As states refocus reading instruction, two universities stick with a discredited idea

Pressure is mounting on two universities to change the way they train on-the-job educators to teach reading. 

The Ohio State University in Columbus and Lesley University near Boston both run prominent literacy training programs that include a theory contradicted by decades of cognitive science research. Amid a $660 million effort to retrain teachers that’s underway in 36 states, other academic institutions are updating their professional development. Yet Ohio State and Lesley are resisting criticism and standing by their training. 

For decades, their Literacy Collaborative programs deemphasized teaching beginning readers how to sound out words. These programs do cover some phonics, but they also teach that students can use context clues to decipher unfamiliar words. Studies have repeatedly shown that guessing words from context is inefficient, unreliable and counterproductive. Twelve states have effectively banned school districts from using that flawed approach. 

The approach, sometimes called “cueing,” originated in the 1960s in the United States and New Zealand, and was popularized in American reading instruction by Gay Su Pinnell and Irene Fountas, professors at the two universities. Pinnell, who is now retired, founded OSU’s Literacy Collaborative, and Fountas founded and still directs Lesley’s Center for Reading Recovery & Literacy Collaborative.  

Teachers College at Columbia University also provided training based on cueing through the Teachers College Reading & Writing Project. But the college announced last year that it would transition to a new program to train teachers in techniques “informed by the latest research and evidence.”  

Schools of education play a dual role in training teachers: They prepare the teachers of tomorrow to enter classrooms, and they can also provide ongoing support, like these programs do. 

These three professional development programs at Ohio State, Lesley and Teachers College have worked with school systems nationwide, including in New York City, Houston, Atlanta, Philadelphia and Columbus, Ohio. Collectively, hundreds of thousands of educators have received their training.  

Stephanie Spadorcia, Lesley’s vice-provost of education, said her university is “very proud of our history and affiliation with Reading Recovery.” She described Fountas as “a pioneer” and “an advocate for teachers and children learning how to read.” Spadorcia said cueing was one of several approaches to teaching reading and that it was important for school districts to have training in how to do it well. She also argued that the theory has been mischaracterized by journalists. 

“My colleagues at the Reading Recovery Literacy Collaborative would be the first ones to say we know that our approach does not work for every kid. It’s an option; it’s a choice,” Spadorcia said in an interview. “We see it still being a very important option to have in school districts.” 

The Ohio State University declined to make the dean of its education school available for an interview, but a spokesperson said the school also has no plans to change its trainings.  

“In our teaching and research, we strive to remain consistent with scientific evidence while meeting the needs of children, schools and districts,” Stacey Dorr, a spokesperson for OSU’s College of Education and Human Ecology, wrote in an email. 

But some of the lessons from OSU’s Literacy Collaborative training may conflict with the direction set by the state of Ohio. Last year, Ohio joined the list of states banning schools from teaching reading based on cueing. The professional association for Reading Recovery trainers and teachers is now suing to try to block the law from taking effect.  

Andrew Brenner, an Ohio legislator who chairs the Senate education committee, criticized Ohio State for continuing to spread the debunked theory.  

“Tens of thousands of students in Ohio do not know how to read at grade level, and it is because schools used ineffective methods of literacy instruction like three-cueing,” Brenner told APM Reports. “The Reading Recovery program pushed by Ohio State does not work.”  

Brenner said the state just made a “historic investment” of $170 million in their biennial budget to update schools’ reading instruction. And he said many districts have already started implementing “effective methods … based on the science of reading.”  

“Those are exactly the methods that educator preparation programs should be focused on providing,” Brenner said. 

Asked why OSU’s Literacy Collaborative still offers training in an approach banned by state law, Dorr didn’t respond.  

Literacy training brought in millions of dollars 

Literacy Collaborative got its start in the mid-1980s shortly after Pinnell and other Ohio State professors introduced American schools to Reading Recovery, a one-on-one tutoring program for struggling first-graders. Pinnell formalized Ohio State’s training program in 1993, and Fountas brought it to Lesley a year later.  

The Literacy Collaborative model focuses on improving schoolwide literacy rates by training coaches in Fountas and Pinnell’s methods.  

It quickly won support from educators. Erik Berg, a literacy coach in Boston Public Schools, said that Lesley’s Center for Reading Recovery felt different from other professional development programs because of its “great respect for teachers.”  

“They were involved with schools for multiple years — decades,” he said. “They built strong relationships.” 

A 2010 study suggested that adding Literacy Collaborative-trained coaches increased K-2 student learning above baseline rates. But the study’s authors noted that there could have been other causes for schools’ improved performance, including a massive federal investment in reading instruction that began around the same time. 

Lesley’s Literacy Collaborative currently serves approximately 13 districts in New England, a university spokesperson said in an email.  

Ohio State reported in 2020 that its Literacy Collaborative trainers were working with 25 school districts in five states. The program has historically brought in several million dollars in revenue — averaging around $3 million annually between 2013 and 2020 — according to financial documents APM Reports obtained through a public-records request. 

The programs at Ohio State and Lesley are no longer formally affiliated. But both universities have received multi-million-dollar donations from Pinnell, including gifts of $9.5 million to Ohio State and $3 million to Lesley in 2020. 

Fountas and Pinnell did not respond to emails requesting an interview. 

Teachers College topples towering figure 

Pinnell also helped train another professor: Lucy Calkins, who built her own teacher-training program that included the cueing theory. But unlike Ohio State and Lesley, Calkins’ college reacted as big customers, like New York City, switched up their reading instruction. 

Calkins was a towering figure on Columbia’s Teachers College campus for more than four decades. She founded what was to become the Teachers College Reading & Writing Project in 1981. The goal was to remake classrooms into student-centered workshops, where kids would choose their own books and topics. A decade later, The New York Times called the project “celebrated,” and Teachers College promoted it as “internationally recognized.”  

Over the years, Calkins’ trainings delivered tens of millions of dollars in revenue to Teachers College. New York City schools alone paid at least $4.5 million to TCRWP, according to a review of contracts from 2011 to 2020. Calkins’ team grew to more than 100 employees. Hundreds of school districts bought her classroom libraries, which were branded with the “Teachers College” name.  

So, it came as a surprise in September when Teachers College announced that it would “dissolve” Calkins’ Reading and Writing Project and replace it with a new initiative called Advancing Literacy. Calkins would not direct it, the announcement said. 

Provost KerryAnn O’Meara said in a press release that Teachers College was “grateful to Dr. Calkins for her service.” O’Meara, who made the announcement just months after assuming her role, declined an interview request.   

In an email to APM Reports, Calkins said that her training program was “a vibrant force” at Teachers College for decades and that she’d “had a long and fruitful relationship” with the institution. “I’m proud of what the College and I accomplished together,” she wrote. 

Faculty members said the announcement was unexpected. “It’s been very shocking to watch Calkins’ legacy and all of her industry dissolve,” said Cathlin Goulding, a curriculum specialist and adjunct assistant professor at the Teachers College Summer Principals Academy. She compared it to watching “statues being pulled down from the Cold War.”  

Goulding and two former Teachers College faculty told APM Reports there was a perception on campus that the institution’s reputation had become too intertwined with Calkins. They said her work was so widely known that it seemed as if her “balanced literacy” approach was the only thing taught at Teachers College. And they said Calkins’ use of the institution’s name in her marketing exacerbated the confusion. 

Asked to respond, Calkins said, “Given that I’m a senior faculty member at the College and that the organization I founded was housed in two floors of the College, it was only natural that it bore the College’s brand.” She added that the TCRWP Classroom Libraries were “supported by the TC administration.”

Calkins is currently on sabbatical. She continues to work with many districts through her private consulting company, since renamed the Reading & Writing Project at Mossflower. Calkins said that Mossflower does not provide professional development in cueing. She has been working to incorporate elements of scientific research into her Units of Study curriculum, and its new edition includes more instruction on sounding out words and no mention of cueing.   

Now that she’s doing most of her training work through Mossflower, Calkins said she felt it was “absolutely appropriate” for Teachers College to redirect its literacy training “towards a new mission, with a new name.” Calkins added, “I’m entirely supportive of the College.”   

The new leader at Teachers College's Advancing Literacy program has deep ties to Calkins. Mary Ehrenworth previously served as Calkins’ senior deputy director at the training organization, co-edited parts of her Units of Study for Teaching Reading curriculum and co-authored a book with her about teaching to Common Core standards. Through a spokesperson, she declined an interview.

Ehrenworth appears to be steering the organization in a new direction. At Advancing Literacy’s first event following Calkins’ departure, she hosted Maryanne Wolf, a cognitive neuroscientist at the University of California-Los Angeles. 

Lesley’s Literacy Collaborative, on the other hand, invited educators last year to an event where Fountas and Pinnell discussed “the current literacy education climate.” 

Kimberly Sarfde, an assistant superintendent in Nashua, New Hampshire, who has embraced the science of reading, was incensed when she saw the invitation. 

“Your blatant denial of more than 50 years of research is appalling beyond words,” she wrote in an email reply she later shared with APM Reports. “I hope the entire education world boycotts your university until you publicly denounce balanced literacy practices.” 

She received no response from the program.  

Additional reporting by Emily Hanford, Angela Caputo and Anika Besst.