Phonics checks a win for reading levels

The proportion of SA kids able to demonstrate a key reading skill has increased since mandatory phonics screening was introduced.

Although derided by teaching unions in some states, the mandatory phonics check has attracted bipartisan support in South Australia. Picture: istock

South Australia has urged other states to follow its lead and roll out phonics screening to primary school classrooms, after reporting dramatic improvements in Year 1 students’ reading skills just two years after introducing the checks.

In 2018, just 43 per cent of Year 1 students met the expected achievement level, rising to 52 per cent in 2019.

This year, 63 per cent of state school students demonstrated phonics skills at the benchmark level or higher.

Education Minister John Gardner said the phonics checks had helped to identify students who needed additional support and also encouraged schools to ensure that they were using effective teaching methods to improve children’s literacy learning.

He said schools and teachers across the state now understood the critical role of phonics — the ability to recognise the relationships between letters and sounds — in learning to read.

“We know that many many schools are now taking schoolwide evidence-based approaches to the teaching of literacy,” Mr Gardner said.

“It was previously … a choose-your-own-adventure, where every classroom in a school, let alone different schools, might have different approaches to teaching reading.

“We now have a consistent approach in South Australian schools.”

Mr Gardner said he expected that student’s improved skills would be reflected in next year’s NAPLAN results, with the Year 3 student cohort having undertaken phonics screening two years earlier.

He called on other states to seriously consider implementing the checks, which require a student to read 40 words, ranging from simple through to complex, including several made-up words to weed out guessing — a common habit among early readers.

“I’m confident that NSW, when they’ve done their trial, will see great merit in it and that other states will pick it up as well when they see how welcome it is,” he said.

“There are people in the education sector, not so much in South Australia … [who are] still sceptical.

“I think those barriers will be broken down when they see the dramatic improvements.”

More than 400 schools undertook the phonics screening check from mid-August this year — with the process delayed by two weeks due to the coronavirus pandemic — with 13,817 students taking part.

Federal Education Minister Dan Tehan described the result as “fantastic” and said it confirmed the importance of schools focusing on the fundamentals of literacy and numeracy.

Although derided by teaching unions in some states as well as advocates of the prevailing balanced literacy approach for reading instruction, the check has attracted bipartisan support in SA.

In NSW, one in three public primary schools signed up to take part in the trial.