“If the kid hasn’t learned it, the teacher hasn’t taught it.” That line from Sold a Story Season 2 is why I started Reading Simplified 25+ years ago. Tomorrow 8pm ET: @BuildMathMinds (math) + me (reading) on episodes 1 & 2. Same factions, different subject

“We’re flipping students like pancakes. Their teacher tells us they’re struggling and then we work with them and send them back in 3 weeks.” That’s how an interventionist’s colleague describes her work: struggling readers come in, and they’re back in class in 3 weeks. It’s a vivid line, and it deserves to be taken seriously. It’s one clear example of what can happen when instruction is efficient, diagnostic, and targeted. It isn’t a guarantee or a promise that every struggling reader needs 3 weeks, which is still unusual even for Reading Simplified, and it’s no reason to minimize students with more complex needs. We’ve had 5+ years of Science of Reading momentum, and state regulations, training requirements, and district conversations have shifted. That progress matters. Yet in many places the 95% reading success goal researchers have shown is possible still feels far away. So it’s fair to ask whether we’ve lost some urgency, whether we’ve lowered expectations because the work has felt so hard, and whether we’ve confused “more aligned” with “more effective for this child today”. Teachers are not the problem. They’ve been working inside systems that often give them too many disconnected pieces and too few tools for fast, responsive decision-making. Reading Simplified is built for a different kind of instructional rhythm: assess what the student can do, teach with high-leverage routines, watch the response and adjust quickly, then move the student into real reading and writing as soon as possible. That kind of instruction can renew momentum because it gives teachers clearer next steps and students more chances to show measurable growth. The 95% goal should keep pressing us toward better tools, higher expectations, and faster evidence of progress, instead of becoming a slogan we admire from a distance. This week, look for signs that students are moving faster than before: more accurate blending, stronger word reading, better spelling attempts, smoother connected text. What’s one measurable sign of faster progress you’ll watch for in your next reading group? #ScienceOfReading #ReadingIntervention #StructuredLiteracy #ReadingSimplified #LiteracyInstruction

Kids who resist reading aren't lazy. They're sick of getting it wrong. I'm speaking on day 1 of the free Close the Reading Gap Summit (Oct 19–25) with Dr. Louisa Moats and more. Free ticket: link.closethereadinggap.com/…

Here is a 3 year-old's first lesson. 10 minutes. He was beaming at the end. Plenty of time left to run, play, and build! youtu.be/WENJEPfJM-Q?si=G9hM…

Here is the just some of the body of 50+ years of evidence that demonstrates that we should not tell beginning readers to look at the pictures or get their mouths ready. readingsimplified.com/scienc…

We expected the Sold a Story podcast and the SOR movement and 40+ state laws would put an end to anti-science approaches like this. But, alas, no. In the last month I've heard 2 stories of the 3-cueing method in action, such as this recent PD in a wealthy district (pic below). One the one hand some places are still telling kids that "getting their mouth ready" is a reading strategy and in other places educators are teaching kinders what a fricative is. Hard to know how to affect change in a bipolar world.

Honored to be a guest on Holly Korbey’s The Bell Ringer. Thrilled to see more convos about enhancing reading instruction! Watch/listen 👇🏾

In the year of our Lord 2026, still seen at PD in public schools in a state with SOR laws

Don't hold up reading instruction because a kid can't spell the words yet. Reading is multiple choice. Spelling is fill-in-the-blank. Of course it takes longer! Let reading lead. 🏇 Learn more. 👇🏾

Want to hear more from fearless education advocate, analyst, curriculum expert, and twitter maven @karenvaites? Join us on Wed. 2/18 @ 7pm EST here: us02web.zoom.us/meeting/regi…