This course is Part 2 of two courses designed to help decision makers implement efficient and cost-effective reading programs that will teach nearly all students to read. The content in this course reflects research and implications derived from the fields of cognitive psychology, cognitive neuroscience, perceptual psychology, and related fields.  


By the end of this course, you should be able to:  


  • Focus on the crucial determinants of reading fluency for various languages and scripts. 

  • Distinguish among methods that are more and less effective for low-income students.

  • Critically study evaluations and reports about various reading programs.

  • Evaluate and select reading specialists and consultants.

  • Discuss how textbooks should be designed and formatted to facilitate reading acquisition.

  • Advise decision makers on reading issues in various languages and scripts.

  • Identify strategies for eliminating illiteracy in schools of various low-income countries.


This course consists of 8 short modules, with each module involving several pages. Included in each module are diagrams, videos, case studies, interactive exercises, quizzes, further readings, additional resources, and references. The modules are as follows: 


  1. Language of Instruction

  2. Training Teachers of Limited Education

  3. Textbooks for Rapid Automatization of Reading

  4. Reading Assessment Basics

  5. Teaching (nearly) all Students to Read

  6. Some Reading methods used in Low-income countries

  7. Adult Literacy and Second-Chance Education

  8. Organizing and Implementing Reading Programs


Designing a Reading Course on the Basis of this Material

This course aims to explain to developers and practitioners certain cognitive science principles that can be used to make nearly all students literate, regardless of language or script. If you must advise in designing a reading program, or perhaps you must design and implement one yourself, please see the advice for specific tasks on the following modules:

  • Strategy, decisions, and organization of the program (module 15)

  • Deciding on an efficient methodology (modules 12, 13)

  • Deciding on a language of instruction (module 8)

  • Developing an efficient textbook (module 10)

  • Training teachers (module 9)

  • Assessment (module 11)