The Data...

Don't take my word for it - there has been a lot of research on this topic!  Here's just a tiny sampling, including an important audio documentary from American Public Media:

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Hard Words:  Why Aren't Kids Being Taught to Read?

https://www.apmreports.org/story/2018/09/10/hard-words-why-american-kids-arent-being-taught-to-read

https://datacenter.kidscount.org/data/tables/5116-fourth-grade-reading-achievement-levels?loc=1&loct=2#ranking/2/any/true/1729/1185/11560

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http://dese.ade.arkansas.gov/smart_future.html

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https://www.nationsreportcard.gov/reading_2009/reading_2009_tudareport/

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• Another Blast in the Reading Wars
  (Washington Post, September 2013)

• Can Prevailing Approaches to Reading Instruction Accomplish the Goals of RTI?
  (Perspectives on Language, Summer 2017)

• Cognitive profiles of difficult-to-remediate and readily remediated poor readers
  (Journal of Educational Psychology, December 1996)

• Continuing the Discussion / Preventing and Remediating Reading Failure
  (Educational Leadership, March 2004)

• Differentiating Between Difficult-to-remediate and Readily Remediated Poor Readers
  (Journal of Learning Disabilities, May-June 2000)

• Do Textbooks Used in University Reading Education Courses Conform to the Instructional Recommendations of the National Reading Panel?
  (Journal of Learning Disabilities, July 2009)

• Double Jeopardy: How Third-Grade Reading Skills and Poverty Influence High School Graduation
  (Annie E. Casey Foundation, January 2012)

• The Dyslexia Dilemma: A History of Ignorance, Complacency and Resistance in Colleges of Education
  (Journal of Childhood and Developmental Disorders, August 2016)

• Early Reading Instruction: What Science Really Tells Us about How to Teach Reading
  (The MIT Press, 2004)

• The Effectiveness of Direct Instruction Curricula: A Meta-Analysis of a Half Century of Research
  (Review of Educational Research, January 2018)

• Ending the Reading Wars: Reading Acquisition From Novice to Expert
  (Psychological Science in the Public Interest, June 2018)

• Essentials of Assessing, Preventing, and Overcoming Reading Difficulties
  (Wiley, 2015)

• Foundational Skills to Support Reading for Understanding in Kindergarten Through 3rd Grade
  (Institute of Education Sciences, April 2017)

• How Knowledge Helps: It Speeds and Strengthens Reading Comprehension, Learning - and Thinking
  (American Educator, 2006)

• How Spelling Supports Reading
  (American Educator, Winter 2005/06)

• Landscapes in Teacher Prep: Undergraduate Elementary Ed
  (National Council on Teacher Quality, December 2016)

• Language at the Speed of Sight: How We Read, Why So Many Can't, and What Can Be Done About It
  (Basic Books, 2017)

• Language at the Speed of Sight - On Cueing Systems, Phonemes, Speed Reading, and Sequences of Learning
  (Shanahan on Literacy, July 2017)

• Language Essentials for Teachers of Reading and Spelling (LETRS)
  (Sopris West)

• Learning to Read: An Unnatural Act
  (Bulletin of the Orton Society, 1980)

• Learning to Read: The Great Debate
  (McGraw-Hill, 1967)

• Letter from 40 linguists in response to a draft of the Curriculum Framework for English Language Arts, to be used in the public schools of Massachusetts
  (July 1995)

• Lighting the Way: The Reading Panel Report Ought to Guide Teacher Preparation
  (American Educator, Summer 2013)

• The National Reading Panel Report: Practical Advice for Teachers
  (Learning Point Associates, 2006)

• An Open Letter to a Defender of Whole Language Reading Instruction
  (International Foundation for Effective Reading Instruction, 1999)

• Prevalence of Dyslexia Among Texas Prison Inmates
  (Tex Med, June 2000)

• The Reading Glitch: How the Culture Wars Have Hijacked Reading Instruction - And What We Can Do about It
  (Rowman and Littlefield Education, 2006)

• The Reading Wars
  (The Atlantic, November 1997)

• Reducing the Incidence of Early Reading Difficulties
  (Learn Individ Differ., March 2008)

• Report on Reading First and Early Reading First, Committee Views, Title 1 Part B
  (U.S. House of Representatives, May 2001)

• Research and the Reading Wars
  (book chapter in When Research Matters: How Scholarship Influences Education Policy, Harvard Education Press, 2008)

• The Science of Reading Research
  (Educational Leadership, March 2004)

• The Simple View of Reading
  (The Center for Development and Learning, February 2010)

• Strengthening Reading Instruction Through Better Preparation of Elementary and Special Education Teachers
  (National Council on Teacher Quality, August 2018)

• Study of Mississippi Teacher Preparation for Early Literacy Instruction
  (The Barksdale Reading Institute and The Institutions of Higher Learning, December 2015)

• Study of Teacher Preparation in Early Reading Instruction
  (Institute of Education Sciences, September 2010)

• Summary of the (U.S.) National Reading Panel Report
  (International Reading Association, 2002)

• Teaching Children to Read: An Evidence-Based Assessment of the Scientific Research Literature on Reading and Its Implications for Reading Instruction (Report of the National Reading Panel)
  (National Institutes of Health, April 2000)

• Teaching Reading is Rocket Science: What Expert Teachers of Reading Should Know and Be Able to Do
  (American Federation of Teachers, June 1999)

• The Three-Cueing System
  (Literacy For All Issues In Teaching And Learning, 1998)

• Unbalanced Comments on Balanced Literacy
  (Shanahan on Literacy, October 2014)

• What's Whole in Whole Language in the 21st Century?
  (Garn Press, 2014)

• Who Is in Charge of Teacher Preparation?
  (Center for American Progress, June 2013)

• Whole Language: Beliefs and Practices
  (National Education Association, July 1989)

• Whole-Language High Jinks
  (Thomas B. Fordham Institute, January 2007)

• Whole Language Lives On: The Illusion of Balanced Reading Instruction
  (Thomas B. Fordham Foundation, October 2000)

• Why Johnny Still Can't Read — And What to Do About It
  (Forbes, May 2018)

• Why Not Phonics and Whole Language?
  (Bolt Beranek and Newman, Inc., 2004)

• Why Reading is Not a Natural Process
  (Committee on Education and the Workforce, U.S. House of Representatives, Washington, D.C., July 1997)