading wars represent one of the most consequential—and avoidable—educational failures in American history. For decades, children were taught using methods that cognitive scientists knew didn’t work, because those methods felt right to educators and aligned with romantic notions about learning being natural and joyful. As one British researcher dryly noted after presenting data showing phonics-taught children outperformed their peers: the head teacher said she was “ideologically opposed to taking part in a study which showed that phonics teaching worked.” (NIFDI)

Ideology lost. Science won. But the victory won’t mean much unless states follow through with rigorous implementation—training every teacher, providing aligned curriculum, screening every child, and intervening early and often when students struggle. The evidence is clear: explicit, systematic phonics instruction works, especially for the most vulnerable students. We know what to do. The question is whether we’ll actually do it.

As Kelly Butler of the Barksdale Reading Institute put it: “We know how to teach reading. We just have to do it everywhere.” (PBS NewsHour) That’s not a miracle. That’s a mandate.