Teachers unions, according to a report by The Daily Signal, are among the most influential opponents of phonics – and in fact, in some states the unions have advocated against the reintroduction of phonics. But states have been pushing back against what's known as the "cueing" method in hopes of reversing the downward trend in students' reading scores. For example, lawmakers in Georgia on Monday approved a bill that would prohibit schools from using that method to teach reading.
Jonathan Butcher of The Heritage Foundation says research dating back 100 years shows phonics is superior to the "cueing" method, to which many teachers adhere, when teaching students how to read.
"What happens with cueing," he explains, "is that you show a student a picture and then show them letters beneath it that are the word describing that picture. Students are then supposed to identify or just memorize what that word is."
According to the Heritage senior education researcher, cueing has "been proved over and over again to be an ineffective way to teach young people."
In addition, says Butcher, progressives opt for the cueing method despite the evidence that phonics significantly improves reading scores.
"These methods actually allow students to guess at the words they see on a page," he tells AFN. "And in the cueing method, oftentimes teachers are told [that] even if the students get the word wrong – [for example] describing a picture of a dog as a 'wolf' – that they should still be told they're right or 'close enough.'"
This tendency to allow imprecision, according to researchers, helps explain why reading scores today are lower than in the past. Butcher writes that Louisiana and Mississippi have noticed significant reading score improvements after reintroducing phonics.
