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Philadelphia school district officials have pledged that this will be the year students’ reading proficiency improves.
But as the district starts the third year of a $25 million reading curriculum overhaul, more evidence points to problems with the rollout.
According to a new district research report, educators reported serious concerns with the new K-8 English language arts curriculum during the first year, including its phonics instruction, a lack of time and resources for students to read full books, and little support for students who start or fall behind.
The researchers, who hosted focus groups with more than 100 K-8 Philly teachers, principals, and administrators, concluded that most principals believe the new curriculum, designed by EL Education, “is a step in the right direction.”
But “genuine teacher buy-in remains a challenge” due to insufficient training, mixed messages about how to comply with district mandates, problems locating and preparing lessons and materials, and little time to address students’ foundational learning before moving to something new.
The district has tweaked its approach to the curriculum since that first year of implementation, including adjusting pacing, adding “flex days” for teachers to go over material, increasing professional development, and reorganizing grade-specific materials to be more accessible, according to a statement from Chief Academic Officer Michael Farrell.
It has also added support specifically for K-2 teachers for teaching foundational literacy skills, he said.
State test scores released last year showed that K-8 students’ reading scores fell after the first year of the new curriculum’s implementation, with around one-third of students reading proficiently. That’s far from the Board of Education’s goal that more than half of students will be proficient in reading by 2030. Anticipation is high for state test scores from the curriculum’s second year of implementation, but those have not been released yet because of a delay at the state level, district leaders said.
Mary Jean Tecce DeCarlo, a clinical professor of literacy at Drexel University who helps train Philly teachers, said many of the concerns educators voiced in the report were predictable. Some problems, like sourcing materials and organizing lessons, get easier as teachers get used to the new content, she said.
However, Tecce DeCarlo echoed educators’ concerns about the curriculum’s phonics instruction in particular. Though she said EL Education is great at increasing students’ background knowledge, which is key for reading comprehension, its approach to phonics instruction is not systematic or direct enough.
“I think right now, the district is operating — as are a lot of people in this new ‘science of reading’ renaissance — that any phonics instruction is good phonics instruction,” Tecce DeCarlo said. “It turns out that’s not true.”
Here are three major findings from the report.
Teachers say phonics instruction is not effective
Nearly all teachers and principals for K-2 students reported problems with how the EL Education curriculum taught phonics, which experts say is essential for kids to learn how to read.
Many teachers said the phonics lessons included in the curriculum were not direct or explicit enough for the district’s youngest learners, leaving them worried that it does not effectively teach struggling readers how to sound out words.
EL Education states on its website that its K-8 curriculum is based on the science of reading and includes structured phonics instruction. The organization did not respond to Chalkbeat’s questions about concerns from Philadelphia teachers.
Several teachers said they believed the district’s previous phonics materials from programs like Saxon and Fundations were more effective. Some opted to return to using those programs, disobeying the district’s directive to stick to the new curriculum.
“When you know better, you do better,” one teacher reported. “I feel like this program is going against what we have learned and know to be better.”
Not enough reading for pleasure, educators report
Some teachers reported that the curriculum did not allow time for them to “foster a joy of reading,” the researchers found. Though the curriculum refers to books students can read to go along with lessons, teachers said they didn’t always have access to copies for their students. Most Philadelphia schools don’t have libraries, and teachers are sometimes on their own to get class materials.
One principal said that middle school students wanted to read more full chapter books, but didn’t get to do so. “They’re sick and tired of the gist of an excerpt or just reading excerpts,” the principal reported. “They’re begging their teachers. Can we just read a couple of chapters and read it straight through?”
Other principals reported similar concerns, saying they thought the curriculum could work well if it was adjusted to include more novel-based learning for students.
Students behind grade-level have few supports
Many teachers reported they had little time to teach students who aren’t yet at grade level. That kind of teaching, often called Tier 2 instruction, can be essential for students who may join a school partway through the year, which is common in Philadelphia.
But teachers reported that there were no lessons dedicated to this kind of teaching, and they worried about taking time away from other parts of the fast-paced curriculum.
Superintendent Tony Watlington has previously said he wants teachers to spend more classroom time on grade-level work rather than remedial instruction. But when students are missing foundational skills, they may not be able to complete the work the curriculum demands, teachers reported.
Specific interventions for students who are significantly behind “is not in this curriculum,” one teacher reported.
Rebecca Redelmeier is a reporter at Chalkbeat Philadelphia. She writes about public schools, early childhood education, and issues that affect students, families, and educators across Philadelphia. Contact Rebecca at rredelmeier@chalkbeat.org.
