New York City requires reading instruction to be phonics-based

New York City to require schools adopt phonics-based reading lessons - The Washington Post

New York City officials said Tuesday that the city will require all of its elementary schools to employ phonics programs in teaching children to read, saying alternate systems that have been in place for years are failing.

Until now, some 700 elementary schools in New York City have each been allowed to choose their own reading curriculums, and many employed methods that have come under sharp scrutiny in recent years.

Over the next two years, the city’s 32 districts will each be asked to select one of three evidence-based curriculums that will then be used throughout the system.

The change is urgent, Schools Chancellor David C. Banks said Tuesday. About half of all elementary students — and more than 6 in 10 Black and Hispanic students — are not proficient in reading.

“It’s a travesty and really an indictment on the work that we do,” Banks said.

He put particular blame on an approach called “balanced literacy,” a popular program in New York City that works to nurture a love of reading and encourages students to use context and pictures to figure out what a text says. It does not necessarily include explicit decoding of words and sounds. A large share of the city’s schools have been using this approach, according to data reported by the City and Chalkbeat.

Under the new system, districts will choose one of three curriculums to use in all of their schools. The choices are Wit & Wisdom (which is not phonics-based and would be paired with a phonics program), Expeditionary Learning and Into Reading. The change will be implemented in about half the city this fall and the second half in 2024. Teacher trainings were beginning this week.

A change this sweeping is certain to draw complaints from teachers across the sprawling system, though the initiative was launched with support of the teachers union, the United Federation of Teachers. Union president Michael Mulgrew said the system of every school choosing its own program did not work.

“I give this chancellor and the mayor huge credit for saying, you know what? We’re going to put our butts on the line,” Mulgrew said. “We’re going to do this. We’re going to take this on.”