Alabama Senate passes ban on ‘three-cueing’ method of reading instruction

The Alabama Senate passed a bill Thursday morning that bans the use of an education strategy known as the three-cueing system.

SB 168, sponsored by Sen. Donnie Chesteen, R-Geneva, codifies the Alabama State Board of Education’s May 2024 ban of the method. Three-cueing is a teaching strategy affiliated with “balanced literacy,” a compromise between whole language and phonics-based instruction that became prominent in the 1990s, according to the Hechinger Report.

“We made a lot of progress in literacy in the state. We moved from 49th to 34th in reading, and letting go of this would make sure that we are using the science of reading in our teaching methods in our schools,” Chesteen said on the floor of the Senate Thursday morning.

Mark Dixon, president of A+ Education Partnership, said in an interview Thursday afternoon that three-cueing creates “an illusion of progress.” 

“Meaning that if you’re taught using three-cueing, you’re guessing, you’re using the pictures around it,” Dixon said. “When the pictures go away, in later grades, then suddenly students realize they can’t read.”

Dixon said that often leads to teachers having to reteach using the science of reading. 

The Science of Reading is an interdisciplinary body of research about reading and issues of reading and writing. The Reading League’s definition includes phonemic awareness and letter instruction as instructional practices but not emphases on larger units of speech, such as syllables.

Rep. Leigh Hulsey, R-Helena, has sponsored similar legislation over the last few years, but it has not received a vote in the Senate. Dixon said he hopes starting in the Senate will help it pass.

“Three-cueiing is not some harmless strategy. It actively interferes with how children learn to read, and we need to be very clear that this has no place in Alabama classrooms,” Dixon said.

The Senate passed the bill 32-0. It moves to the House.