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New York Post
16-05-2025
- Politics
- New York Post
NYC should look to the Mississippi Miracle to learn how to teach reading
If you're a parent of a young reader, would you rather start off in Manhattan or Mississippi? The answer may surprise you. Today, fourth-grade students in Mississippi read almost a full school year ahead of their peers in New York City, according to national test scores. Advertisement It wasn't always this way. In the early 2000s, Mississippi students trailed New York City by half a year. Now students in the Magnolia State read above the national average. Advertisement Mississippi isn't alone: Other high-poverty Southern states have made major gains. These dynamics are part of a post-pandemic shift of red states overtaking blue ones academically. Here's another way of understanding these data: About 31,000 New York City fourth-graders scored at the Below Basic level last year. Advertisement These students struggle to interpret the main character's actions in 'The Tale of Desperaux,' a classic story of a mouse on a quest to rescue a beautiful princess. In this summer's primary election, New Yorkers will effectively choose their next mayor, and the stakes couldn't be higher for Gotham's aspiring readers. Here are three things that the city's next mayor should learn from Mississippi and other Southern states about improving literacy. A general view of school children pictured leaving school on the last day of school before summer vacation on June 18, 2024. Christopher Sadowski Advertisement First, be honest and support struggling readers. While 90% of New York parents think their child reads at or above grade level, only 45% actually do. Mississippi doesn't have this kind of honesty gap. The state sends written notice to parents when children are at risk of being held back and requires schools to create Individualized Reading Plans. These plans include targeted interventions and progress monitoring. Schools also offer summer reading camps with small-group support. Line chart shows reading levels of fourth graders in Mississippi, US, and New York from 2003 to 2024. Mike Guillen/NY Post Design Second, empower educators. Through no fault of their own, teachers around the United States are not well-trained in how to teach reading. Of the 16 teacher-prep programs in New York City, 12 earn a D or F from the latest National Council on Teacher Quality reviews. Advertisement After passing a comprehensive literacy bill in 2013, Mississippi funded a two-year course in evidence-based reading methods for all elementary teachers. The state teachers' association supported the change. NYC could offer salary bonuses for completely similar training. Skeptical of adopting a 'red state' reform? Advertisement Research shows that intensive literacy coaching improved outcomes at scale in California. These investments deliver more bang for the buck than just increasing spending. Under the current mayor, the NYC Reads initiative ended Columbia Teachers College's 'balanced literacy' program, which had been the main approach in city schools for 30 years, and replaced it with three evidence-based programs. Advertisement Two — EL Education and Wit & Wisdom — emphasize nonfiction and reading whole novels, a rarity in an age of rampant screen time. While teachers have been offered some professional learning opportunities, implementation has been uneven. Teachers need more time and support to unlearn what they thought for three decades was the right approach for kids. In the old Teachers College model, fourth-graders reading at a second-grade level were given easy, 'just right' books. Advertisement But research shows this doesn't build vocabulary or background knowledge. As Tim Shanahan of the University of Illinois-Chicago wrote, 'If students are working with texts that they can already read quite well . . . there is little opportunity for learning.' The new curriculum rightly demands grade-level texts, but learning new ways to support students takes time. As Robert Pondiscio wrote in these pages last month, 'If we're serious about raising literacy rates, we need to sustain this effort across years, mayors and chancellors.' Finally, set difficult but achievable goals. In 2013, Mississippi's governor set a clear reading goal — one his successor continues to prioritize. No other governor or mayor does this. Former US Secretary of Education Arne Duncan recently noted, 'There are no education goals for the country.' With 70% of NYC jobs expected to require some college, the next mayor could set a 2% to 3% annual literacy-growth goal. Over a decade, that would give students a real shot at success. Mississippi's growth has been called a miracle, but that term implies supernatural causes. The state's gains have been made by leaders and teachers implementing a well-designed strategy for a decade. They also know much work remains to see the same rate of growth in eighth-grade scores. New Yorkers take pride in having the best of everything — and often, they do have the best. But when it comes to teaching reading, it's time for humility, and time to learn from those who are doing better. David Scarlett Wakelyn is a former New York Deputy Secretary for Education and a consultant at Upswing Labs. Michael Hartney is the Bruni Family Fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution and an associate professor of political science at Boston College.
Yahoo
23-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
NYC teachers union boss rails against expansion of curriculum mandates
The powerful teachers union on Wednesday ramped up its criticism of New York City's expansion of standardized curriculum — suggesting the person responsible for the unforgiving mandates should be fired. The United Federation of Teachers has long been a supporter of the Adams administration's efforts to fundamentally change how students learn to read and rally behind a singular approach to literacy and math instruction across the public schools. But the union has increasingly railed against the implementation, especially in math, saying an overreliance on boxed curriculum fails to account for differences between students. 'They turned the word 'fidelity' into a curse word because they're telling every teacher you must teach it exactly how it is written in the book,' UFT President Michael Mulgrew told the Daily News after an unrelated press conference outside the city's Department of Education headquarters. 'Anyone who is instructing a teacher to teach specifically the way something is designed inside of New York City should lose their job,' the union boss fumed. 'And I don't care which deputy chancellor did it, they should lose their job. Because New York City is the most diverse, and we love it. But you cannot teach anything the way it is exactly planned, because it is not planned for each of the children in our classrooms.' Tensions between the administration and UFT spilled over earlier this week when the union was conspicuously absent from Mayor Adams' announcement in Downtown Brooklyn that the curriculum overhauls, known as NYC Reads and NYC Solves, would be expanded to 186 more middle schools — with plans to reach all schools in the grade band by fall 2027. Instead, the union released a statement calling the buildout, particularly in math, nonsensical when there's still more work to do with schools that are part of the initial cohort. The next day, Schools Chancellor Melissa Aviles-Ramos defended the decision against union criticism during an interview with local education news source Chalkbeat. (Representatives for the chancellor declined to comment further on Wednesday.) Referencing multiple meetings with unionized math teachers, the schools chief said she was responding to the issues raised: 'I heard all their concerns and complaints about NYC Solves, and I sat with them, and I said, 'Yeah, you're right.' We needed a better runway and we need to take a look at this.' Aviles-Ramos has made a number of tweaks to both the literacy and math initiatives since taking over the school system late last fall — loosening some pacing and paperwork requirements, and giving teachers more flexibility in the classroom. 'I said, 'This isn't meant to take away autonomy,'' she said. ''This is meant for teachers who maybe don't have your level of expertise yet and they need a blueprint. You're helping them as they navigate the line between fidelity to a curriculum and flexibility and autonomy of your lesson plans.'' On Wednesday, Mulgrew said 'thank God' the school system got a new chancellor during the transition, praising Aviles-Ramos for recognizing what he believes was broken. But not all the changes are sticking, he said, noting, 'At the same time, we're still getting mixed messages from superintendents throughout the city.' He added that conversations were still in progress between a union vice president and central education staffers when the expansion was announced. 'We're just getting frustrated,' he said, 'because the union's on board, we're trying to make these things work, but you got to do it the right way.' New York City has been engaged in a painstaking overhaul of reading and math curriculums, citing years of unacceptable test scores. Less than half of the city's public school students are proficient readers. Some teachers have pushed back against the changes to reading instruction, which place a greater emphasis on phonics and discourage the use of context clues to guess at words. But their union has reserved most of its criticism for a math push that seeks to encourage critical thinking over rote memorization. Mulgrew, for example, pointed to a required curriculum item for Algebra I, called 'Illustrative Math,' where the first set of lessons were in statistics — despite there being no prerequisites for statistics taught in earlier grades. The result, he said, is a breakdown in trust between teachers and their students in the first few weeks of the school year. 'Why would you start with a curriculum that takes two or three weeks of lessons on something that you know is just going to annoy and aggravate your students?' he said. 'As a teacher, you're going to ruin my relationship with my students.' 'I have to take those three weeks to get them involved, get them engaged, show them I trust them, and they can trust me. You can't do that by saying you have to learn this — and you have none of the prerequisites to learn it.'
Yahoo
23-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Eric Adams Expands Reading, Math Curriculum Mandates to All NYC Middle Schools
This article was originally published in Chalkbeat. All New York City middle schools will be required to use city-approved curriculums for reading and math by fall 2027, Mayor Eric Adams and Chancellor Melissa Aviles-Ramos announced Monday. As the mandates are phased in, 102 middle schools across eight districts will be required this September to use a city-approved reading program selected by their superintendent, building on a literacy overhaul that was launched two years ago in elementary schools. And in math, officials are continuing a planned expansion of a middle school mandate, adding 84 schools in six local districts this fall. Just over 100 middle schools are already part of the math curriculum requirement. (There are 529 middle schools across the city's 32 local districts.) Get stories like this delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for The 74 Newsletter Adams' education agenda has been defined by curriculum mandates to improve reading and math proficiency. Monday's announcement indicates Adams is following through on plans to deepen those efforts. Proponents of the curriculum overhaul contend that it can take years for the changes to bear fruit, likely leaving it up to Adams' successor to see the effort through as the mayor faces an uncertain path to re-election. Adams and his first chancellor, David Banks, argued that schools have had too much leeway to pick their own curriculums, leading to uneven academic results. Under half of students in grades 3-8 are proficient in reading while about 53% are proficient in math, according to state tests. 'We can't continue to do the same things that we have been always doing and expecting to get better results,' Adams said during a press conference at Brooklyn's Dock Street School for STEAM Studies. The reading and math curriculum mandates, known respectively as NYC Reads and NYC Solves, are meant to guarantee that schools are using high-quality programs. Principals have traditionally been allowed to cobble together their own approaches. Many used programs that do not line up with research about how children learn to read. Additionally, using one curriculum in each district makes it easier to scale up teacher training and may be less disruptive for students who switch schools. The mandates have won mixed reactions from parents and educators. Some have raised concerns about the specific curriculums city officials chose and others said the city's training efforts have been uneven. All of the city's elementary schools are now required to use one of three reading programs, and nearly all high schools have adopted a common Algebra 1 curriculum. Teachers union chief Michael Mulgrew, a key supporter of the literacy mandate and vocal critic of the high school math mandate, did not appear at Monday's press conference. Alison Gendar, a union spokesperson, criticized the decision to expand the math mandate to middle schools. 'The DOE rollout of the new math curriculum in the high schools was dreadful,' she wrote. 'It makes no sense for the DOE to expand the math curriculum to middle schools when its work in high schools is unfinished.' The principals union has been more concerned about curriculum mandates, and a spokesperson did not say whether the union supports the addition of middle schools. Both unions have secured some changes to the existing mandates. The city has not yet seen clear-cut gains from the new curriculums. State reading scores dropped last school year, with larger declines in districts using the mandated reading programs, though officials pointed to other assessment data that they said is more encouraging. Aviles-Ramos said some test score drops are expected as teachers learn how to use the new programs. 'We are truly listening to what's happening on the ground so we can address any issues,' she said. She also predicted gains in student proficiency. 'I'm super confident as we embark on state exam season that we are going to see improvements,' Aviles-Ramos said. City officials have instructed schools to ramp up test prep for students at the cusp of passing the reading tests. Educators at schools covered by the expanded reading and math curriculum mandates will begin to receive training this spring in addition to 12 days of 'job-embedded coaching' this fall. All but one of the districts in the first wave of the middle school reading curriculum mandate will use a program called EL Education, including Manhattan Districts 1 and 3; Districts 7, 9, 11, and 12 in the Bronx; and District 13 in Brooklyn. District 19 in Brooklyn will use a curriculum called Wit & Wisdom. In three of those districts — 3, 9, and 12 — the superintendents chose to mandate different reading programs in their middle and elementary schools. Education Department officials said superintendents made choices about which program to mandate based in part on how many schools were already using them. They did not immediately say how many middle schools are already using the curriculums mandated by their superintendent. Notably, none of the superintendents in the initial wave chose the middle school version of Into Reading, the most commonly mandated curriculum at the elementary school level. That program has faced criticism from some educators and advocates who contend that it is not culturally responsive, is too reliant on text excerpts rather than full books, and is not focused enough on building students' content knowledge. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, the company behind the program, has previously disputed those claims. A different set of districts are mandating middle school math programs for the first time. Four districts — District 8 in the Bronx, District 17 in Brooklyn, District 25 in Queens, and Staten Island's District 31 — will all use a curriculum called Amplify Desmos. District 5 in Manhattan will use i-Ready Mathematics, and District 6 selected Illustrative Mathematics. This story was originally published by Chalkbeat. Chalkbeat is a nonprofit news site covering educational change in public schools. Sign up for their newsletters at
New York Post
23-04-2025
- Politics
- New York Post
Reading opens worlds — and NYC schools are finally getting it right
New York City public schools are doing something rare and important: Sticking with a good idea long enough to make it work. Two years ago, toward the end of the 2022-23 academic year, Mayor Adams launched 'NYC Reads,' a long-overdue course correction mandating the use of evidence-based, phonics-driven reading programs in every public elementary school in the city. On Monday, he expanded the initiative to middle schools. It's an unambiguous win for children and families, and one that deserves support, patience and — most of all — permanence. Reading is the single most important thing New York City's schools need to get right. In an age of rampant screen time, when a disproportionate share of the city's public-school students grow up in low-income homes or where English isn't the primary language, the stakes are even higher. There is simply no educational equity, no opportunity and no meaningful learning without skilled and proficient reading. For decades, literacy instruction in New York City was dominated by the romantic and discredited ideas of Columbia Teachers College professor Lucy Calkins. Her 'balanced literacy' approach rested on the belief that children learn to read naturally, just by exposure to books that interest them, using cues like pictures or context to guess unfamiliar words. One wag aptly dubbed it 'vibes-based literacy.' But reading is not a natural act: Children don't learn to decode print the way they learn to speak. The 'science of reading' — a body of research drawing on cognitive science and linguistics — shows that systematic phonics and structured literacy instruction are essential, especially early on. Anything less is educational malpractice. That's what makes NYC Reads so critical. The city now mandates schools use one of three approved, evidence-based programs paired with explicit phonics instruction in early grades. The program has already touched more than 350,000 city elementary-school students. Expanding it to middle schools ensures continuity and reaches students who may have missed out. To be sure, not everyone is a fan. Some teachers complain that the mandated curricula aren't sufficiently 'culturally responsive,' or that students are less engaged with assigned texts than when choosing their own books. But literacy is the first and last word in equity. Without it, nothing else in a child's education is possible. The resistance merely underscores how deeply rooted the old ways are — and how hard it is to get educators to let go of beliefs they were trained to hold dear. Critics will ask whether these reforms are working. True, test scores haven't soared — but that's not concerning. In fact, if they had done so after just one full year in classrooms, it would be grounds for skepticism. Language proficiency is a slow-growing plant. Phonics is essential, but it takes years (particularly for disadvantaged students) to build the sophisticated vocabulary and background knowledge across subjects that drives mature reading comprehension. There are no shortcuts or quick fixes. What matters is sticking with what works long enough for it to bear fruit. The real challenge isn't curriculum adoption, but implementation. You cannot overstate how hard it is to change classroom practice. For years, New York City teachers were steeped in the Calkins philosophy. They didn't just use her materials; they believed in them. Retraining tens of thousands of teachers means unlearning deeply held convictions, along with adopting new tools. That's why implementation matters as much as the policy itself. Department of Education staff have been aggressively monitoring classrooms to ensure the new curricula are being used and instructional shifts are happening. These are the early signs that NYC Reads is taking root, even before test data catch up. Encouragingly, the United Federation of Teachers has played a constructive role, supporting teachers through the transition and in professional development. But the biggest threat to these reforms isn't instructional — it's political. Adams is up for re-election this year, and NYC Reads is strongly associated with his administration. If he loses, there's a real risk the effort will be scrapped or sidelined by his successor. New Yorkers should demand every mayoral hopeful commit to continuing these essential classroom reforms. If a candidate hedges, it's a red flag. The literacy status quo is indefensible in a city where fewer than half of third-graders read proficiently. NYC Reads is a long game. If we're serious about raising literacy rates, we need to sustain this effort across years, mayors and chancellors. New York has made a promising start. The worst thing we could do now is hit the brakes — or veer off-track. Robert Pondiscio is a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and a former New York City public school teacher.
Yahoo
22-04-2025
- General
- Yahoo
NYC expands reading and math programs to support 500,000 students by 2025-26
NEW YORK (PIX11) — New York City is making a big move to help more students succeed in school. The city is expanding its reading and math programs, NYC Reads and NYC Solves, so that by the 2025-2026 school year, nearly 500,000 kids will get extra support in building strong reading and math skills. More Local News Mayor Eric Adams and Schools Chancellor Melissa Aviles-Ramos announced that 186 more schools across 14 districts will use these research-backed lessons and teaching methods. For the first time, NYC Reads will be available in middle schools, giving sixth to eighth graders the same strong start in reading that younger students already get. 'These programs are huge for what we're doing, for countless children experiencing learning disabilities and dyslexia,' said Mayor Adams. He also explained that the city is now doing more dyslexia screenings to help students early. NYC Reads began in 2023 and was first used in elementary and early childhood classrooms to close big gaps in reading, especially for Black and Latino students and those who have faced learning disruptions. The program helps students learn to read by teaching them how to sound out words and understand what they read, while NYC Solves teaches math through real-world problems and gives teachers clear, consistent lessons. More: Latest News from Around the Tri-State Chancellor Aviles-Ramos said, 'Today marks a recommitment and an expansion of this work. Bringing New York City Reads to more middle schools and more districts, including launching New York City Reads in grades six to eight for the first time.' She added, 'New York City Reads is extremely important because it's giving our children a foundation with the tools of support that teachers need to make this happen every single day.' The expansion will happen over the next few years, with all middle schools using these programs by the 2027-2028 school year. Early results show that students and teachers are already seeing improvements, and the city hopes this move will help every student get the skills they need for a bright future. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
