A long-running debate over how schoolchildren are taught to read in Massachusetts may soon be settled: Phonics is set to become the law of the land.
In an effort to reverse a decade-long decline in reading skills, Massachusetts lawmakers on Tuesday announced a deal to overhaul literacy instruction for the state’s youngest learners, imposing mandates on schools that would end the see-sawing between two different approaches.
While earlier versions of the measure has been opposed by the Massachusetts Teachers Association, lawmakers contend they have to act now to stop a decade-long decline in student achievement.
If the deal is approved, educators starting in the fall of 2027 would be required to use “evidence-based” literacy instruction that includes teaching children to sound out words, vocabulary building, oral comprehension, and more.
It would also prohibit literacy curriculums that rely on “cueing” — which instructs children to, for example, look at a picture and guess what an unknown word means based on contextual clues.
A 2023 Globe investigation found nearly half of school districts in the state used curriculums that were dubbed “low quality” by the state, in part because the education plans taught cueing to students. At the time, the state lacked the authority and money to replace those curriculums.
The compromise literacy bill, which still must be voted on by lawmakers and signed by Governor Maura Healey, would grant the state’s education department authority to approve a list of kindergarten through third grade reading programs, so that school districts would no longer decide on their own how they teach literacy.
It also includes enhanced requirements for schools to screen for disabilities such as dyslexia, according to the bill. The state would track how schools teach reading.