Educational Research Analysts  November 2009 Newsletter  
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In 2008 and 2009 respectively, California and Texas approved new 1st grade Reading programs for subsequent local adoption. Pure phonics pedagogy has students read no phonetically-regular word before they know all its letter-sound correspondences. None of the California or Texas submissions scored perfectly on this, but overall Texas' standards and programs both measurably bested California in promoting decodability.
 CALIFORNIATEXAS 
 No specific list or minimal
number of letter-sound corre-
spondences exists that 1st grade
Reading programs must teach.
1st grade Reading programs
must teach at least 70
specified letter-sound
correspondences.
 
 Minimum average decodability
of 1st graders' reading
selections must be 75%.
Minimum average decodability
of 1st graders' reading
selections must be 80%.
 
 Some 1st grade student
reading selections may not
count toward this 75% figure.
All 1st grade student
reading selections count
toward this 80% figure.
 
 Total average decodability
of five 1st grade Reading
programs is 89.6%.
Total average decodability
of four 1st grade Reading
programs is 94%.
 
Four of these
five California
programs
unsoundly
teach more
phonetically-
regular than
irregular
words as
sight words.
65% of all student
reading selections in five
1st grade Reading programs
are at least 90% decodable.
82.5% of all student
reading selections in four
1st grade Reading programs
are at least 90% decodable.
One of these
four Texas
programs
unsoundly
teaches more
phonetically-
regular than
irregular
words as
sight words.
Five programs teach
an average of 95 still-
undecodable phonetically-
regular words as sight words.
Four programs teach
an average of 74 still-
undecodable phonetically-
regular words as sight words.
Five programs teach
an average of 74
phonetically-irregular
words as sight words.
Four programs teach
an average of 79
phonetically-irregular
words as sight words.
 Two programs wrongly ask
1st graders to "read" still-
undecodable words while
developing oral vocabulary.
No programs wrongly ask
1st graders to "read" still-
undecodable words while
developing oral vocabulary.
 
All these programs' Language Arts components misalign with their Phonics strands because they ask 1st graders to "read" and/or write still-undecodable phonetically-regular words.
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