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A Review of K-3 Phonics Practices or Interventions

Date added: September 15, 2025

A review to help children in K-3 develop foundational reading skills related to phonics.

Abstract

This review focused on phonics interventions or practices designed to help children in kindergarten through third grade learn to develop foundational reading skills related to phonics. The Institute of Education Sciences What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) issued an educator’s practice guide, Foundational Skills to Support Reading for Understanding in Kindergarten Through 3rd Grade, that covered this topic in 2016. Our goal with this review was to update that practice guide with peer-reviewed research published between 2014 and 2024. Often positioned at the center of foundational reading instruction for students in the primary grades, phonics—including the skills students must acquire if they are to become proficient decoders as well as effective ways of teaching students these skills—has been the focus of a number of systematic reviews and meta-analyses. In this systematic review, we synthesize the experimental research conducted between 2014 and 2024 to understand how to support students in grades K-3 in developing the ability to read words fluently and proficiently.

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