Science of reading

Writing is only about 5,500 years old, unlike human speech which is thought to be from 50,000 years to 2 million years old. So, unlike speech, the brain did not evolve to read naturally. As a result, the brain adapts to the challenge of reading. The process of reading involves most of the brain, especially an interconnection between visual areas and language areas; but also neural systems related to action, emotion, decision-making, and memory.

The science of reading (SoR) is the discipline that studies the objective investigation and accumulation of reliable evidence about how humans learn to read and how reading should be taught. It draws on many fields, including cognitive science, developmental psychology, education, educational psychology, special education, and more.

Foundational skills such as phonics, decoding, and phonemic awareness are considered to be important parts of the science of reading, but they are not the only ingredients. SoR also includes areas such as oral reading fluency, vocabulary, morphology, reading comprehension, and more.

In addition, some educators feel that SoR should include digital literacy; background knowledge; content-rich instruction; infrastructure such as curriculum; adaptive teaching; bi-literacy development; and, social justice.

Some researchers suggest there is a need for more studies on the relationship between theory and practice. They say "We know more about the science of reading than about the science of teaching based on the science of reading", and "there are many layers between basic science findings and teacher implementation that must be traversed". Furthermore, the determination of policy or practice should "depend on studies that directly evaluate the effectiveness of a practice or policy" using empirical evidence, rather than basic research alone.

Research in cognitive science and neuroscience has made significant progress in reading. Yet, one researcher asks "if the science is so advanced, why do so many people read so poorly?".

Regarding reading levels, in the United States, the 2019 Nation's Report Card reported that 34% of grade-four public school students performed at or above the NAEP proficient level and 65% performed at or above the basic level. As reported in the PIRLS study, the United States ranked 15th out of 50 countries, for reading comprehension levels of fourth-graders. In addition, according to the 2011–2018 PIAAC study, out of 39 countries the United States ranked 19th for literacy levels of adults 16 to 65; and 16.9% of adults in the United States read at or below level one.

As to why reading levels are low, neuroscientist Mark Seidenberg suggests it may be the result of three factors:

1. the English language has a deep alphabetic orthography
2. linguistic variability contributes to the "Black-White achievement gap"
3. how reading is taught.

With respect to #3, many researchers point to three areas:

• Contemporary reading science has had very little impact on educational practice—mainly because of a "two-cultures problem separating science and education".
• Current teaching practice rests on outdated assumptions that make learning to read harder than it needs to be.
• Connecting evidence-based practice to educational practice would be beneficial, but is extremely difficult to achieve due to a lack of adequate training in the science of reading among many teachers.