New Report Documents Need for Investment in Reading Instruction in New York City Schools

03.10.2016 | Today, Advocates for Children of New York (AFC) is releasing a report, A is for All: Meeting the Literacy Needs of Students with and without Disabilities in the New York City Public Schools [PDF], which documents the need for urgent and sustained action to address the particularly low literacy levels for low-income students with disabilities and prepare schools to teach reading effectively for all students. In 2015, less than 7 percent of City students with disabilities achieved proficiency on the New York State English Language Arts (ELA) exam. The report reviews research and case stories indicating that students with a wide range of disabilities are capable of learning to read if they receive appropriate instruction, discusses the key elements for teaching reading effectively, highlights a number of promising programs in New York City, and provides recommendations for implementing systemic and lasting change.

Kim Sweet, AFC’s Executive Director, says, “Every year, Advocates for Children receives hundreds of phone calls from parents seeking help for children who are years behind in reading, at times having made it to middle or high school without ever having mastered the basic skills necessary to read street signs or restaurant menus, let alone academic texts. And every year, we see students make remarkable gains when they finally receive high-quality, evidence-based instruction that targets their individual needs. Unfortunately, whether a given student receives appropriate instruction is largely a matter of luck and family resources. We want a student with dyslexia from a low-income family in New York City to have the same opportunity to learn to read and write effectively as a student with the same disability whose family is upper-middle-class.”

View press release [PDF]
Read the report [PDF]