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Hundreds of public schools have taught reading the wrong way over the past 20 years, according to New York City school principals, leaving countless children struggling to learn important life skills.
Now the president, David C. Banks, wants to “sound the alarm” and plans to force a new approach on America’s largest school system.
Banks will be announcing major changes to reading instruction on Tuesday, aimed at tackling persistent problems. About half of urban children in grades 3 through her 8 cannot read. Life is even worse for blacks, Latinos, and low-income children.
Banks said in a recent interview that the city’s approach was “fundamentally flawed” and didn’t follow the science of how students learn to read.
“This is not your fault. It’s not your child’s fault. It’s our fault,” Banks said. “This is the beginning of a massive transformation.”
Over the next two years, the city’s 32 local school districts will adopt one of three superintendent-selected curricula. The curriculum uses evidence-based practices such as phonics to teach children how to decipher letter sounds, and many reading skills such as teaching children to guess words using picture cues. It avoids strategies that experts say are flawed.
The move represents a major shift in a city where historically principals have retained authority over teaching methods in individual schools.
Half of the districts will start the program in September. Other schools will start in his 2024 year. An opt-out waiver will only be considered for schools where 85% or more of her students are proficient in reading.
Largest District in Nation Joins Push to Change Reading
The move represents New York City’s most significant overhaul of reading since the early 2000s, when some of the programs the Prime Minister is now seeking to remove were first introduced: Reformed Reading Instruction.
Experts, legislators and families are calling for us to abandon strategies that many studies show don’t work for all students and embrace a set of practices known as the “science of reading.”
The stakes are clear: Kids who can’t read well by the third grade are at a disadvantage. They are likely to drop out of high school, face imprisonment, and live in poverty as adults.
Curriculum reform, however, is a daunting task. The challenge is perhaps nowhere more evident than in New York City, with its sprawling system of about 700 elementary schools and a large number of disadvantaged children.
The city is one of the top markets for the beloved ‘Balanced Literacy’ curriculum. This approach is intended to foster a passion for books, but is sometimes criticized for providing too little systematic instruction in core reading comprehension. Banks called the approach “an old way of doing things that has failed too many kids.”
The new plan is backed by the teachers’ union, although some teachers are quick to express skepticism. states that a unified curriculum approach is “pedagogically unsound”.
But according to Banks, New York City has never provided a “proper blueprint” for reading. Teachers were held accountable for failures that weren’t their own, and families were left unanswered as to what went wrong when their children fell behind, he said.
With national reading scores stagnating, nearly 20 states are prioritizing phonics alongside work to expand students’ background knowledge, vocabulary, and oral language skills. Research shows that most children need to decipher words and figure out how to make sense of what they read.
Early literacy development expert and former U.S. Assistant Secretary of Elementary and Secondary Education Susan Newman said of the city’s plans:
“This is a bold undertaking,” she said. “And I think that’s the very right way to do it.”
Changing reading instruction means changing teachers
If the New York City announcement is the starting line, it’s a tough road ahead.
Research shows that a new curriculum alone does not improve student performance. Major changes require teachers to rebuild existing practices and subject matter understandings through intensive training and coaching. Otherwise they may fall back on old instincts.
Even the plan’s proponents admit that many things can go wrong. Some worry that the other aspect of literacy, writing, needs more attention. Alternatively, unaddressed pandemic learning losses could impede progress.
Also, addressing how elementary schools teach reading and writing to younger students does nothing to help older students who have failed to acquire reading and writing skills.
The city will also have to overcome the dissatisfaction of many school leaders with the development of the plan and their ardent beliefs about the programs they currently use.
Hundreds of elementary schools used Teachers College’s popular balanced literacy curriculum, known as Units of Study, in 2019, according to reports from two local news outlets, Chalkbeat and The City. It has been. The curriculum has been rejected by one major organization that assesses program quality. But many school leaders focus on fostering children’s passion for books and strong professional development services for teachers.
Several mayors have publicly defended the curriculum. Another Brooklyn principal, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal, called the development demoralizing and said he had had good results from a modified version of the study unit combined with the phonics program.
Principals’ union president Henry Rubio said a recent survey showed that three out of four principals were “dissatisfied” with how the plan was unfolding.
“Getting buy-in to make this work is a lack of respect for community and school leaders,” Rubio said. “What does that do to confidence and morale?”
The school’s reading curriculum menu is limited
Under this plan, all school districts will adopt one of three curricula that have received high marks from national Curriculum Review Groups.
Caroline Quintana, Vice Chancellor of Teaching and Learning, said officials weighed factors such as text quality and student accessibility before narrowing down options with a small group of superintendents.
There are some important differences between the three alternatives.
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Wit & Wisdom is known for its focus on critical knowledge construction to help students understand what they read. It does not cover foundational skills like phonics, so it can be combined with phonics programs like Foundation that many schools already use. Schools in Baltimore, where about 60% of children are low-income, reported modest gains after adopting it.
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Expeditionary Learning has an explicit phonics program and includes texts derived from concepts in other subjects, such as social studies and more robust writing components. It also contains a large amount of additional material and guidance that schools may need additional help with assimilating. This curriculum is in use in Detroit and has seen some progress since its deployment.
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Into Reading is the most traditional option, a “foundation” program that uses specially written texts to teach reading. Some teachers and principals, in a recent report from New York University, found that the content “likely reinforces stereotypes and portrays people of color in inferior and subversive ways.” I am concerned about this. Quintana said the company had promised authorities it was “resolutely working to fix it.”
Banks said he believes the change will ultimately “make life easier for everyone.”
Many teachers spend a lot of time looking for or creating materials to fill gaps in their existing curriculum. Also, if children do not have stable housing or change schools frequently for other reasons, it can be difficult to return to school if the classroom uses a different approach.
The Prime Minister has found a key ally in Teachers Union President Michael Mulgrew, who has long advocated for a more unified city-wide approach. “We support this idea,” Mulgrew said.
“But the whole school will be pessimistic,” he added.
Will the reading war end?
The change marks the latest in a pendulum in the city’s reading guidance, and what the prime minister says should be the last.
Twenty years ago, during the Bloomberg administration, Prime Minister Joel Klein ushered in an era of balanced literacy in urban schools, but failed to make progress, so he experimented with other approaches. Years later, another principal, Carmen Fariña, who espouses independent reading time and letting students choose their own books, once again encouraged schools to adopt those strategies.
Richard Carranza said a patchwork of city practices was unworkable when he headed the system, but his tenure overlapped with the first year of the pandemic and reading was put on the back burner. .
Banks and Dyslexia Mayor Eric Adams say reading will be one of the administration’s top priorities. Banks has already mandated phonics programs in schools and is opening several new programs for dyslexic students.
Teacher training on the new program begins this week and continues throughout the summer. Also, coaching continues throughout the school year. The goal is for teachers to return in the fall with the first unit fully planned, officials said. Early childhood providers will also receive training in the coming months.
Phase 1 of the rollout includes Harlem (5th Ward), Northeast Bronx (12), East New York (19), Brownsville (23) and Southeast Queens (32), where children are the hardest hit. Includes some regions that are
Sharon Roberts, a special education teacher at Walter Reed School PS 9 in Queens, said it gave her “hope” for the first time in years.
Roberts said it has long been up to her to “fill in the gaps” and find materials that meet the needs of students. But for her plan to succeed, she said, teachers need to be “treated with respect again.”
“We are tired of being accused of so many things that are out of our reach,” she said.
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