Across the country, parents are discovering that what their children bring home from school looks very little like what they once learned. It isn’t just math — reading lessons, writing expectations, ...

Retired teacher Lysa Sassman, who volunteers with Sight Word Busters, helps six-year-old Julian practice his letters as a prelude to sight word work Nov. 13 at Sierra Hills School in Meadow Vista.

Many words don't follow basic decoding rules and are taught in pre-k and kindergarten classrooms as "sight words", "instant words", "high frequency words" or "star words". A new reader finds sight ...