Literacy nonprofits hopeful after New York City public school reading scores dip

Literacy nonprofits across New York City say a drop in New York City’s reading scores is “no surprise,” however, most contend that the city is still moving in the right direction with a new curriculum in addressing the shortfall.

Nonprofits such as READ718, Reading Partners of New York City, and Literacy Partners have all stated the city is doing what it can to increase reading scores and that more time is needed before any positive results can be expected.

“It's too early to say the new curriculum is not serving kids. I think that you have to give it more time and see what happens next year and the next year,” said Emily Kirven, executive director of READ718. “There needs to be consistency. And having one year under our belt with a new curriculum, I don't think it's enough to say it's not working and throw up our hands. And I do think that the schools are moving in the right direction in terms of basing the instruction on science and evidence-based instruction”

New York City public school reading scores have dipped slightly from 2023, with 49.1% of students in grades 3-8 reading on grade level, a 2.6 percentage point decrease from the previous year. Math scores for the same grades, however, increased to 53.4%, an increase of 3.5 percentage points. School officials are reassuring the public that the current transitional period in the reading curriculum is temporary. 

“The successful implementation of NYC Solves and NYC Reads is setting the foundation for continued progress in the coming years,” said Schools Chancellor David Banks in an official statement. “Significant change does not happen overnight, and the slight decline in ELA test scores represents a transitional period as our school system adjusts to a new method of instruction.”

Beginning in 2023, the New York City Department of Education launched an initiative called “NYC Reads”, an initiative that revamps public schools curriculum and phases out the old curriculum over two years. Early childhood classrooms will use The Creative Curriculum universally, while grades K-5 will adapt one of three science of reading, phonics-based curriculums, based on their district. 

“We're not that surprised,” said Primo Lasana, executive director of Reading Partners of New York City. “When we look at other states like Mississippi that have overhauled their reading instruction, they initially saw declines before seeing significant improvement. It's our expectation that the same thing will happen in New York.”

Literacy Partners’ executive director, Asaf Bar-Tura, said he believes it’s not just about the reading curriculum in schools, but the resources available at home and the efforts made outside the classroom to ensure reading proficiency. “So much of what promotes literacy happens outside of school, and that's what happens at home in particular with caregivers, with parents, with guardians, and how they interact with young people,” Bar-Tura said. “There's a lot that we can do in school, but there's also only so much that we can do in school if we don't promote and give parents and caregivers the tools to promote literacy at home.” 

Bar-Tura also says that the city needs to continue working on interconnected issues, such as housing, to ensure students have all they need to succeed. “The reality is that these things are intertwined. When you have housing (issues), and families are moving a lot, and therefore they're also moving between schools, that creates challenges,” said Bar-Tura. “Schools are a part of the solution, but they're not going to be the whole solution…we need to make progress on all of our social challenges to see progress with young people.”

Reading Partners has been using the science of reading curriculum for 25 years nationwide and has seen positive results. 

“It's also our experience. We use the science of reading-based curriculum ourselves, and what we see are incredible outcomes for our students,” said Lasana. “We have a very positive outlook on the future of reading scores for New York City public school students, and we definitely believe that the public school system has made the correct decision in the curriculum shift.”

Additionally, Literacy Partners say there needs to be continued investment in resources for literacy initiatives, but that they are positive of the outcome.

“I do think there's an investment by the city in organizations like Literacy Partners that view literacy as a holistic process where an entire community is a part of that process, but I think we need to continue investing in that, and whether it's access to libraries, access to programs like literacy partners for parents, those are all going to be part of the solution,” Bar-Tura said. But I'm hopeful that if we can make those investments, we're going to see increases.”