Citation
Reynolds, D., Wang, H., Coole, M., Rutherford-Quach, S., Cao, Q., & Necochea Tinco, K. (2026). Unlocking the Code: The Impacts of a Structured Linguistic Phonics Program in Grades 4–8 [Research report]. SRI. https://www.sri.com/education-learning/project/evaluation-of-structured-linguistic-phonics-instruction-in-grades-4-8/
Abstract
While most phonics research and policy focus on grades K-3, SRI’s study examined an innovative structured linguistic phonics (SLP) pedagogy in grades 4-8. Findings showed that SLP students gained 6.4 percentile points on the Rapid Online Assessment of Reading (ROAR) Word subtest and 5.6 percentile points on ROAR Sentence subtest relative to peers receiving business-as-usual (BAU) instruction (ES = 0.16 and 0.14 respectively, both p < .05), with effects consistent across subgroups. SLP and BAU students made similar gains on spelling inventories. Teachers largely preferred SLP to other phonics approaches. Taken together, findings suggest SLP can accelerate word reading and sentence reading efficiency for upper elementary and middle school students.
