Gov. Kathy Hochul on Wednesday proposed a major education policy change that could change the way many schools across New York teach reading, following the lead of other states that have abandoned methods that experts say have left back millions of children.
The proposal comes as education experts point to growing evidence that the state’s approach to literacy is failing. Last year, fewer than half of New York City’s third graders were proficient on state reading tests.
Ms. Hochul has asked the state Department of Education to require school districts to certify that their curricula have adopted “scientifically proven” approaches to literacy by September 2025.
“This is a really big deal, because for a long time, people realized that what was going on wasn’t working. But no one stood up and said it has to change,” Ms. Hotchul told a room of lawmakers, teachers and fourth-graders at a public elementary school in Watervliet, outside Albany, on Wednesday.
Like most of the proposals he will introduce in the speech, it would require the support of the state Legislature, which is controlled by Democrats.
New York City’s fourth-grade reading scores on a national assessment fell significantly during the pandemic and are behind where they were a decade ago.
Many teachers across New York and the state were trained in a method known as “balanced literacy,” which encourages independent reading and includes some practices that experts say are problematic, such as teaching children to guess words using pictures.
Experts and policymakers say it is now clear that the balanced literacy approach did not give children enough basic skills, such as phonics, to ensure they become proficient readers.
While some children can learn to read without explicit phonics instruction, research has found that most children need more systematic instruction about letter sounds and other elements of language. And many also struggle without a basis in wider issues about the world to understand what they read.
Students who do not learn to read well by the end of third grade are four times more likely to drop out of school, according to Ms. Hotchul’s office. Students of color and low-income students are especially at risk of being left behind. This is because they are more likely to live in households where families may not have the resources to provide additional assistance such as paying for tutoring.
The effects can be long-lasting: Students who lack reading ability tend to have lower lifetime earnings and worse health outcomes than their peers, Ms. Hochul said.
Susan Neuman, a professor of early childhood education and literacy at New York University, celebrated New York’s prospect of moving away from what she called its “lax-dumb” approach to literacy.
“I think that’s a good thing,” he said of the plan and the $10 million Ms. Hotchul suggested be spent on education. “I think it’s very necessary – and probably not enough money.”
The literacy plan was the latest proposal announced by Ms Hotchul ahead of her State of the Union address.
On Tuesday, he unveiled plans to expand consumer protections in New York. One would ban insulin copayments and another would raise the cap on disability payments for the sick or injured, from $170 a week to more than $1,200.
Explaining the importance of the state’s axis, the governor found herself giving fourth-graders in Watervliet a history lesson.
“When I was younger, we learned about phonics,” she said, adding that the approach to teaching began to change decades later.
“They thought, ‘Hey, there’s a whole different way of learning. Why don’t we put the kids in a room with books and they’ll figure it out,” he said. “Do you think that’s very clever?”
“No!” the children shouted.
