Educating Young Children Volume 1 - Winter 2026 | Page 48

› How we can best support educators to enact research-aligned literacy instruction

The research questions I often want to answer relate to whether instructional practices, curriculum materials, professional development, or policies are based on sound interpretations of a broad range of literacy research in the early childhood years. For these reasons, in my own work, I often say“ research-based” or“ research-aligned” literacy instruction, and I usually say“ literacy”— unless my focus is specifically on reading only.

Annie: How are programs, schools, and educators currently being impacted by the science of reading?

Tanya: Right now, everybody says everything is science of reading! It’ s a popular term to use to promote products, materials, and policies. I recommend being a cautious consumer. Just because a product is labeled with or promoted as science of reading does not necessarily mean it has undergone rigorous testing and been shown to work for children in a research study. In most situations, people who create materials and policies are looking at research studies and then integrating what they learn into their work. Ideally, they are looking carefully at research to inform their decision making or product development.

For example, some organizations have created rubrics to review curriculum programs / materials for alignment with literacy research. Some states and districts have policies about using these rubrics to determine what’ s acceptable to use in that state.

Annie: Some argue that this is not a new topic or controversy. They indicate there’ s more agreement than disagreement within the research community about teaching reading( and literacy, more broadly).