Missouri lawmakers have banned educators from leaning on a model of reading instruction called the “three-cueing” method as part of a bipartisan education package signed by Gov. Mike Kehoe on Wednesday.
The so-called “science of reading” continues to win converts. The Missouri Legislature recently banned the use of “three cueing,” which is an essential element of Balanced Literacy. Just as “Whole Language” swept the country in the 1990s, just as “Whole Language” was replaced by “Balanced Literacy,” several state legislatures are now certain that “the science of reading” is the key to their state’s educational revival.
The law mandates that three cueing, which teaches students to read using context clues, can be used to supplement lessons, but phonics should be the majority of instruction.
State Rep. Ed Lewis, a Moberly Republican and sponsor of the legislation, told The Independent that the law builds on prior legislative efforts and work from the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.
“We’ve come to the realization that phonics is crucial,” Lewis said. “The three cueing system, when used as the primary source, evidence shows a decrease in the amount of learning that occurs, and for that reason, we want to use it less.”
Three cueing is widely criticized for encouraging kids to make guesses when reading and doesn’t show how to sound out words, which is important for understanding complicated texts.
Missouri isn’t the only state to ban three cueing. By the end of 2024, at least 11 states had explicitly banned the method.
My own view is that legislatures are unqualified to tell teachers how to teach.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
as a retired educator I can only say that when politicians enter into educational issues they continually screw up the educational systems. They don’t have the background or the knowledge to know what works in a classroom.
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The three-cueing system was never intended to “teach children to read using context clues.” It’s been awhile since I studied and taught reading, but my understanding was that the use of meaning, visual clues, and word structure was accompanied by instruction in letters, sounds, phonemic awareness…and was much more attentive to cognitive processes than critics understand.
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How students learn to read should not be a political issue. Reading instruction should be guided by student needs and current academic research. There is a whole lot of right wing faux research online about the so-called science of reading, aka, phonics. As a certified reading teacher that taught numerous students to read, I stand by the notion that there are many ways to teach students to read. All students need a foundation in phonics, and the three cueing system is very helpful to many students as well. Simply asking a bewildered student if what they are reading makes sense, sounds and looks right can be helpful. There is no benefit to making the teaching of reading a political football that requires legislation. Just let educators do their jobs, and invest in training them.
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Retired,
Legislators today think they can stick their noses into everything.
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“My own view is that legislatures are unqualified to tell teachers how to teach.”
Bingo bango boingo! We have a winner. Give that fine lady a Kewpie Doll.
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Duane, do you have any experience with the electronic reading pens? The Saint Louis Public Library has them available for checkout.
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No, I don’t. Did a quick search. I can see how it might help some learn to read if used properly.
Your thoughts on them??
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My son is dyslexic. He has an easy time with comprehension when he hears the spoken word, but processes the written word slowly. As soon as I saw that the library offers this device, I sent him the information. It would be nice if the spoken word it generates is accurate, unlike the auto generated closed caption on television programs.
For him, comprehension of a passage and reading text outloud are two different things.
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I would love to know what pen they have chosen. I have an adult dyslexic student who could really benefit from using one.
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Dear spedukr, the Saint Louis Public Library online catalog has a description of the system that converts printed text to audio. I won’t try to post a link, since I have never successfully managed to do so on this blog. There is a long waiting list to check one of them out.
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Thank you.
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Which piece of the three-cueing system do they object to?
If you think kids learn to read without these things, you should be nowhere near education policy decisions.
https://readingrecovery.org/understanding-msv-the-types-of-information-available-to-readers/
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The right believes that using the visual, semantic and syntactic cues is inefficient sight reading without phonics. However, in practice they can work together to support reading development, and all students do need to understand and apply the sound system to read fluently. Teachers should be able to adjust instruction that best suits the needs of students without making it a political issue. Also, some of the reading recovery approaches work great for struggling readers, particularly those that connect reading and writing and use a kinesthetic marker to help some students with auditory discrimination.
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cx: cues are inefficient
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I searched for any evidence that a school district in Missouri is using the “three-cueing system” as its primary method of reading instruction and found none. For years school districts have been heavily relying on phonics as the new “science of reading” research recommends so the only thing politicians can do now is ban a practice that nobody’s doing.
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David,
Research “the science of reading.”
It’s based on a 1997 report to Congress written by a panel of academicians (only one practicing school-based educator on the panel). The report was commissioned by Dr. Reid Lyon, a proponent of phonics who headed a unit on child health at NIH. After GW Bush was elected, Lyon became Bush’s education advisor. The one school-based educator on the National Reading Panel wrote a sharp dissent to its report.
NCLB included $6 billion to fund phonics in the schools. The program was called Reading First. Five years later, Reading First was evaluated. It found that students whose teachers utilized the “science of reading” were better at understanding phonics. But their comprehension of what they read was no different from those who used other methods.
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So, I’m not losing my mind, we’ve been doing “the science of reading” since the 90s. When my LAUSD school adopted Open Court Reading , many of us were deeply concerned about how the fluency tests were shaping our students’ view of what reading actually is. They would rattle off words at lightning pace, aiming to have the best time. So I can understand how a phonics-heavy approach—despite improving decoding skills—didn’t lead to gains in comprehension.
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As a music teacher, the amount of micromanaging math and English teachers receive is astounding. And of course, things are getting more intense now with science and history/social studies purely for political reasons.
Walk into any successful set of general music classrooms or beginning band/chorus/orchestra classrooms, and you’ll see a wide variety of pedagogical techniques used by each teacher that yield pretty much the same excellent product 2-3 years later. While certain approaches may be recommended or more popular in different states or regions of the country, I don’t believe anyone is required to use a specific technique.
Years ago, the keynote speaker at our state music conference said we’re about the only teachers left who aren’t being told what to do.
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Haha. I’ve been told that teachers of foreign languages are left alone.
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Especially if they teach languages like Latin or Japanese.
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Overall, yes, I was left alone. Although more than one adminimal tried their damnedist to cut me off at the knees, I had them pegged for what they were. . . brown-nosing toadies.
I only had one supervising principal who knew how to teach a foreign language (in her case Spanish.) We had a teaching of reading in the subject area class together as part of our certification and then were hired the same year and taught Spanish at the same high school. Other than that nadie sabía castellano ni nada de cómo enseñar otra lengua.
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Mr. Pearce
Ah, but this is Missouri. Missouri used to the be “Show Me” state. Now it’s the “Don’t bother, We Already Know Everything” state. And the, “Legislation by ‘I heard from a parent at the grocery store…’” State. Or the “’Opt Out’ of anything you disagree with state.”
To the latter, “My Two Mommies” and a few 19th century U.S. history books are already off the classroom shelves. So toughen up 1st graders, you’ll just have to learn the difference between a “Hard C” and “Soft C” sound because all the posters and books with “C is for Cat” will be gone.
But no worries, the federal government heard about “Science of Reading” and writing another executive order denouncing anything based on science.
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That’s how politicians claim they are “doing something” about education. I agree with you Diane, they are not qualified to tell educators how to teach.
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The “3-Cuing Method” looks to me like an attempt describe something many brains do intuitively. In early adulthood I used to think/ write about how I learned to read, trying to break it into elements, and this could describe some of the elements I came up with. (So my speculation based on anecdote of 1 😉.) The main thing I see wrong with it: if this is not intuitive already, it’s unlikely to be the right approach for that person. Just a few of the many tools in the toolbox. In other words, sure, try it, but don’t start (or stop) there.
Leave reading instruction out of state law… please. Let’s not get ridiculous.
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Legislatures across the nation have banned different elements of Balanced Literacy or require “the science of reading.”
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I read the article and still have questions. At one point they say “banned from leaning on three-cueing method” as, I would guess, the main approach to teaching reading, but other places talk about banning it (at least 11 states had explicitly banned the method.). Do you know if it has been banned outright – as if you could keep a reader from using context clues?
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