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Key points
- Spelling knowledge and the ability to read cursive handwriting are crucial for democracy.
- Evidence shows that many middle graders lack these crucial skills.
- Poor spelling skills often predict poor reading scores and low literacy levels.
Many parents and teachers made a shocking discovery during the celebration of America’s 250th birthday. When cursive print versions of the Declaration of Independence flashed on the TV screen, on a magazine or newspaper cover, or were posted in the classroom, many middle schoolers couldn’t read it. When asked to read the preamble to the Declaration of Independence on a trip to Independence Hall in Philadelphia, one academically successful 11-year-old startled his parents when he said, “I can’t read that kind of writing. We never learned it in school.”
Parents and teachers of late elementary and middle school 11- to 15-year-olds are bewildered when they have to read their child’s birthday card from a grandparent to the child because the grandparent wrote the card in cursive and the child can’t read it. They are distressed that the child can’t send a handwritten thank you note or write or read a handwritten grocery list
The most alarming news is that it’s not just the lack of cursive writing. According to the most recent National Center for Education Statistics and the National Assessment of Educational Progress, the nation’s report card, nearly 70% of eighth graders lack proficient literacy skills including spelling (NAEP Report Card: Reading 2025)
Why Lack of Spelling Knowledge Undermines Literacy
This lack of spelling knowledge may be the root cause of the problem; one has to have spelling knowledge in the brain to activate the brain’s literacy circuits. Renowned French neuroscientist Stanislas Dehaene, who has used functional magnetic resonance imaging to conduct reading brain research for decades, explains the role of spelling this way, “Reading is a visual coding system for mapping to one’s already existing spoken language to create meaning. You can’t read without activating your memory of spelling images in your brain” (Dehaene, 2009).
Data shows that teaching English spelling is also critical for students who speak English as a second language (Garcia, Keren, 2026)
Under Florida’s new SB 182 law, signed by Governor Ron DeSantis on April 20 this year, Florida now mandates that students in grades three through five must receive formal instruction in cursive writing and demonstrate proficiency by the end of fifth grade. Based on the current evidence from neuroscience and cognitive psychology, stakeholders and educators would be wise to mandate weekly explicit spelling lessons as well
Spelling knowledge is crucial because it builds the foundation for overall literacy. Here’s how it works. Each week students learn the spelling of a corpus of foundational grade-level words, connect the spelling to the word’s meaning and use, and practice the word each day of the week in engaging ways enabling students to retrieve the spelling for reading or writing automatically. In spelling lessons they learn to use deep level phonics knowledge and spelling rules appropriate for their grade level. Daily formal spelling instruction and practice puts words into long-term memory and replaces rote memorization, the familiar short-term memory process where students may memorize words for a test but forget the spelling soon afterwards. Once they commit a word’s spelling in long-term memory it will be in their brain and they can use it for the rest of their lives. Spelling is the glue that bonds and ignites the literacy circuits and makes them work together (Ehri 2014; Snow 2005).
Recommendations for Effective Spelling Curriculum in Schools
A daily standalone grade-by-grade spelling curriculum should spiral upward at each grade level. Here’s how it works:
- Students get explicit, systematic instruction in every elementary and middle-school grade.
- They get 20 minutes for spelling each day as recommended by spelling researcher Louisa Moats, who writes “As a general guide for covering the proposed content, about 15-20 minutes daily per week should be allocated to spelling instruction”(Moats, 2005/2006).
- They get the right words at the right time for their grade level. Although many states such as Texas, North Carolina, Missouri, and Maryland have standards calling for spelling instruction (Wallace,2006), research-based spelling instruction continues to be lacking in many classrooms (Ruiz, 2025ab).
- At each grade level, students need to master specific aspects of English spelling including morphology, root words, prefixes, suffixes, use of six syllable types, developing new vocabulary, and functional words for reading and writing in the content areas. Teachers need a standalone spelling curriculum because the features list above is too complex to teach off the top of one’s head without a curriculum.
- Why Education Is Important
- Take our ADHD Test
- Find a Child Therapist
Major curriculum changes and classroom practices can take decades in education. The Florida mandates make change quick and universal and they comport with the best evidence for literacy learning. Parents, teachers, and administrators should communicate with legislators, school boards, and stakeholders and mandate instructional time in the language arts block not only for cursive handwriting but also for explicit, systematic, spelling instruction, a spelling book with a research-based spelling curriculum, and teacher and student resources for evidence-based spelling instruction in every school.
As we celebrate America’s 250th birthday, nothing could be more important for democracy than a literate voting citizenry. Mandating cursive handwriting and teaching English spelling is an essential step forward
Dehaene. Stanislas (2009). Reading in the brain. New York: Viking Penguin
Garcia, Keren (2026) The Effect of the Word Study Approach on English as a Foreign Language Learners’ Spelling Skills,March 15, 2026, 17-25
Gentry, J. Richard. (2023). Elite universities call for change in reading education. Raising Readers, Writers. And Spellers. Psychology Today blogs. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/raising-readers-writers-and-spellers/202309/elite-universities-call-for-change-in-reading
Gentry, J. Richard. & Ouellette, Gene. P. (2025). Brain words: How the science of reading informs teaching. New York, Taylor & Francis, Routledge, Second Edition. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003473824
Moats, Louisa C. (2005). How spelling supports reading: And why it is more regular and predictable than you think. American Educator, Winter 2005/06, 12–22, 42–43
NAEP Report Card: Reading (2025) Assessmentshttps://www.nationsreportcard.gov/reading/nation/achievement/?grade=8
Ruiz, Rebecca (2025 a, December 20,2025) Kids Are’t Learning to Spell Anymore. Mashable. https://mashable.com/article/spelling-problems-in-children-help
Ruiz, Rebecca (2025 b, December 20,2025) Why your kid can’t rely on tech tools to spell. Mashable. https://mashable.com/article/google-docs-grammarly-chatgpt-for-spelling
Wallace, Randall R. (2006). Characteristics of effective spelling instruction. Journal of Literacy and Language Arts (2006)
