The Wisconsin State Journal utilizes the expertise of UW–Madison’s Mariana Castro in a recent article examining the impact of a new law in Wisconsin that overhauls reading education.
The law, Act 20, aims to improve low reading proficiency rates by requiring instruction to be grounded in “the science of reading,” the article explains. Among other things, this approach emphasizes phonics, and prohibits some other types of instruction.
Castro, who is the qualitative research director for the Multilingual Learning Research Center, housed in the School of Education’s Wisconsin Center for Education Research, describes the science of reading as, “a body of research,” accumulated over decades, which focuses on what works best for teaching kids to read.
“I think one of the misconceptions sometimes when people hear ‘the science of reading,’ is they think it’s a curriculum or it’s a prescribed way of teaching or there’s prescribed timing,” she tells the State Journal. “The ‘science of reading’ itself cannot be adopted.”
To learn more about the science of reading and the new law’s impact on Wisconsin schools, including additional insights from Castro, check out the full article in the Wisconsin State Journal.