Improving the reading achievement of U.S. students is a long-standing challenge, and more than 40 states have passed legislation requiring that reading instruction takes the science of reading into account. In this report, the authors describe how policies embedded in these laws are associated with elementary teachers’ reading instructional practices. They also explore how these practices vary by grade taught and teacher experience.

Translating Reading Science into Practice—Foundational Reading Instruction in Public Elementary Schools

Findings from the Spring 2024 American Instructional Resources Survey

Anna Shapiro, Laura Bellows

ResearchPublished Apr 22, 2025

Improving the reading achievement of U.S. students is a long-standing challenge, and there is a growing recognition that some prevalent methods of early reading instruction might be drivers of low reading achievement. In response to low reading test scores and an increasing body of scientific knowledge on how young children learn to read—the science of reading—more than 40 states have passed legislation requiring that reading instruction take this new knowledge base into account.

In this report, the authors use nationally representative data from the American Instructional Resource Survey collected in spring 2024 to explore how policies embedded in these laws that are intended to reform reading instruction—curriculum and instructional requirements, preservice training requirements, and professional learning requirements—are associated with elementary teachers’ reading instructional practices. The authors also explore how these practices vary by grade taught and teacher experience.

Key Findings

  • A body of research shows that certain early reading practices, including providing students explicit instruction on how to decode unfamiliar words using knowledge of letter and sound relationships, developing students’ vocabulary, and practicing reading fluency with students, are critical to developing strong reading skills.
  • Yet more than half of kindergarten through grade 2 (K–2) teachers use instructional materials that do not meet those foundational reading skill standards shown to be effective.
  • K–2 teachers who work in states with policies that require preservice training or professional learning in the science of reading were more likely to report using an evidence-based approach to teach reading than were teachers in states without those policies.
  • Elementary teachers were most likely to cite professional learning and their own personal experiences in the classroom as their main sources of knowledge on teaching foundational reading skills; few teachers cited preservice training as their primary source.
  • Nearly three-quarters of K–2 teachers and two-thirds of grade 3–5 teachers received professional learning on teaching foundational reading in the 2023–2024 school year.
  • Teachers who received professional learning that emphasized helping students use phonics or that placed an equal emphasis on helping students use phonics and helping students understand word context and meaning were more likely to say that their professional learning prepared them to teach foundational reading skills to a moderate or great extent than did teachers who received professional learning that emphasized helping students understand word context and meaning.

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Shapiro, Anna and Laura Bellows, Translating Reading Science into Practice—Foundational Reading Instruction in Public Elementary Schools: Findings from the Spring 2024 American Instructional Resources Survey, RAND Corporation, RR-A134-28, 2025. As of April 30, 2025: https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RRA134-28.html

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Shapiro, Anna and Laura Bellows, Translating Reading Science into Practice—Foundational Reading Instruction in Public Elementary Schools: Findings from the Spring 2024 American Instructional Resources Survey. Santa Monica, CA: RAND Corporation, 2025. https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RRA134-28.html.
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This research was supported by the Gates Foundation, the Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Philanthropies, and the Walton Family Foundation. This work was conducted within RAND Education and Labor.

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