No statistically significant impact found for Ruth Miskin phonics programmes on children’s reading tests and writing attainment, after �1 million trial which took 6.5 years to conclude

The long-awaited findings of a �1 million trial of one of the most high-profile approaches to primary teaching in England appear to have proved distinctly underwhelming for both the provider and the government, with no statistically significant benefits reported.

Ruth Miskin’s Read Write Inc phonics programme achieved only the equivalent of one month’s extra progress for pupils taking reading tests, compared to a control group – an amount described in the study as statistically insignificant – while there was a statistically insignificant negative effect of the programme on pupils’ writing assessments.

Meanwhile, the company’s “Fresh Start” catch-up programme for older pupils who had been struggling with reading also reported worse results than those of a control group, although this was also not statistically significant.

The study, by the Education Endowment Foundation, seems to raise questions about the ability of education research to produce generalisable findings on the basis of randomised controlled trials involving teaching approaches with many layers of complexity.

It also may pose questions about challenges for schools in implementing Ruth Miskin phonics programmes, given some findings in the report about logistics.