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Reading scores in NYC schools drop after curriculum overhaul
By
Charles Lane
Published Aug 21, 2024
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By
Charles Lane
Published Aug 21, 2024
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A lower percentage of New York City public school students achieved proficiency on state reading tests after the city began an overhaul of reading instruction last school year, according to data released Wednesday.
Just under half of students in grades 3 through 8 were deemed proficient this spring, compared to 51.7% in 2023, a 2.6 percentage point drop. Reading scores went down for all racial and ethnic groups, with the largest drops taking place among white and Hispanic students.
According to the data, 36.4% of Hispanic students in grades 3 through 8 are proficient in reading, a decline from 39.4%. Proficiency among white students declined from 69.5% to 65.8%.
The new data comes after Schools Chancellor David Banks and Mayor Eric Adams announced a major overhaul of literacy instruction in the city’s public schools, which the city began phasing in at the beginning of the 2023-24 school year. The change moved students away from “balanced literacy,” which minimized phonics in favor of textual reading clues. Instead, the city embraced the “science of reading,” focusing on reading fundamentals such as phonics and vocabulary.
In March, Gothamist obtained preliminary data that showed the city’s stubbornly low reading proficiency rates dropped more at schools using the new material. At the time, education officials insisted such a comparison was inaccurate. The new data, however, suggests the preliminary data heralded a decline in reading proficiency.
Despite the decrease, Banks said he predicts proficiency will improve.
“Significant change does not happen overnight, and the slight decline in ELA [English Language Arts] test scores represents a transitional period as our school system adjusts to a new method of instruction,” he said in a statement. “While challenges remain in higher grades, our early successes signal that we are on the right path to enhancing student achievement across the board.”
Banks touted improvements in math and reading scores for students in kindergarten through second grade. The data showed that 53.4% of students in the third through eighth grades are considered proficient in math, up from 49.9%. The share of students younger than third grade who are considered proficient in reading rose from 36.4% to 38.2%.
Banks said that showed schools were on the right track.
But some education workers and experts were skeptical of the chancellor's characterization of the data.
“I think the spinning is alarming,” Brooklyn elementary school teacher Martina Meijer said in a phone interview.
Meijer said the administration could have released data parsed by which students received the new instruction and compared results to those who didn’t.
“What I see is a nebulous hope that throwing a lot of money and a new curriculum at schools will somehow solve a problem that is extremely complex and multifaceted,” she said.
She largely agreed that it was too soon to pass judgment on the effects of the new reading curriculum, but faulted the Department of Education for making generalizations without releasing supporting data.
David Bloomfield, a professor of education leadership, law and policy at Brooklyn College and The CUNY Graduate Center, agreed the pronouncements were premature.
“By releasing what it calls ‘rounded data’ massaged for a press release, the DOE is like a rooster crowing before dawn, taking credit for the rising sun,” Bloomfield said in an email.
But Susan Neuman, an NYU professor and a member of the school system's Literacy Advisory Council, said that because the new curriculum is more foundational, it will take time for the impact to be seen in tests.
“You’re talking about a test that is not terribly valid when we talk about this change in the educational reform,” Neuman said in a phone interview. “Those basic phonics, by the time they get to third and fourth grade, they're focusing on content and those ELA measures don't measure content.”
Neuman blamed the pandemic for the drop in reading scores.
“I think it’s the ravages of COVID,” she said. “The fact that we still are getting kids who are sick. We're still getting families that are sick and the absentee rate is higher.”
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schools
Charles Lane
Charles is a Day-of reporter focused on breaking news and enterprise. He’s very friendly and can be reached at [email protected], or more securely on whatsapp/signal 631-295-6715
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