Understanding Shifts in Reading and Its Instruction

Outside of education, people view the shifts and of instruction with bemusement, if they do not have school-age children, or with alarm, if they do. In reading, we have swung from a whole word methodology to phonics to direct instruction to whole language, with various stops along the way, over the course of my lifetime. These have had resultant of achievement (Chall, 1996a). Slavin (1989) suggested that the pendulum swings in education come from an idea being adopted before the research results are in. When the results of the program turn out to be disappointing, we quickly reject that program and move on to the next fad. This may have been the case with whole language, as the approach was widely adopted before adequate research was available. The research that was available suggested that whole language was as, or possibly less, effective than current instruction (Stahl & Miller, 1989). Yet whole language spread like wildfire (Pearson, 1989). The 1992 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP; Mullis, Campbell, & Farstrup, 1993) surveyed fourth-grade teachers nationwide and found that 42% reported a heavy emphasis on whole language and an additional 41% reported a moderate emphasis-that is, 83% of the total. For a movement that began in the late 1970s, this was explosive.