Recommitting to Early Reading Instruction and Support

WHEREAS, literacy development begins at birth, and children’s early oral language, vocabulary, background knowledge, phonological awareness and print experiences strongly shape how readily they learn to read when they enter school; families and early care play a critical role in fostering children’s love of reading and early language and literacy development; and

WHEREAS, the ability to read proficiently is foundational to success in school, work, civic participation and life, and is thus a social responsibility and fundamental civil right—yet too many students, particularly those from low-income communities, English language learners and students with disabilities, are unable to read at grade level. This has profound consequences, further limiting opportunities and deepening existing inequities; and

WHEREAS, the vast majority of students can learn to read when they receive effective instruction; and 

WHEREAS, reading comprehension is a complex cognitive process that results from the interaction of two essential and mutually reinforcing processes: word recognition and language comprehension. Decades of converging interdisciplinary research provide a robust foundation for instruction that effectively develops both. 

This research demonstrates that effective reading instruction must include explicit, systematic instruction in foundational skills, including phonemic awareness, phonics, decoding, spelling and fluency.¹ To develop effective word recognition strategies, readers must attend to all letters and sounds in words, although once they become proficient at recognizing written words, the processing is so fast it appears they only sample letters. Research shows that most children need explicit, systematic instruction in how letters represent the sounds in words—known as “grapheme phoneme correspondences”—to learn to decode. Without strong decoding skills, many struggle to develop the word recognition skills required for proficient reading. 

Comprehension is the ultimate goal of reading instruction, and students need support in making meaning from text alongside foundational skills. Students need explicit instruction in vocabulary development and knowledge-building experiences as well as regular opportunities to read, discuss, analyze and write about interesting, complex, content-rich texts—including whole books—across disciplines; and

WHEREAS, despite the existence of a robust body of research, in many places much of this knowledge remains absent from teacher preparation programs, district-adopted curricula or professional development, leaving many educators without the tools and knowledge they need to deliver effective instruction. This disconnect creates a vacuum that gets filled by fragmented, competing and sometimes counterproductive approaches, all of which educators are left to navigate without adequate guidance or support; and

WHEREAS, we have an urgent responsibility to students in today’s classrooms and the educators supporting their learning. Strengthening literacy instruction requires ensuring educators have the knowledge, skills, resources and support they need, including evidence-based curriculum and ongoing, job-embedded support through professional development, instructional coaching and dedicated time for meaningful professional collaboration.

Yet the challenge of teaching all students to read goes far beyond the classroom or even school level. In order to have significant and widespread improvement in literacy instruction, there must be coherent, evidence-based systems that align preparation, licensure, induction, curriculum and intervention, assessment, professional development and policy.

States, districts and teacher preparation programs across the country are demonstrating that meaningful progress is possible when well-designed literacy policy builds the infrastructure needed for improved reading instruction. Yet, too many literacy reforms have seen disappointing progress because implementation has been too quick, superficial or rigid, without sufficient educator input, funding for implementation or attention to the realities of the classroom; and

WHEREAS, the AFT has a decades-long history of leadership and commitment in advancing evidence-based reading instruction, including through its 1998 “Beginning Reading Instruction” resolution, through articles in American Educator sharing the latest research (including the landmark “Teaching Reading Is Rocket Science” in 1999 and the updated article in 2020²), through AFT Professional Learning graduate-level train-the-trainer courses and other professional development, by giving more than 11 million books away through Reading Opens the World and its partnership with First Book, and through partnerships that include renowned WETA websites Reading Universe (www.readinguniverse.org) and Colorín Colorado (www.colorincolorado.org):

RESOLVED, that the AFT reaffirms that literacy is a civil right and that all students deserve access to the instruction, curriculum, support and learning conditions necessary to become strong readers, writers, thinkers and learners. This includes:

• Sufficient funding for high-quality early childhood and preschool programs and services that help children build strong oral language and conceptual knowledge—the foundations for literacy development—such that they are universally available.
• Early literacy screening in kindergarten through grade three to help identify and support (not label or overtest) students with potential reading difficulties, including dyslexia or other disabilities. 
• Timely, meaningful information for families about their child’s reading development and how they can support literacy at home.
• Evidence-based intervention aligned with core reading instruction and appropriate accommodations, building on students’ strengths while addressing instructional needs, delivered by skilled specialists, and sustained support for all those who need it. 
• Full access for English language learners to the same evidence-based reading instruction that benefits all students, plus integrated additional supports, primarily the provision of English language development instruction to support acquiring English literacy skills, until students reach proficiency in English. Educators working with these students must be prepared to meet these additional needs while also leveraging and affirming students’ home languages and cultural identities as assets, not barriers; and

RESOLVED, that the AFT will work with its affiliates, partners, researchers and policymakers to continue its decades-long commitment to promote a comprehensive, evidence-based approach to teaching literacy—grounded in the Simple View of Reading, Scarborough’s Reading Rope, the Active View of Reading and findings from the National Reading Panel, the National Literacy Panel on Language Minority Children and Youth, the National Early Literacy Panel and other high-quality interdisciplinary research—that includes phonological awareness, phonics, fluency development, vocabulary instruction, knowledge-building curriculum, writing and engagement with rich, complex, culturally relevant texts so that they can develop the comprehension and critical-thinking skills required to cultivate a love of reading and the joy of learning; and

RESOLVED, that the AFT supports teaching word recognition through explicit, systematic decoding first as the primary means of reading words, with word meanings and context used to confirm, not substitute for, accurate decoding; and that the AFT will oppose counterproductive choices in literacy instruction, including false dichotomies between foundational skills and rich comprehension, decoding and meaning, or evidence-based instruction and educator professionalism; and

RESOLVED, that the AFT will work with members and other experts to develop resources that provide guidance: to early-career teachers who have not had sufficient pre- or in-service training and who need practical support for teaching reading; to teachers to identify significant gaps in the curriculum they are required to use, along with high-quality, free resources to help address those gaps; to educators on using available curriculum review guides and identifying their limitations; and to individual teachers and union leaders on how to advocate for better policies, instructional materials, support and other high-leverage improvements; and

RESOLVED, that the AFT will continue to disseminate information on reading research and evidence-based instructional practice to AFT members and the general public in American Educator and other publications, as well as in coursework through AFT professional learning; get books into the hands of children and foster a love of reading through Reading Opens the World; and promote and provide free, high-quality resources for educators; and

RESOLVED, that the AFT and its affiliates will partner with schools, libraries and community organizations to support parents and caregivers with the tools, resources and training necessary to foster a love of reading in the home and to help make reading, conversation and language-rich activities part of children’s daily lives; and

RESOLVED, that the AFT calls for a new national reading panel composed of researchers and practitioners to provide educators with a clearly articulated, research-aligned professional knowledge and pedagogical base for literacy that educators can rely on, engage with critically and use in practice; and

RESOLVED, that the AFT calls on teacher preparation programs and the organizations that represent them, standards-setting bodies and state licensing authorities to ensure that teachers responsible for reading development have the knowledge and pedagogical skills they need; and

RESOLVED, that the AFT urges curriculum developers to ensure that instructional materials for reading reflect the research base and to subject those materials to rigorous, independent field-testing that provides schools and districts with credible evidence of effectiveness; and

RESOLVED, that the AFT and its affiliates support well-designed policies that align with research; however, they will oppose those that are imposed without genuine collaboration with educators, adequate funding for implementation or attention to the realities of classroom practice, or that rely on punitive accountability measures rather than professional support and capacity building for continuous improvement; and

RESOLVED, that the AFT acknowledges the historic harm done by excessive direct instruction and over-testing at the expense of developmentally appropriate learning in early childhood classrooms, particularly for English language learners and in majority low-income, Black and brown communities. These harms are a result of systemic racism and disinvestment. Strong oral language and conceptual development are foundational to early literacy. Research shows these skills develop through play, guided exploration and hands-on experiential learning. Therefore, the AFT will advocate for developmentally apppropriate early reading instruction, culturally and linguistically sustaining early reading instruction and assessments; and

RESOLVED, that the AFT and its affiliates will advocate for teachers to have a substantial role in curriculum review and adoption, and for educators to be regularly surveyed by their districts to gather actionable information on how policies and curricular resources are meeting the needs of educators and the students they serve; such structures and processes are best memorialized in memorandums of understanding and collective bargaining agreements.

Adopted July 19, 2026

1 Central to learning to read is grasping the alphabetic principle—the understanding that the sounds of spoken language are represented by letters and letter combinations in print. First, students must connect speech sounds (phonemes) to print (graphemes); systematic, explicit and cumulative phonemic awareness and phonics instruction increases the likelihood that learners will establish robust sound-spelling bonds. 

Building on that foundation, students apply this knowledge to decode words. When early readers use context—pictures, syntax, surrounding text—to predict a written word rather than decode it, orthographic mapping will be bypassed. Orthographic mapping is essential for automatic word recognition, which is essential for fluent reading.

Orthographic mapping requires attending to all the letters in a word’s spelling and then linking that spelling to the word’s pronunciation—a process that typically takes multiple successful practices. Only once that mapping is established and connected to the word’s meaning does the word become permanently stored in long-term memory for instant retrieval. 

Readers who do not rely first on decoding and then on the word’s spelling for word recognition short-circuit this process: Without the systematic building of orthographically mapped words—subsequently linked to their meanings—word storage remains inefficient, reading stays laborious, and automaticity and fluency never fully develop leaving insufficient cognitive space for comprehension.

Learn more: J. Sedita, “What Is Orthographic Mapping?,” Reading Universe, www.readinguniverse.org/article/explore-teaching-topics/big-picture/what-is orthographic-mapping; and N. Duke, “When Young Readers Get Stuck,” ASCD, 2020, https://www.ascd.org/el/articles/when-young-readers-get-stuck.

2 L. Moats, “Teaching Reading Is Rocket Science,” American Educator, Summer 2020, www.aft.org/ae/summer2020/moats.