A Call for Equity in Reading Instruction for All Students: A Response to Allington and Woodside-Jiron

The program of research on reading sponsored by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) is one important source of information for practitioners choosing best practices for early literacy instruction. On the basis of evidence from both normal and disabled readers, this research indicates that multiple factors are critical to early literacy success and that phonological knowledge and skill is one such element. The utility of this body of research was called into question by Allington and Woodside-Jiron in a November 1999 Educational Researcher article titled "The Politics of Literacy Teaching: How 'Research' Shaped Educational Policy." This response to that article is written to examine policymaking activities that are misrepresented, to correct mistakes made by Allington and Woodside-Jiron about the range and utility of NICHD research, to correct possible misperceptions of the NICHD-supported research effort that might arise in the minds of those who read the Allington and Woodside-Jiron article, and to present new evidence that clarifies the utility of much of this research.

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