New York City Public Schools Will Now Be Required To Actually Teach Kids To Read

[Kamaji]

New York City Public Schools Will Now Be Required To Actually Teach Kids To Read

Education officials unveiled new rules on Tuesday which will mandate that city elementary schools use one of three "research-backed" reading curricula.

EMMA CAMP
5.9.2023

New York City has announced that the city's public elementary schools will now be forced to use a curriculum that actually teaches children how to read.

On Tuesday, David C. Banks, the chancellor of the city's Department of Education, unveiled new rules governing reading instruction in New York City public schools, mandating that schools adopt one of three evidence-based reading programs. A school can only apply for an exception to the new rules if more than 85 percent of its student body is deemed "proficient" in reading—a distinction held by only around 20 schools in the entire city.

The move comes in the wake of increased criticism toward how reading is taught in American schools, sparked by a sharp national decline in post-COVID reading scores, and a popular podcast from American Public Media that detailed the failures of the commonly used "balanced literacy" approach.

Notably, Banks implemented new rules last year requiring that New York City public schools include phonics in their reading instruction. However, the new guidelines build on these changes, ushering in what is effectively a ban on balanced literacy—a popular, though unscientific, approach to teaching reading that some experts say undermines the skills children are taught in phonics instruction.

Balanced literacy, which also goes by other names like the "whole language" method or "three cueing," focuses on having children read whole words, rather than sounding them out. The method also encourages children to simply guess unfamiliar words by relying on context from factors like pictures in a book. In contrast, phonics teaches children to read by focusing on the sounds that different letters and groups of letters make.

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Source:  https://reason.com/2023/05/09/new-york-city-public-schools-will-now-be-required-to-actually-teach-kids-to-read/

[PeteS in CA]

"The prevailing approaches to reading instruction in American schools are inconsistent with basic things scientists have discovered about how children learn to read. Many educators don't know the science, and in some cases actively resist it," journalist Emily Hanford noted in "Hard Words," an episode from the Educate podcast about why science-backed reading methods aren't being adopted in American schools.

"The basic assumption that underlies typical reading instruction in many schools is that learning to read is a natural process, much like learning to talk," Hanford adds. "But decades of scientific research has revealed that reading doesn't come naturally. The human brain isn't wired to read. Kids must be explicitly taught how to connect sounds with letters—phonics."

Even though research has long shown phonics to be the most effective way to teach reading, the balanced literacy approach has been surprisingly difficult to dislodge. Public schools—like other government agencies—have little incentive to innovate, even in the face of new evidence. And most American parents who realize their children need better reading instruction can't simply enroll their children elsewhere.

So, "balanced literacy" is the latest euphemism for the approach that has been failing students since at least the 1950s? Why Johnny Can't Read was published in 1957. If the book were an adult it could collect full-rate Social Security (or did the Feds up that age recently?)!

The parochial school I attended for Grades 1-3 used the Look-Say method oriented Dick and Jane series of readers, BUT did heavy phonics supplementation. Phonics instruction and drills bored the snot out of me, so I get that teachers don't love it. But! It! Works!!! It worked with me, and it worked with our 3 munchkins when we homeschooled them. Once it "clicked" our munchkins took off like birds and we had to use a laundry basket when we took them to the library.

Not pushing Amazon, but this book worked well for us, https://www.amazon.com/Teach-Your-Child-Read-Lessons/dp/0671631985 , Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons. It cost us $30, so $17.19 is a bargain. I'm not sure we got past lesson 50 before it clicked for our 2 with whom we used the book.