Gov. Hochul proposes statewide phonics-based reading program, following NYC
NEW YORK — Gov. Hochul on Wednesday introduced a framework to overhaul New York’s statewide reading curriculum, emphasizing phonics, after New York City officials introduced similar, sweeping changes to literacy education in city elementary school districts.
The proposal comes with many young children struggling to develop literacy skills across the state. In the last school year, fewer than 4 in 10 Black and Latino students statewide scored proficient in third grade English Language Arts, state test scores show.
Hochul’s office said the state’s new plan would gear school curriculum toward the so-called science of reading approach. The science of reading is a phonics-based approach, meaning that it emphasizes the sounds of letters in helping children learn to read.
“We’re going to turn the page on how we teach young people to read,” Hochul, a Democrat declared at a news conference in a school library in Watervliet, N.Y. “This is a long overdue opportunity.”
The governor said the majority of schools in New York are using outdated reading education methods.
Her plan, if approved, would task the New York State Education Department with instituting guidelines requiring that school districts across the state use the science of reading approach by 2025. The state would not exempt high-performing schools, Hochul’s office said.
“New York City is shifting to this, so I have to look out for the rest of the state and break open the inertia that has stopped this,” the governor told reporters. “This is a radical change, but it is one that actually makes sense.”
Twenty-six states have passed laws since 2019 that either require or encourage schools and teacher prep programs to provide literacy instruction that emphasizes phonics, according to the Education Trust, a nonprofit.
Reading proficiently by the end of third grade is the top indicator of future success, according to the Education Trust, with students who do not reach it four times more likely to drop out of school.
For some students — especially those for whom English is their second language, and those with learning disabilities who often need more explicit instruction — reading education approaches that integrate phonics appear to produce better results than those that do not, according to research.
Phonics, once called phonetics, has fallen out of favor at times, supplanted by the competing whole language method that teaches students to learn entire words rather than sound them out.
Hochul said “study after study” had shown that reading education without a phonics element is not “getting the job done.”
The governor’s office outlined a $10 million state investment to train 20,000 teachers in science of reading instruction, and a broadening of public state and city universities’ credentialing programs in science of reading instruction.
The state education commissioner, Betty Rosa, said in a statement that “evidence-based literacy instruction methods” help teachers “provide a comprehensive approach that enhances literacy skills and equips learners.”
Hochul called her program a “back to basics” plan.
In May, Mayor Adams’ administration introduced its overhaul of literacy education, a program that requires educators to use one of three reading programs. The shift, already implemented in about half the city’s school districts — mostly in Brooklyn and Queens — centers phonics in reading education.
New York City’s program is a signature policy for Eric Adams, who was diagnosed with dyslexia in college, and his schools chancellor, David Banks.
Hochul announced the state program as she prepares for her State of the State address next Tuesday. The address, Hochul’s third as governor, figures to be packed with initiatives that will set the tone for her negotiations with lawmakers during this year’s legislative session in Albany.
On Tuesday, Hochul proposed a plan to broadly wipe out some New Yorkers’ out-of-pocket insurance co-payments for insulin, the ubiquitous but sometimes pricey diabetes treatment.
