> Is it really true that 1 in 4 schools stopped teaching kids to associate sounds with letters so they could sound out words? That sounds so insane it beggars b

> Is it really true that 1 in 4 schools stopped teaching kids to associate sounds with letters so they could sound out words? That sounds so insane it beggars belief. It's way worse than that. The "1 in 4" amount is for one particular way of doing it. Here's an older article about the topic in general: https://www.sciencenews.org/article/balanced-literacy-phonics-teaching-reading-evidence https://www.sciencenews.org/article/balanced-literacy-phonic... > The debate — often called the “reading wars” — is generally framed as a battle between two distinct views. On one side are those who advocate for an intensive emphasis on phonics: understanding the relationships between sounds and letters, with daily lessons that build on each other in a systematic order. On the other side are proponents of approaches that put a stronger emphasis on understanding meaning, with some sporadic phonics mixed in. Balanced literacy is one such example. > [..] > In a 2019 survey of 674 early-elementary and special education teachers from around the United States, 72 percent said their schools use a balanced literacy approach, according to the Education Week Research Center, a nonprofit organization in Bethesda, Md. The implementation of balanced literacy, however, varies widely, especially in how much phonics is included, the survey found. That variation is probably preventing lots of kids from learning to read as well as they could, decades of research suggests. Balanced literacy is one way of deemphasizing phonics, and was at 72% in 2019. The "1 in 4" amount is one particular curriculum for doing balanced literacy.