If It’s Not Student-Centered, It’s Not the Science of Reading

By Cassandra Wheeler , National Senior Education Advisor at Lexia

Are students in the driver’s seat of your literacy strategy, or are they just along for the ride? I’ve seen too many science of reading rollouts focus on educators’ preferences rather than student outcomes. But curriculum, tools, and training should adapt to students’ needs, not the other way around.

Practice Frameworks Are Not New

When I was earning my degrees in early childhood education in the early and mid-1990s, the Developmentally Appropriate Practice (DAP) framework was the order of the day. Who remembers or still has their green and white 92-page copy of Developmentally Appropriate Practice in Early Childhood Programs Serving Children from Birth Through Age 8, Expanded Edition? 🙋🏻🙋🏼🙋🏽🙋🏾🙋🏿🙋♂️🙋♀️

Created by the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC), the DAP framework was the basis of absolutely everything provided to children, especially young children – curriculum, adult-child interactions, relations between the home and program, developmental evaluations, and everything in between. There was no way any decision could ever be made that did not consider DAP. For any reason.

Now, the science of reading has shaped our thinking, our practices, and our pedagogy. That all-encompassing body of research unequivocally outlines how each of us with any impact in education should prepare ourselves to help students attain literacy success. 

“Student-Centered” Is More Than an Instructional Mindset 

That means teachers’ first, second, and final moves should be centered around the science of reading. It requires a mindset shift that isn't just instructional but also developmental, relational, and deeply student-driven.

For example, we now know that as each child learns to read, neural pathways dedicated to visual recognition and language are repurposed for the effort. In fact, researchers consider oral language development during the preschool years to be an “essential foundation” for literacy learning.

That means what works for a kindergartener won’t serve an eighth grader, for example. Kindergartners are building on their oral language foundations. Eighth graders have moved on from that stage and need to address specific skill gaps. Ignoring a student’s developmental stage will sabotage outcomes. 

In addition, research consistently shows that relational instruction—fostering strong, positive connections between teachers, students, and students’ families—is vital for effective learning. The state of Louisiana is one of the most recent and striking examples of this approach.  According to a 2024 K-12 Dive article, Louisiana was the only state to see an increase in fourth grade reading scores between 2019 and 2024, rising from 50th to 16th in the nation! The state had indeed shifted to the science of reading, and Superintendent of Education Cade Brumley specifically cited being responsive to parent needs as a major factor.

Last but not least, we know that allowing students to take ownership of their own learning increases their engagement in the process and better addresses their specific learning needs.  Tools like Lexia Core5 allow students to set their own pace, monitor their own progress, and choose their own activities from a list of options set at just the right difficulty level to keep those students in the zone of proximal development.

Gaining Clarity About What Matters

The mandates, compliance checklists, and materials that educators deal with every day can make anyone lose focus. But students are the heart and soul of all the research, case studies, and data encompassed by the science of reading. 

Real literacy transformation starts by asking: What do students at each stage actually need from us… and are we listening?