The Effects of the Heggerty Curriculum Advanced Phonemic Awareness Instruction in First Grade

In response to the Science of Reading movement, many schools have adopted structured phonological awareness programs, most commonly the Heggerty Phonemic Awareness Curriculum. While phonological awareness is an essential component of early literacy instruction, expectations for its impact may exceed the strength and scope of the current research base. This presentation examines the appropriate role of phonological awareness instruction in schools and considers how implementation trends may be diverging from the evidence. Using evidence from a randomized controlled trial, we clarify the outcomes phonological awareness instruction can reasonably be expected to produce.