Abstract
The Early Reading Research (ERR) is a five year experimental, classroom based, research project which aims to: teach all children to reach age and skill appropriate targets in literacy; prevent the occurrence of difficulties and identify the instructional principles which underpin effective practice. The results to date have been dramatic and indicate how the attainments of all children can be increased, that the incidence of children perceived to have difficulties can be reduced from the expected 20% to less than 2%, that the gap in attainments between boys and girls can be narrowed and that social disadvantage can be overcome, to some extent, by effective instruction. The results from the ERR suggest that the assumptions, principles and practices associated with the field of special educational (e.g. need for additional resources and SENC0s, 1-1 teaching, IEPS, etc.) are of dubious validity and probably contribute to children's continuing failure and social exclusion within mainstream contexts. A model for practice, derived from the ERR, will be proposed which enables teachers to meet a diverse range of needs, with existing resources, through focusing on the principles of instruction and curriculum design which are common to all children.
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