Educational Research Analysts  November 2009 Newsletter  
PDFof this page
COMPARISON OF 1ST GRADE PHONICS INSTRUCTION in new Reading Program Type 1 materials up for 2009 local California adoption
SRA
IMAGINE IT!
SRA/McGraw  ©2009
 HOUGHTON MIFFLIN
READING
Houghton  ©2010
 PEARSON
READING STREET
Pearson  ©2010
 CALIFORNIA
TREASURES
Macmillan  ©2010
HSP CALIFORNIA
EXCURSIONS
Harcourt  ©2010
overall ranking ⇒ BEST BETTER FAIR FAIR FAIR
decodability1 95% 91% 89% 86% 87%
% of student reading selections
that are at least 75% decodable 		97%
(185 of 190 selections)		 96%
(154 of 161 selections)		 89%
(215 of 242 selections)		 88%
(158 of 179 selections)		 88%
(242 of 275 selections)
% of student reading selections
that are at least 90% decodable		 91%
(172 of 190 selections)		 65%
(104 of 161 selections)		 67%
(163 of 242 selections)		 50%
(89 of 179 selections)		 52%
(144 of 275 selections)
# of phonetically-IRREGULAR
words taught as sight words		 32 86 88 83 83
# of phonetically-REGULAR words taught as sight words before they are decodable 23 132 91 96 135
comprehensiveness2
("LSCs" = letter-sound correspondences)		 70
of 70 LSCs
+28 more		 65
of 70 LSCs
+16 more		 68
of 70 LSCs
+14 more		 67
of 70 LSCs
+23 more		 61
of 70 LSCs
+13 more
strengths &
weaknesses of
comprehensiveness		 Unique 14-week
review after
teaching 98 LSCs;
only program to teach
schwa sound; teaches
a as in all in week 6, &
ea as in head in week 8		 Never teaches
a as in all
or words
ending in -le		 Teaches a as in all
in week 13;
teaches words
ending in -le
only in final week		 Teaches silent e as in
house, please, geese;
teaches /ar/ as in bear,
fair, share; final unit
teaches a as in all; never
teaches ea as in head		 Teaches a as in all
in week 8;
only program to omit
oi/oy, aw/au,
& e-e=long e
intensiveness3 1,194
practice opportunities		 941
practice opportunities		 1,354
practice opportunities		 1,028
practice opportunities		 789
practice opportunities
oral vocabulary alignment4 yes no no yes yes

1 DECODABILITY:  For each 1st grade reading selection, we added the phonetically-regular words, all of whose sounds have been taught, plus the phonetically-irregular words that have been taught, and divided by the total number of words. The figure shown here averages all those quotients.
2 COMPREHENSIVENESS:  We identified 70 letter-sound correspondences (LSCs) often taught in Grade 1, and found how many of these each program covers. We also list all additional LSCs each program teaches in Grade 1.
3 INTENSIVENESS:  We counted how often each program has 1st graders practice (i.e., see, hear, say, and write) three LSCs in their introductory lessons, and also compared four randomly selected blending lessons. The figure shown here is the total for all seven exercises.
4 ALIGNMENT:  We checked whether each program avoids asking 1st graders to recognize or "read" phonetically-regular "Oral Vocabulary" words before learning all their LSCs. (None of these programs' Reading and Writing components fully align with their phonics strands.)

Publishers tout teaching aids. We stress phonics content. Publishers tell you their strengths. We include their weaknesses. No textbook publisher funds us in any way. Unlike publisher sales reps, we have no monetary interest in any adoption. We have no financial stake in the textbook industry. Our support comes from individuals and a few small foundations, which to our knowledge have no ties to any textbook company.
next page
For full, fast, FREE documentation, contact us at ⇓