What’s Hot in Literacy 2023: The Ban on Books and Diversity Measures

ABSTRACT

The annual What’s Hot in Literacy survey uncovers the current focal points within literacy education. A panel of twenty-five literacy leaders participated and engaged in interviews to identify the most and least emphasized literacy topics, as well as those deserving more attention. The findings for 2023 spotlight several topics categorized as “very hot,” including dyslexia and other specific learning disabilities, early literacy, phonics/phonemic awareness, and social justice/equity/anti-racism in literacy. The topics of the science of reading and structured literacy emerged as “extremely hot,” and the sole topic ranked as “should not be hot” for the 2023 survey cycle. Assessing these outcomes and their potential impacts on literacy education holds importance for educators across all levels.

KEYWORDS:

• What’s hot
• literacy
• science of reading
• dyslexia
• phonemic awareness
• social justice

Acknowledgments

Jack Cassidy was the creator of the What’s Hot in Literacy survey and served as its lead researcher and author until his passing in 2021.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).