It isn't just phonics

In "There Are No Silver Bullets for Illiteracy" the author explains what some states are doing right about teaching literacy. A curriculum reform that has to be a part of the solution was recommended by E.D. Hirsch some time ago. Phonics is necessary but not sufficient.

...[C]reating literate children is a years-long process. As phonics advocates rightly point out, children must first understand how to decode words through phonics instruction. But phonics is only the beginning. To progress further, children—especially children from low-income households who aren’t exposed to significant background knowledge at home—need lots and lots of factual knowledge about the world. To get there, it helps to have motivated teachers who appropriately teach phonics in the early grades, and then switch over to building knowledge in the later ones. It helps to motivate students—including through retention policies and curricula that are designed to be interesting. It also helps to have frequent assessments so struggling students can be identified and helped. ....

...[T]eaching general reading comprehension skills is not useful if kids don’t have enough background knowledge to actually understand what they are reading. Even if I know to look for the main idea in a passage, that study tip does me no good if the passage is still inscrutable when I read it. Yet many schools focus on this kind of attempted “skill development,” without a recognition that comprehension, reading, and writing skills follow mastering content, and not the other way around. .... (more)

Ivana Greco, "There Are No Silver Bullets for Illiteracy," The Dispatch, Oct. 16, 2025.