The Science of Reading is a large body of research that helps answer a key question about the human experience: How do people learn to read?

It also helps answer a fundamental question for educators: How should we teach reading?

The Science of Reading draws on decades of research from fields like cognitive science, neuroscience, linguistics, psychology, and education. This vast (and still growing) body of research describes our up-to-date understanding of what reading requires, and therefore shapes our approach to effective literacy instruction.

Two frameworks are widely used to capture and communicate those core takeaways:

• The Simple View of Reading
• The Reading Rope

In this overview, we’ll walk you through both.

Why reading needs science

Spoken language develops naturally. Children typically learn to understand and use language simply by being around other people who talk.

Reading, on the other hand, works differently. Written language is a human invention; our brains did not evolve to read. When we are born, the parts of our brain that see letters are completely separate from the parts that hear sounds. So to become readers, students require explicit instruction. They have to be taught specifically to build new connections between what they see on the page and the language they already know.

For a brain to read words, it needs to create new pathways that connect letters with sounds. For example, when a child sees the letter “f” and connects it to the /f/ sound in “funny,” their brain builds a new bridge between the areas that handle sight and sound. Reading actually rewires the brain, bringing together the regions for vision, speech, sound, and meaning into one coordinated reading system.

The Science of Reading explains what those new connections involve—and why some students need more support than others to build them.

The Simple View of Reading

At the heart of the Science of Reading is one of the most widely accepted frameworks in reading research: the Simple View of Reading, first proposed by experts Philip Gough and Bill Tunmer in the 1980s.

The Simple View answers a basic question: What has to be in place for a reader to understand a text?

According to the Simple View, reading comprehension depends on two essential components:

• Decoding: the ability to turn written words into spoken language
• Language comprehension: the ability to understand the meaning of that language

Both are necessary, and neither works on its own. One reader may decode words accurately but struggle to understand what they read, while another may understand spoken language well but be unable to read the words on the page. In either case, comprehension breaks down.

The Simple View captures this core finding of reading research: Skilled reading depends on both word reading and language understanding working together.

Decoding: Reading the words on the page

Decoding involves learning how letters and letter patterns represent sounds. This task is complex in alphabetic writing systems like English, where many letters represent more than one sound, and many sounds can be spelled in different ways.

When children begin learning to read, they already understand a great deal of spoken language. What they don’t yet understand is written language. Letters and printed words are unfamiliar in a way that speech is not.

As students practice decoding, they become more accurate and more fluent. Over time, decoding becomes increasingly automatic.

And this automaticity matters—when students no longer have to focus most of their attention on reading the words, they can devote more mental energy to understanding what the text means.

Language comprehension: Understanding what you read

Language comprehension includes vocabulary, knowledge about the world, and an understanding of how language works across sentences and texts.

Research shows that what readers already know plays a major role in comprehension. As shown in the baseball experiment, students understood and remembered more when the text described a familiar activity—even when their reading skills were relatively weak.

When students read about unfamiliar topics, comprehension becomes more difficult. This is true even for students who can read the words on the page accurately.

So what’s the best way to teach reading comprehension? Combine both elements of the Simple View. In other words, reading comprehension grows alongside vocabulary and knowledge, and exposure to a wide range of topics supports reading development.

The Reading Rope

The Simple View of Reading identifies what reading requires, while the Reading Rope reflects how those requirements develop and become integrated over time.

The Reading Rope organizes reading into two broad strands:

• Word recognition, which includes phonological awareness, decoding, and fluent word reading
• Language comprehension, which includes vocabulary, background knowledge, and the ability to make meaning from text

Each strand of the Rope is made up of multiple interconnected skills. With effective instruction and practice, these skills become more coordinated and more automatic. As that happens, reading becomes smoother and less effortful, allowing readers to focus more fully on meaning.

The Reading Rope builds on the Simple View by showing how skilled reading emerges as these components strengthen and work together.

Instructional practices: Putting it all to work

The Science of Reading is the broad body of research on how reading develops, and the Simple View of Reading and Reading Rope capture the core takeaways of that research.

Together, they show that skilled reading depends on both accurate word reading and strong language comprehension, and that these abilities develop through explicit and systematic instruction, practice, and growing knowledge over time.

For educators, this understanding provides the strongest possible foundation for reading instruction. When students become skilled readers, new possibilities open up—in their classrooms today, and for the rest of their lives.

When you look up at the night sky, you see some stars that shine especially bright. They guide travelers, inspire wonder, and illuminate galaxies.

That’s how we think of the literacy educators who champion the Science of Reading. They brighten the path for countless students and light their way to lifelong literacy.

Making the shift to the Science of Reading is no small feat. It requires thoughtful engagement, systematic implementation, and the courage to change long-standing practices. Most importantly, it requires every part of an educational system to work in cosmic alignment for student success.

That’s why the Amplify Science of Reading Star Awards honor outstanding educators, schools, and districts who have transformed their classrooms with the Science of Reading.

We’re excited to celebrate another constellation of remarkable leaders in literacy development—and to invite you to be a part of it.

Leaders in early literacy skills at all levels

Successful Science of Reading implementation happens when everyone is on board. That means: classroom teachers mastering evidence-based teaching techniques, principals supporting school-wide initiatives, districts providing professional development, and entire communities supporting the shift.

Because this transformation requires such coordinated effort, our Science of Reading Star Awards recognize excellence across every level of education, with categories that reflect this multi-level approach.

Individual categories

• Teachers who exemplify Science of Reading principles in daily instruction
• Instructional coaches driving literacy transformation
• Administrators leading successful reading initiatives

School categories

• Schools demonstrating significant reading growth through Science of Reading implementation
• Educational teams working together to strengthen early literacy skills

District categories

• Districts orchestrating system-wide literacy development improvements
• Large-scale Science of Reading transformations with measurable results

How our educator awards honor the winners

All award winners receive a comprehensive package designed to support their leadership and amplify their impact. Recognition includes:

• Honorary Amplify Ambassadorship, which provides access to our community of literacy leaders.
• Your story featured on our website and social media.
• Science of Reading starter library of resources to continue your journey.
• Enrollment in Science of Reading: The Learning Lab (for you and a friend).
• Tons of swag, of course!

Grand prize winners in the District and School categories will also get access to an exclusive library of professional development resources. The grand prize winner in the Individual category will be our guest, all expenses paid, at the Reading League’s 10th annual conference in Chicago next fall.

How to nominate the literacy stars in your sky

Do you know educators whose Science of Reading work deserves recognition—like our 2025 winners? A school team that has transformed reading outcomes? A district that has successfully implemented evidence-based literacy practices system-wide?

These are the stars guiding us toward a future where every child can read with confidence and joy. Help us get to know them!

We are accepting nominations through Feb. 13, 2026, 11:59 p.m. ET. Submit your nomination today!

More to explore

• The Science of Reading
• The Amplify Science of Reading Star Awards
• Amplify Science of Reading district success stories
• Nominate a teacher for an award!

For years, Reena Mathew taught reading the way many educators were trained to—using traditional practices that were familiar and common, but not grounded in up-to-date research.

That changed when she began studying how children actually learn to read. What she discovered reshaped not only her instruction, but her approach to supporting teachers.

Today, Mathew is the K–2 literacy coach helping Suffern Central School District in New York State make a major shift toward research-based early literacy instruction.

Her leadership, dedication, and hands-on support—as well as the key role she plays in creating measurable student success—have earned her a 2025 Amplify Science of Reading Star Award, which specifically recognizes her as Changemaker of the year. These awards honor outstanding educators, schools, and districts who are transforming classrooms and students with literacy practices grounded in the Science of Reading.

“Once I dug into the science,” Mathew says, “I realized that explicit, systematic instruction in phonemic awareness, phonics, vocabulary, and knowledge building isn’t just beneficial, it’s essential.”

Helping teachers shift to research-based instruction

Suffern Central serves nearly 4,000 students in grades K–12, and Mathew has been a leading force in strengthening early literacy development across the district’s youngest grades.

“I shifted my focus to supporting both foundational skills and language comprehension,” she says. “Students need both pieces, phonics and content-rich instruction, to truly become strong, confident readers.” Mathew also dedicated herself to targeted professional development, helping teachers implement the University of Florida Literacy Institute (UFLI) Foundations and the Amplify Core Knowledge Language Arts (CKLA) Knowledge strand.

To lead that shift for teachers, Mathew approached change collaboratively, not prescriptively. She modeled lessons, coached side-by-side, and broke big shifts into manageable steps.

It didn’t take long. “Within weeks, teachers saw students who had struggled with decoding and spelling [already] reading and spelling words with more accuracy and fluency,” she says.

From early literacy skills to independence and confidence for all

What’s more, students figured out that they could use those same strategies elsewhere.

“[Teachers] saw kids using the strategies they were taught not just during the phonics lessons,” Mathew says, “but in their independent reading and writing as well.”

Incorporating Amplify CKLA’s Knowledge strand helped deepen student learning, as well as teachers’ confidence in the approach.

“Teachers shared stories of students using academic vocabulary in ways they never had before and making connections between read-alouds and real-world discussions,” Mathew says. “When a classroom teacher sees a student who is struggling suddenly apply a decoding strategy or use academic vocabulary in conversation, they realize their instruction is working.”

According to Mathew, her greatest achievement has been helping teachers see the impact of using research-based instruction in real time.

A commitment beyond instruction

Mathew is driven not just by the science, but by what she believes every child deserves. Students arrive at school with different levels of language exposure and background knowledge, and research-based instruction provides the explicit foundational skills and systematic knowledge-building all students need to read.

“We can’t control our students’ home lives, what experiences they come in with, and what support they have outside of school, but we can control what happens in our classrooms. We can make sure they get explicit instruction in foundational skills, build the vocabulary and knowledge they need to comprehend complex texts, and leave our schools as confident readers,” Mathew says. “Educators should make the shift to the Science of Reading because good instruction levels the playing field and gives every child an equal opportunity to succeed.”

More to explore

• The Science of Reading
• The Amplify Science of Reading Star Awards
• Amplify Science of Reading district success stories
• Nominate a teacher for an award!

Bruin Point Elementary sits at the base of Utah’s Book Cliff Mountain Range in the small mining town of Sunnyside, 30 miles from the nearest district hub. With just 107 students, and one teacher per grade, it’s Carbon School District’s smallest school—and now one of its brightest early literacy success stories.

All of Bruin Point’s students face significant systemic barriers, with 100% qualifying for free lunch. Yet when it comes to literacy development, the school’s educators have achieved something remarkable.

In just one year, their student literacy proficiency rates jumped 19 percentage points—from 39% at the beginning of the year to 58% by mid-year.

That’s why Bruin Point Elementary has been named a Literacy Legend in our 2025 Science of Reading Star Awards. These awards honor educators, schools, and districts that have transformed classrooms and empowered students through the Science of Reading.

Teaching early literacy skills in a community with challenges

Sunnyside tells the story of many rural American communities. “Since the closing of the local mines, there has been an increase in the number of unemployed family members,” says Cindy Garcia, Bruin Point’s principal.

As a result, an already high poverty rate has risen still further, along with levels of substance abuse, neglect, behavioral issues, and more. Parent involvement in school is extremely low, according to Garcia. “Basic needs take priority.”

Yet Garcia and her six-teacher team saw potential where others might have seen obstacles. They understood that their students deserved the strongest possible foundation in early literacy skills. And they knew they had to make a change.

The importance of relying on data

“Many of us had been trained in methods that didn’t fully meet the needs of all students, and shifting the mindset required trust, training, and time,” says fifth-grade teacher Tyler Grundy. “Our biggest challenge wasn’t just learning a new approach. It was unlearning old ones. But we stayed the course.”

Four of the six teachers completed LETRS training, with two more currently working through it. Teachers began to trade guesswork for systematic, explicit classroom instruction, using data to guide their early literacy program.

“We equipped our teachers with the knowledge and tools to teach reading explicitly and systematically,” Grundy says. “We relied on data, not assumptions, to guide our instruction and interventions.”

Building literacy and knowledge together

The school implemented Amplify Core Knowledge Language Arts (CKLA), providing systematic phonics instruction and rich content knowledge that builds comprehension.

“CKLA weaves literacy skills together to help make my students proficient readers and writers,” says first-grade teacher Chelsea Timothy. “They’re making connections between the Greek myth of Arachne and spiders being arachnids. They put together a web of knowledge.”

Just having a wealth of content at their fingertips made a huge difference, too, and the instructors learned quickly how to leverage it.

“I didn’t have to spend countless hours looking for content,” said Julia Sanders, a first-year kindergarten teacher. “It saved me time, so I could focus on making it more encouraging for the kids.”

For second-grade teacher Francie Aufdemorte, having comprehensive materials meant being able to focus on instruction. “It reduced the stress of creating lesson plans from scratch,” she says. “I was nervous about the rigor, but my students have excelled with it.”

Building a culture in which “success is expected”

The 19-point proficiency jump speaks to real student growth, but Garcia knows the impact goes beyond test scores.

“Struggling students who once guessed at words began to decode with confidence,” she said. “We built a culture where reading success is expected and not left to chance.”

Bruin Point’s success rests on ongoing commitment to evidence-based practices. Garcia and her team continue meeting regularly for data discussions, sustaining the mindset shift that began their journey to improved student outcomes.

“Our interventions and extensions are like a well-oiled machine,” Garcia said. “We can see that the young ones are off to a much better start.”

She adds: “We didn’t just change our curriculum, we changed lives. And that is a legacy worth celebrating.”

More to explore

• The Science of Reading
• The Amplify Science of Reading Star Awards
• Amplify Science of Reading district success stories
• Nominate a teacher for an award!