Reading and the Limits of Science

The dream of absolute prediction_this method, under these conditions, produces this result_has been a characteristic of utopian thinking from the 18th century on.

By Thomas Newkirk

In his whirlwind tour that accompanied the signing of the "No Child Left Behind" Act of 2001, President Bush stressed the importance of reading instruction based on "science"—not "what sounds good." We have, of course, had presidents who were committed to educational improvement, but never one so focused on reading, even to the point of entering the Reading Wars and aligning himself with a particular research base.

The scientific principles Mr. Bush alluded to are laid out in a report from the National Reading Panel, "Teaching Children to Read," which somewhat redundantly claims to be "an evidence-based assessment of the scientific research on reading and its implications for reading instruction." According to the reading panel's project director, Duane Alexander, the goal of the study is to help "ensure that reading instructional approaches in America's classrooms reflect scientifically based methods."

This has long been a dream of experimental educational research, to transfer the scientific methods of the hard sciences to school learning. The key question must be: Does the report deliver on its promise to provide a solid, incontrovertible base of research conclusions that can usefully guide classroom practice? Can it help schools move from "what...