NYC expanding reading, math curriculum overhaul to more schools
Mayor Adams and Schools Chancellor Melissa Aviles-Ramos on Monday announced the expansion of their signature literacy initiative to middle schools for the first time.
By next school year, 102 middle schools in eight school districts will be part of NYC Reads, a curriculum requirement focused on getting back to the basics of reading and phonics. The mandate is already in place at nearly all public elementary schools and preschools.
During a press conference at Dock Street School for STEAM Studies in DUMBO, Brooklyn, Adams raised the alarm that students are reading at an 'inexcusable level.' Fewer than half of the city's public school students demonstrated proficiency on reading exams last year.
'Something goes wrong [from] the time they leave their mother's womb, and by the time they graduate from high school,' Adams said. 'We miss something in between, and we have to address that. And our administration sees this crisis with urgency and focus.'
All but one of the districts overhauling its middle school reading curriculum — Manhattan's Districts 1 and 3; the Bronx's Districts 7, 9, 11 and 12; and Brooklyn's District 13 — are using a program called EL Education. District 19 in Brooklyn will use the curriculum Wit & Wisdom. (There are 32 geographic school districts across New York City.)
NYC Solves, the math curriculum requirement, will also be expanded as planned to 84 more middle schools in six additional districts: Districts 5 and 6 in Manhattan, 8 in the Bronx, 17 in Brooklyn, 25 in Queens, and 31 on Staten Island. It is currently in 101 middle schools across eight districts and all public high schools. Schools have a choice between three options: Illustrative Mathematics, Amplify Desmos, and IReady Mathematics.
The former schools chancellor, David Banks, had been publicly teasing an expansion of curriculum mandates since at least last school year. Both the reading and math initiatives are expected to be fully implemented in middle schools citywide by fall 2027.
At the press conference, the Adams administration touted some early signs of literacy progress since the transition, including a 1.8-point boost on quick 'screener' assessments in kindergarten through second grade.
But the major overhaul in reading instruction — a shift away from a popular but flawed approach that encouraged kids to lean on context clues — continues to face headwinds. Last year, schools in pockets of the city that began implementing the reforms fared worse on state exams than districts that were slower to make the change.
After teacher and principal unions pushed back on some of the stricter components of the mandates, the school system started to loosen some requirements.
Still, the slip in test score data is not deterring decision-makers: 'Other districts across the country have embarked on this type of ambitious curriculum initiative,' Aviles-Ramos said. 'And they also experienced some drops.'
'So, that is something that we expected. Because an implementation of this size, in a city this size, it takes a lot,' the chancellor continued. 'I'm super confident as we embark on state exam season that we are going to see improvements.'
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