How to Evaluate Your Child's School Phonics Program

Most parents trust that their child’s school is using a good reading program. That trust is reasonable, but it is not always warranted. According to the 2024 Nation’s Report Card, 40 percent of fourth-grade students scored below the basic reading level, a two-point drop from 2022. The curriculum a school uses is one of the most significant factors in whether children learn to read well. Here is how to find out what your child’s school is actually doing.

Start by Asking One Direct Question

Before evaluating anything else, ask your child’s teacher or principal this: Is the reading program aligned with the Science of Reading? A school using a high-quality, evidence-based program will answer that question clearly and specifically. They will name the program, explain that it uses systematic and explicit phonics instruction, and describe how it progresses from simple to complex skills in a structured sequence.

If the response is vague, or if the answer involves phrases like “balanced literacy,” “whole language,” or “leveled readers,” that is worth following up on. Balanced literacy programs encourage children to guess unfamiliar words using pictures, sentence context, or the first letter of a word, a technique called three-cueing. As of 2025, more than a dozen states have enacted laws banning three-cueing outright, citing research showing it undermines decoding development. A school still using a balanced literacy framework is likely not delivering the explicit, systematic phonics instruction the Science of Reading calls for.

Look Up the Program on EdReports

Once you know the name of your child’s reading program, look it up on EdReports.org. EdReports is a nonprofit that provides free, independent reviews of instructional materials. In July 2025, the organization launched updated curriculum review tools that are more tightly aligned with Science of Reading research, with stronger criteria for phonemic awareness, explicit phonics instruction, and the absence of three-cueing. A program that receives a green rating in foundational skills has been independently vetted by a panel of trained educator reviewers.

If the program your child’s school uses is not listed or receives a poor rating, that does not mean the teacher is doing a bad job. It does mean the materials may not provide the teacher with the structured tools needed to deliver high-quality phonics instruction consistently.

Ask About the Scope and Sequence

A well-designed phonics program teaches skills in a logical, cumulative order, from the simplest letter-sound relationships through increasingly complex patterns. Ask your child’s teacher whether the program has a documented scope and sequence and whether you can see it. This is a reasonable request, and a teacher working from a quality program will be happy to share it.

What you are looking for is evidence that skills build on each other deliberately, that children are not expected to read patterns they have not been explicitly taught, and that decodable texts are used at each stage so children can practice in connected reading what they are learning in direct instruction. A program that moves children quickly into leveled books filled with unpracticed patterns prioritizes reading volume over reading skill, which tends to hurt children over time.

Find Out How Progress Is Monitored

Ask whether the school uses a universal reading screener and how often it is administered. Tools like DIBELS are widely used, research-based assessments that measure phoneme segmentation, nonsense word fluency, and oral reading fluency at regular intervals throughout the year. A school using a quality screener can identify a child falling behind early, before a small gap becomes a significant one.

Ask specifically what happens when a child does not meet benchmarks. A school with a strong literacy framework will have a clear answer: small-group intervention, progress monitoring, possible referral for additional assessment. Early identification and early support are among the most consistently supported findings in reading research, and a school’s response to below-benchmark data tells you a great deal about the seriousness of its commitment to literacy.

What to Do with What You Learn

If your child’s school is using a strong, evidence-aligned program, ask how to support that instruction at home. Find out where your child is in the scope and sequence and look for decodable books that match those patterns for home practice.

If you have concerns, request a meeting with the school’s reading specialist or literacy coach. Ask whether supplemental support is available. And if your child is struggling despite classroom instruction, consider an independent evaluation or outside tutoring from a structured literacy-trained specialist. The goal is not to become a curriculum expert. It is to understand enough about what your child’s school is doing to advocate effectively when something is not working.

For more on what evidence-based phonics instruction looks like and how to support your child’s reading development, visit the Phonics.org articles hub.