A CALL TO ACTION:
The State of Early Literacy in New York
Photo by Allison Shelley for EDUimages
Yet too many New York students are denied the right to read, especially students of color and those from low-income backgrounds. And despite recent student outcome data and the impact of pandemic-related school closures on reading skills, state and local leaders have failed to boldly address the issue with urgency.
State leadership, including the New York State Department of Education, the Board of Regents, the Governor’s Office, and the Legislature, have not centered early literacy, the science of reading or the reading crisis in their priorities or initiatives.
“Teaching students how to read is a fundamental human right and one of the most important equity and social justice issues facing our state and nation.”

Another way to understand the science of reading is through The Simple View of Reading, which has been empirically validated by over 150 scientific studies.Learning to read requires sounding out and recognizing words (decoding) and making meaning of the words and sentences that are heard (language comprehension). If either of these skills are weak, then reading comprehension is diminished.
Ability to apply sound-symbol relationships to read words
Ability to apply sound-symbol relationships to read words

Interested in our early literacy work? Contact us.
This project is made possible thanks in part to the generous support of the Robin Hood Learning + Technology Fund in partnership with Overdeck Family Foundation and Siegel Family Endowment