I’ve been sitting with this too. Why do educators feel like they have to choose a “side”? I think there are a few things at play:
The path from research to practice is messy. What the research actually says often gets diluted or distorted by the time it reaches a classroom. For example, the Science of Reading doesn’t say “only phonics,” but in practice, a teacher might be handed a 45-minute phonics block with little context or conversation—and kids end up in decodables for too long. That’s not about research; that’s about how it's implemented.
At times, adults defend what they’ve always done—or the kids they most identify with. It’s easier to get stuck defending a specific practice (like independent reading) or one group of students, rather than thinking system-wide. Yes, a kindergartener just learning to read shouldn’t spend most of the day in independent reading. But a fifth grader who’s fluent? They absolutely need time to read. The nuance matters.
Choosing a “side” generates drama—which social media rewards. The algorithms love conflict. But in real classrooms, kids don’t benefit from sides—they benefit from thoughtful teaching, flexibility, and educators who are curious, not defensive.
At the end of the day, we help kids most when we stay open, stay grounded in dialogue, and stay focused on all learners—not just the ones who match our favorite example.
You are so right. I wonder if failure to distinguish “the research” from how it’s implemented is inadvertent or ADvertent (is that a word?). Sorting through some of the research findings and their implications is often—but not always!—a headache. But then layer on confounding research findings/implications with implementation, and you’ve got a chronic swarm of human-created and totally needless migraines. Kinda like the tariffs we’re seeing wrecking the US and global economy. Sorry. I couldn’t help it.
It doesn’t help when every few years a school determines that teachers are doing everything wrong and then they buy a new program and start over….Starting over all the time breaks teacher’s morales and makes it feel like they are always starting from scratch. It’s exactly why I have avoided all the conversations in the past few years around teachers having to ‘forgive themselves’ for teaching reading wrong all these years. Yes, for many there were parts that they were doing incorrectly and not guided by research. No big drama..change it . Most weren’t doing EVERYTHING wrong.
"But a fifth grader who’s fluent? They absolutely need time to read."
I'm not pushing back, just going back to what you said about research getting "diluted or distorted." The research on independent reading is pretty murky leading many like Tim Shanahan arguing that it's not a good use of instructional time and others arguing that the answer is "accountable reading" with others counterarguing that love of reading won't emerge if kids need to "account" for their enjoyment. As I said: murky. I've experience all of these scenarios and don't have the answer.
Push away! It’s how we get smarter at all this. Yes the research is very murky and I agree we need to be careful that 5th grade classrooms aren’t doing 45 minutes of IR with no teaching and no other parts of the curriculum. Here is where the art comes in (I think). There is research on motivation and executive functioning skills and I worry about what happens if a school says because the research is murky we won’t do it ever. My own daughter is in 6th grade in a great school with wonderful friends. She is the ONLY kid of her friend group who reads anything outside of school —the rest just groan at the thought. And not to brag about my own kid but her vocabulary is outrageous, she refers to books all the time in conversation and she knows so much because she READS. How do we bring this to schools? In my experiences it’s through very careful conversations keeping the research at the forefront and seeing this as one thing not everything. I also wonder about Share’s Self Teaching Theory and how often kids are doing that 'self teaching' if they are not reading independently.
I’ve been sitting with this too. Why do educators feel like they have to choose a “side”? I think there are a few things at play:
The path from research to practice is messy. What the research actually says often gets diluted or distorted by the time it reaches a classroom. For example, the Science of Reading doesn’t say “only phonics,” but in practice, a teacher might be handed a 45-minute phonics block with little context or conversation—and kids end up in decodables for too long. That’s not about research; that’s about how it's implemented.
At times, adults defend what they’ve always done—or the kids they most identify with. It’s easier to get stuck defending a specific practice (like independent reading) or one group of students, rather than thinking system-wide. Yes, a kindergartener just learning to read shouldn’t spend most of the day in independent reading. But a fifth grader who’s fluent? They absolutely need time to read. The nuance matters.
Choosing a “side” generates drama—which social media rewards. The algorithms love conflict. But in real classrooms, kids don’t benefit from sides—they benefit from thoughtful teaching, flexibility, and educators who are curious, not defensive.
At the end of the day, we help kids most when we stay open, stay grounded in dialogue, and stay focused on all learners—not just the ones who match our favorite example.
You are so right. I wonder if failure to distinguish “the research” from how it’s implemented is inadvertent or ADvertent (is that a word?). Sorting through some of the research findings and their implications is often—but not always!—a headache. But then layer on confounding research findings/implications with implementation, and you’ve got a chronic swarm of human-created and totally needless migraines. Kinda like the tariffs we’re seeing wrecking the US and global economy. Sorry. I couldn’t help it.
It doesn’t help when every few years a school determines that teachers are doing everything wrong and then they buy a new program and start over….Starting over all the time breaks teacher’s morales and makes it feel like they are always starting from scratch. It’s exactly why I have avoided all the conversations in the past few years around teachers having to ‘forgive themselves’ for teaching reading wrong all these years. Yes, for many there were parts that they were doing incorrectly and not guided by research. No big drama..change it . Most weren’t doing EVERYTHING wrong.
"But a fifth grader who’s fluent? They absolutely need time to read."
I'm not pushing back, just going back to what you said about research getting "diluted or distorted." The research on independent reading is pretty murky leading many like Tim Shanahan arguing that it's not a good use of instructional time and others arguing that the answer is "accountable reading" with others counterarguing that love of reading won't emerge if kids need to "account" for their enjoyment. As I said: murky. I've experience all of these scenarios and don't have the answer.
Push away! It’s how we get smarter at all this. Yes the research is very murky and I agree we need to be careful that 5th grade classrooms aren’t doing 45 minutes of IR with no teaching and no other parts of the curriculum. Here is where the art comes in (I think). There is research on motivation and executive functioning skills and I worry about what happens if a school says because the research is murky we won’t do it ever. My own daughter is in 6th grade in a great school with wonderful friends. She is the ONLY kid of her friend group who reads anything outside of school —the rest just groan at the thought. And not to brag about my own kid but her vocabulary is outrageous, she refers to books all the time in conversation and she knows so much because she READS. How do we bring this to schools? In my experiences it’s through very careful conversations keeping the research at the forefront and seeing this as one thing not everything. I also wonder about Share’s Self Teaching Theory and how often kids are doing that 'self teaching' if they are not reading independently.
I saw Dr. Echevarria’s presentation at CABE in ‘24, btw, and it was excellent. Much more to say about this post later.