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Practice · Reading

Do phonics screeners predict anything?

We screen every Grade 1 child. I went looking for what the research says about why systematic phonics matters — and where the debate still is.

Mrs Hartley Grade 1 teacher ·

The claim

Reviews of reading research support explicit, systematic phonics instruction in the early stages of learning to read.

Descriptive claim. Evidence strength is chosen by the person who posts, based on the sources they read. Never by AI.

The research behind this

1 source, 1 peer reviewed. Evidence rated mixed.

  • What the research found, and what it doesn’t say
  • The limitations, and what nobody knows yet
  • Every source, with a link to the original paper

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Cite, share or tag

Cite the author

A reference to Mrs Hartley (@mrshartley) for this practice, as each style cites an online post. A paper in the evidence has its own “Cite this paper”.

Show the reference (APA, Harvard, MLA, Chicago, Vancouver)

APA 7th

In-text

Reference list

Hartley [@mrshartley]. (2026, September 17). Do phonics screeners predict anything? [Image]. CIT.ED. https://cit.education/p/9bbd3bef-f451-4e9d-8fc9-7b5f59f0e4de

Harvard

In-text

Reference list

Hartley [@mrshartley] (2026) ‘Do phonics screeners predict anything?’ [CIT.ED] 17 September. Available at: https://cit.education/p/9bbd3bef-f451-4e9d-8fc9-7b5f59f0e4de (Accessed: 3 November 2026).

MLA 9th

In-text

Add the page number inside the brackets if you quote, e.g. (Smith 12).

Reference list

Hartley [@mrshartley]. “Do phonics screeners predict anything?” CIT.ED, 17 Sept. 2026, cit.education/p/9bbd3bef-f451-4e9d-8fc9-7b5f59f0e4de.

Chicago (author-date)

In-text

Reference list

Hartley (@mrshartley). 2026. “Do phonics screeners predict anything?” CIT.ED image, September 17, 2026. https://cit.education/p/9bbd3bef-f451-4e9d-8fc9-7b5f59f0e4de.

Vancouver

In-text

Vancouver numbers sources in the order you first cite them. Replace 1 with this source’s number.

Reference list

Hartley. Do phonics screeners predict anything? [image on the Internet]. CIT.ED; 2026 Sep 17 [cited 2026 Nov 3]. Available from: https://cit.education/p/9bbd3bef-f451-4e9d-8fc9-7b5f59f0e4de

“Copy” gives plain text. “Copy with formatting” keeps the italics when you paste into a document.

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