Atlanta News First Investigative Series: Reading Reset

Article / Video

ANF Investigative Series: Reading Reset

ANF | May 6, 2025

Georgia is confronting a reading crisis decades in the making. By the time students reach fourth grade, only one in three can read proficiently,
according to a 2025 state assessment. Critics say failed teaching methods, a lack of teacher preparation, and ineffective early interventions are to blame.

The consequences are far-reaching—affecting students’ mental health, long-term academic success, and even their odds of incarceration. Georgia lawmakers unanimously passed sweeping legislation this year aimed at transforming how reading is taught in the state’s public schools — from what’s allowed in the classroom to how teachers are trained.

The newly passed bills ban a controversial reading method known as “three cueing” and require educator preparation programs to align with the science of reading, a body of research that emphasizes phonics-based instruction. The law also prohibits Georgia schools from using the long-standing Reading Recovery program, which uses three cueing and was found in a 2023 study to be potentially harmful to struggling students.

Atlanta News First’s investigative series, Reading Reset, reveals how these programs and teaching methods potentially played a part in the state’s poor
reading proficiently, parents’ fight for change and how lawmakers responded.

View the original article and watch the video: ANF.