The National Reading Panel

The National Reading Panel was a group of education and literacy experts convened by the U.S. government in 1997 to review research on how children learn to read. Their goal was to identify effective teaching methods and strategies. They found that successful reading instruction includes phonemic awareness (understanding sounds in words), phonics (connecting sounds to letters), fluency (reading smoothly), vocabulary (knowing word meanings), and comprehension (understanding what is read). Their findings helped shape evidence-based teaching practices and policies aimed at improving literacy skills nationwide.