For years, parents, educators, researchers, and advocates have been sounding the same alarm: too many children were being denied the opportunity to become proficient readers because schools refused to fully embrace what science already knew.
Today, the nation is finally beginning to catch up.
Recent reporting highlights how North Carolina’s colleges of education are revising their teacher preparation programs to better align with the Science of Reading. Simultaneously, bipartisan support is building around the READ Act, legislation championed by parents, educators, and advocates who understand that literacy is foundational to every aspect of a child’s future.
Many people see these developments as reasons to celebrate.
I see them as evidence.
Evidence that advocates, parents, educators, researchers, and families have been right all along.
Because if we are finally acknowledging what works, then we must also acknowledge a more uncomfortable truth: millions of children spent years paying the price while adults debated what researchers had already demonstrated.
The Science of Reading is not new.
The research is not new.
The consequences of ignoring both are not new.
What is new is that institutions are finally being forced to confront them.
Literacy Is Not a Reading Issue. It Is a Justice Issue.
Too often literacy conversations are framed as technical discussions about curriculum, assessments, or instructional practices.
But literacy has never been merely an education issue.
Literacy determines access to opportunity.
Literacy shapes economic mobility.
Literacy influences civic participation.
Literacy impacts workforce development.
Literacy affects whether a child sees doors opening or closing throughout their lifetime.
When children cannot read proficiently, the consequences extend far beyond the classroom. They ripple through families, communities, workplaces, and entire generations.
Those consequences do not fall equally.
Historically marginalized communities, including Black students, multilingual learners, students with disabilities, and students from low-income households, have disproportionately borne the burden of ineffective literacy instruction.
That is why literacy must be understood as a civil rights issue.
When children are denied effective reading instruction, they are denied access to the very foundation upon which future success is built.
The Nation Is Finally Catching Up
Organizations like the National Parents Union deserve tremendous credit for helping elevate literacy from an educational concern to a national priority. Parents across political ideologies have united around a simple belief: every child deserves access to evidence-based reading instruction.
That should not be a partisan position.
It should be common sense.
The growing bipartisan support behind literacy reform demonstrates something many advocates have known for years: children do not care about political labels. They care whether they can read.
Parents do not care about ideological battles. They care whether their child can access the opportunities that literacy unlocks.
Communities do not care about educational jargon. They care whether their schools are producing readers.
The READ Act is not important because it introduces a new idea.
It is important because it reflects a growing national acknowledgment that literacy outcomes improve when instruction aligns with scientific evidence.
That acknowledgment is long overdue.
North Carolina Must Confront Its Own Reality
As national momentum builds, North Carolina must resist the temptation to congratulate itself prematurely.
Updating university coursework is important.
Passing legislation is important.
Issuing public statements is important.
None of those actions matter if children continue to struggle to read.
The largest school district in North Carolina, along with districts across the state, must be willing to answer difficult questions.
Are evidence-based literacy practices being implemented consistently across all classrooms?
Are educators receiving meaningful coaching and support beyond initial training?
Are struggling readers identified early and provided intensive interventions?
Are literacy outcomes improving for all students, particularly those historically underserved by the system?
Are leaders willing to be transparent when outcomes fail to match promises?
These questions matter because implementation matters.
Children cannot learn to read through press releases.
They cannot decode through strategic plans.
They cannot achieve literacy through public relations campaigns.
They need effective instruction every single day.
Teachers Deserve Better Too
The conversation about literacy cannot become an exercise in blaming educators.
Many teachers entered classrooms with tremendous passion and commitment but without adequate preparation in evidence-based reading instruction.
That failure belongs to systems, not individual educators.
Teachers deserve preparation programs rooted in science.
Teachers deserve high-quality instructional materials.
Teachers deserve coaching and professional development that strengthen practice.
Teachers deserve the tools necessary to help every child succeed.
For too long, educators and students alike have been asked to navigate systems that failed both groups.
True literacy reform requires investing in teachers while holding institutions accountable.
The Questions We Can No Longer Avoid
If we know what works, then we must ask difficult questions.
Why did it take so long to align teacher preparation with scientific evidence?
Why were families forced to become literacy advocates to secure what should have been standard practice?
Why were warning signs ignored for years?
How many children struggled unnecessarily while systems defended approaches that research failed to support?
How many opportunities were lost because adults refused to act with urgency?
These questions are uncomfortable.
They are also necessary.
Progress requires honesty.
I Will Continue Sounding the Alarm
For years, I have argued that reading failure on a large scale is not inevitable.
It is preventable.
And because it is preventable, it demands accountability.
The recent attention surrounding the Science of Reading and the READ Act is encouraging. It represents a growing recognition that literacy must become a national priority.
But recognition alone is not enough.
The debate over whether evidence-based literacy instruction works is over.
The research is clear.
The question now is whether leaders will fully implement what we know and whether communities will demand accountability when they do not.
History will not remember who defended ineffective systems.
History will remember who fought for children.
I intend to remain among those who sounded the alarm long before it became fashionable to listen.
Because every child deserves the opportunity to become a confident reader.
And every day we delay delivering that opportunity is a day we fail the very scholars we claim to serve.