Many didn’t receive adequate instruction in phonics, the practice of sounding out words, when they were in full-time remote learning in third grade.

ALBANY — Phonics is king again. Every school district in New York must revert to teaching phonics in prekindergarten through third grade, starting this fall, the Board of Regents decided Monday.

This phonics-based approach is often referred to as “structured literacy.” But California districts have a decades-long history of using various approaches, reflecting debate on how to teach reading.

Even before the dramatic learning loss caused by COVID-19, only one-third of American fourth and eighth graders were reading at grade level. The alternatives to phonics were all supposed to be ...