How your child should be taught to read

If children don’t learn how to read properly in early primary school, they risk falling further behind all through school. By Year 9, at least one third of NSW students are still not meeting grade-level expectations in reading, according to the 2023 NAPLAN results.

These students not only struggle to keep up with their classmates, they are also more likely to become disruptive in class and drop out of school into unemployment or lowly paid jobs.

This is not just happening to a mere handful of students – in the typical Australian classroom of about 24 students, eight can’t read at the expected grade-level. And it’s not just disadvantaged students or those who don’t speak English at home – wealthy students with English-speaking parents are struggling too.

It doesn’t have to be this way. Almost all students can learn to read if they are given the right support.

A key cause of Australia’s reading problem is decades of disagreement about the best way to teach reading.

But while the evidence on how to teach reading effectively is now clear, many schools in NSW still need more support to put the evidence into practice.

What the evidence shows is:

• Your child shouldn’t be taught to read by guessing the words in a book based on the pictures. Strong readers don’t guess, they sound out unfamiliar words.
• Your child shouldn’t have to spend class time ‘independently reading’ when they can’t read yet. This is a recipe for a chaotic classroom.
• If your child is struggling with reading, it shouldn’t depend on how deep your pockets are to pay for tutoring to ensure they stay on track with their learning.

Decades of research have shown what is best for all students:

• Your child should be taught systematically how letters relate to sounds, so they can sound out the unfamiliar words they see on the page. They can then practise these skills using ‘decodable’ texts.
• Your child’s teacher should read books aloud with the whole class, to make sure all students get to experience exciting stories and learn new vocabulary, even if they can’t yet read confidently on their own.
• Your child should be taught new words explicitly, right through school. By the end of school, they should have a rich vocabulary and background knowledge so they can understand more complex texts in subjects such as Biology and History.
• Your child should be given catch-up support, such as small-group tutoring or one-on-one help, if they are falling behind.

Whether your child gets taught this way shouldn’t be a lucky dip. It should be guaranteed, no matter what your postcode or school uniform.

While the NSW Government has taken some first steps to close the evidence-to-practice gap, it will take much more hard work and sustained effort to ensure every child gets the chance to succeed in reading.

It won’t be easy. Getting this right in every one of the nearly 3,100 government, Catholic, and independent schools across the state will involve a big shift. It will require many teachers to stop using familiar but less effective practices, and adopt new, more effective, ones.

But it is possible. We should follow the lead of other countries that have taken up this challenge. Countries such as England and Ireland, as well as many states in America, show us what can happen when governments make a long-term commitment to reading success.

New Grattan Institute research shows state and territory governments how to do it. By following Grattan’s six-step ‘Reading Guarantee’ strategy, governments can transform the way reading is taught at school and ensure at least 90 per cent of students become proficient readers.

The NSW Government will need to provide teachers with specific guidelines on how to teach reading in line with the evidence on what works best, alongside high-quality curriculum materials to teach well.

It will need to develop the skills of our teachers through extra training and by ensuring every school has a literacy instructional specialist to help teachers improve.

Australia needs a reading revolution.

Parents should demand that reading is taught well in every classroom, in every school, every day. The future life chances of every Australian child – including yours – could depend on it.