Science of Reading
Katie Burnette
Research
The report of the most recent National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) indicates that once again, 4th, 8th
and 12th grade reading scores are abysmally low, particularly among disadvantaged students (National Center for
Education Statistics, 2003).
Helping Students Succeed
To provide reading instruction that will enable all students to succeed, educators must also have basic information about
scientific knowledge: how it is developed and how it should guide the selection and implementation of instructional
programs, strategies, and approaches (McCardle & Chhabra, 2004; Moats, 1999; Stanovich & Stanovich, 2003).
There is no one perfect way to teach reading.
Quantitative and Qualitative Research
Research methodologies fall into two major types—qualitative and quantitative
Qualitative research is based on holistic inquiry and is context-specific, acknowledging the uniqueness of individuals and
settings (Ravid, 1994). Researchers using this approach rely on observation and description of events.
quantitative research seeks to quantify observations made on larger numbers of individuals and events; it is not context
specific. Researchers working with this approach use deductive inquiry, focus on individual variables and factors, and
make comparisons (Wiersma, 2000). Quantitative researchers look for findings that they can generalize to similar settings
using statistical analyses