Governor Kathy Hochul announced a plan this week to update reading curriculum across New York state public schools called “Back to Basics.”
The move follows a national trend of states adopting education policies on how literacy is taught.
“We're going to throw away the old method, say “goodbye, it didn't work,” and get back to basics and learning and make sure that you have a great chance to learn the easiest and best way you can,” Hochul said on Tuesday to a group of fourth graders, lawmakers, and educators.
Part of the proposal includes adding micro-credential programs at SUNY schools and $10 million for teacher training programs.
Rick Costanza, chair of the Department of Education and Human Services at Monroe Community College, said adding programs like that would make sense for current and prospective teachers.
“Teachers are currently required to do ongoing professional development as a part of their recertification every five years,” Costanza said. “So this would naturally fit into, as one of the things they could do. (It) would be appropriate for them to receive additional training, because our understanding of what works best with literacy instruction continues to evolve.”
Karis Jones, a professor of English language arts education at Empire State University, said she wants to see how this policy would take shape.
“Of course, we want our curricula to support skills that are important for society -- phonics, decoding, vocabulary, comprehension -- I think everybody agrees that those are important things to learn,” said Jones. "But you can have curricula ... that are only focused on skill building and they're not thinking about how to engage students in the text that they're reading.”
Something like that would miss the mark, according to Jones.
She recalls being a teacher in a New York City school when Common Core was rolled out. She said some aspects of the Common Core curriculum were not culturally relevant or appropriate for her students, which she said was damaging.
Ideally, Jones would like to see updated literacy curriculum include teaching things like critical thinking, not just basic skills.
Brian Morgan, a professor and chair of the literacy program at SUNY Geneseo, said there’s a key aspect of learning to read that Hochul’s proposal doesn’t cover.
“It would be foolish not to consider a child's circumstances outside the classroom as affecting their ... learning to read and learning in general,” Morgan said. “I mean, just that idea of food insecurity, not knowing if you're going to eat, I think would be distracting from your learning, just as an example.”
Morgan said that addressing childhood poverty, especially for districts with high concentrations of poverty, would be a crucial step toward more equitable learning outcomes for students in New York state.
