The Science of Reading is Reshaping Schools: Here's What Families Should Know…

Something significant is happening in reading education right now, and if you have a child in school, it affects your family directly.

In 2024 alone, 15 states passed new laws requiring schools to align their reading instruction with the Science of Reading. That brings the total to more than 40 states that have now taken legislative action on how reading is taught.

What is the Science of Reading? It's not a new program or a trend. It's the accumulated body of research, decades of cognitive science, linguistics, and classroom studies that tells us how the brain actually learns to read. And it's quite specific: children need explicit, systematic instruction in phonics, phonemic awareness, and language comprehension. Not guessing. Not memorizing by sight. Building from the ground up.

For years, many schools used approaches that didn't fully align with this research. Now, states are course-correcting. That's genuinely good news.

But here's the thing: policy change takes time to reach every classroom. Teachers are being retrained. Curricula are being updated. And in the meantime, kids are still learning to read right now.

That's where families and organizations like MMC Literacy Collective, come in. We are based in the Science of Reading-based from the beginning, not because it became law, but because the research has always been clear. If your child's school is in the middle of this transition, we can be a consistent, evidence-aligned support alongside it.

Rooting for your Dear Reader,

Megan