Catherine Snow | Photograph by Stu Rosner“A Very Stable Level of Mediocrity”The questions animating the debate over how to best teach reading aren’t new. Though this research has found that phonics, oral language, and comprehension are all important elements of reading, science of reading reforms have often centered on phonics instruction. In reality, American students’ reading scores have remained relatively stable during the past 25 years, save for a dip during the pandemic. One popular model of literacy education, Scarborough’s reading rope, compares reading to a braided rope comprising eight different strands. ’70, studied at HGSE under Jeanne Chall, a professor who conducted pioneering research about the importance of phonics in literacy education.