The importance of early phonics improvements for predicting later reading comprehension

Kit Double, Joshua McGrane, Jamie Stiff and Therese N. Hopfenbeck have published an article in the British Educational Research Journal entitled “The importance of early phonics improvements for predicting later reading comprehension”.

The article builds upon the centre’s work for PIRLS 2016, and investigates how student performance on the year 1 phonics screening check in England predicts their performance in the key stage 1 reading assessment the following year, as well as in the PIRLS reading comprehension test four years later. The article explores the benefits of early interventions and further checks of phonics skills on improving later reading comprehension outcomes, particularly for students who fail to meet the ‘expected standard’ in the initial phonics screening check.

To view the full article in the British Educational Research Journal, please click here.