THRASS. Selecting Programs for School-Wide Implementation
In Australian schools today, teaching based on evidence has become the standard practice. To ensure our educational standards measure up to both national and global benchmarks, schools are advised to invest in programs that have solid research endorsement. This ensures that investments lead to actual outcomes, rather than following passing trends, focusing on appearances, or sticking with traditional (often out-dated) approaches.
Schools are advised to select from programs endorsed by organisations such as Learning Difficulties Australia (LDA), Five from Five and AUSPELD.
AUSPELD Recommended Programs
In 2019, the Dyslexia-SPELD Foundation conducted a comparative assessment of PLD (alongside other evidence-based SSP programs) and featured in The Bulletin. Discover how PLD measures up against their list of eight recommended programs for 2019.
A comprehensive update comparing high-quality evidence-based SSP programs that cater to Tier 1, Tier 2, and Tier 3 instruction was subsequently published in The Bulletin in January 2022 and reiterated in November 2022.
The Primary Reading Pledge
Five From Five, AUSPELD and Learning Difficulties Australia have combined to create an evidence-based blueprint for schools. This framework has a bold mission: to largely diminish the prevalence of students completing primary school with inadequate reading skills. The list of recommended evidence-based Structured Synthetic Phonics (SSP) programs are located on pages 17-21 of the 2024 Reading Pledge.
THRASS is not featured on any of the recommended SSP program lists mentioned above.
The THRASS chart represents the whole system from the outset, rather than presenting the phonic concepts in a sequenced manner. Extensive educational research, over decades, recommends that educators teach initial basic code, then the extended code, before the complex morphological code.
Castles, A., Rastle, K., & Nation, K. (2018). Ending the Reading Wars: Reading Acquisition From Novice to Expert. Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 19(1), 5–51. https://doi.org/10.1177/1529100618772271
Schools are advised to select from programs endorsed by organisations such as Learning Difficulties Australia (LDA), Five from Five and AUSPELD.
AUSPELD Recommended Programs
In 2019, the Dyslexia-SPELD Foundation conducted a comparative assessment of PLD (alongside other evidence-based SSP programs) and featured in The Bulletin. Discover how PLD measures up against their list of eight recommended programs for 2019.
A comprehensive update comparing high-quality evidence-based SSP programs that cater to Tier 1, Tier 2, and Tier 3 instruction was subsequently published in The Bulletin in January 2022 and reiterated in November 2022.
The Primary Reading Pledge
Five From Five, AUSPELD and Learning Difficulties Australia have combined to create an evidence-based blueprint for schools. This framework has a bold mission: to largely diminish the prevalence of students completing primary school with inadequate reading skills. The list of recommended evidence-based Structured Synthetic Phonics (SSP) programs are located on pages 17-21 of the 2024 Reading Pledge.
THRASS is not featured on any of the recommended SSP program lists mentioned above.
The THRASS chart represents the whole system from the outset, rather than presenting the phonic concepts in a sequenced manner. Extensive educational research, over decades, recommends that educators teach initial basic code, then the extended code, before the complex morphological code.
Castles, A., Rastle, K., & Nation, K. (2018). Ending the Reading Wars: Reading Acquisition From Novice to Expert. Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 19(1), 5–51. https://doi.org/10.1177/1529100618772271
Updated on: 17/06/2025
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