Over the last several years, Tennessee has passed legislation and guidance around adoption, purchase, training, and use of high-quality instructional materials in early grades literacy. These efforts have been grounded in research on how students best learn to read — through a focus on systematic, explicit phonics instruction and regular opportunities to build knowledge through reading and responding to complex texts. These policies and practices are beginning to transform and strengthen instruction, with the latest statewide results from the 2022-23 school year showing that 40 percent of third graders are now reading on grade level — the highest percentage since the state raised academic standards nearly a decade ago.
