Albany, NY – Today,the Literacy Academy Collective and the New York State Education Department released the NYS Action Plan: The Path Forward, to improve literacy instruction. The Action Plan is a coordinated effort between key institutions and education leaders from across the state. Assemblymember Jo Anne Simon, a member of The Path Forward Steering Committee, released the following statement: 

“For too long, New York State has left its students behind in reading by using ineffective teaching methods. Righting a big ship takes time, focus, and teamwork. This new, historic Action Plan lays out how we will train future teachers in evidence-based methods aligned with how the brain processes written language.

Our schools have been doing an inadequate job of teaching our kids to read because the prevailing approach for decades has been ‘balanced literacy,’ which isn’t effective for two-thirds of our students. The brain data tells us that 95% of children can learn to read. Nevertheless, our colleges of education haven’t been teaching our future teachers how to teach reading in a way that works for the vast majority of students. This has led to persistent low performance on measures of reading, including the ‘Nation’s Report Card,’ the National Assessment of Education Progress, with only 38% of New York’s fourth graders reading at a proficient level. 

By targeting key areas of literacy instruction, the Action Plan is designed to align New York’s education preparation programs with evidence-based best practices for teaching literacy. New York will no longer send its education graduates off to teach reading with an empty toolbox. Now, it will be packed with what works.

As we work towards accomplishing our goals, I want to thank my fellow steering committee members and the senior education leaders for their deep collaboration and engagement during this robust process. Never before have all of New York's educational stakeholders planned such a move together. Implementing this plan will transform students' lives."