{"id":373053,"date":"2026-06-24T14:32:23","date_gmt":"2026-06-24T14:32:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/373053\/"},"modified":"2026-06-24T14:32:23","modified_gmt":"2026-06-24T14:32:23","slug":"berkeley-public-schools-overhauled-reading-instruction-hows-it-going","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/373053\/","title":{"rendered":"Berkeley Public Schools Overhauled Reading Instruction. How\u2019s It Going?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cIf you go around, everyone is reading,\u201d their teacher, Rocio Guzman, said. Guzman has taught at the Berkeley Unified School District for 17 years, and most recently at this dual-language school.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey are in kindergarten, and you see their writings, too. For me, it\u2019s incredible.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t always that way, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBefore there was a big difference between who could read and who couldn\u2019t,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

\"\"Rocio Guzman, a two-way immersion teacher, works with students during a reading session at Sylvia Mendez Elementary School in Berkeley on June 3, 2026. (Beth LaBerge\/KQED)<\/p>\n

Nearly a decade after a landmark class-action lawsuit accused BUSD of failing students with reading disabilities, the district is starting to see evidence that a sweeping overhaul of literacy instruction is taking root.<\/p>\n

A final report delivered this month found that the change extends beyond curriculum \u2014 reforms from the legal settlement and shifting educational paradigms in the U.S. are becoming embedded in the district\u2019s culture.<\/p>\n

The changes stem from a 2017 lawsuit, when several district families alleged the district allowed their kids with reading disorders like dyslexia to fall through the cracks, causing lifelong harm. The plaintiffs argued that the district had failed to test kids for these learning differences \u2014 which, if identified and met with appropriate interventions in their early years, could allow them to progress alongside their peers and even excel.<\/p>\n

The district settled the suit in 2021, agreeing to a formidable list<\/a> of 35 action steps. BUSD embarked on a plan to improve literacy the following year, alongside three years of mandated oversight. This work coincided with a national reckoning on how to teach reading, which has become known as the \u201cReading Wars.\u201d<\/p>\n

The debate was addressed<\/a> in Sold a Story<\/a>, a 2022 podcast by education journalist Emily Hanson. Her report described how many parents realized during COVID-19 lockdowns that phonics \u2014 analyzing a word by its parts and sounds \u2014was no longer the instructional approach for their children.<\/p>\n

Instead, schools encouraged kids to try to figure out words from context or pictures, a practice known as \u201ccueing,\u201d as part of a \u201cbalanced literacy\u201d approach. This method focused more<\/a> on developing a love of books and ensuring students understood the meaning of stories. BUSD was among the practice\u2019s most fervent adherents.<\/p>\n

Following a protracted<\/a> legal dispute and other delays, BUSD joined districts state- and <\/a>nationwide <\/a>in reversing course on its approach to teaching literacy.<\/p>\n

In its first three years of monitoring, the district adopted screenings and science-based interventions for struggling elementary and middle schoolers. During that time, the teachers were required to review their reading curricula to see if it was evidence-based. They concluded that it wasn\u2019t and began the process of selecting a new approach.<\/p>\n

\"\"Students listen to teacher Rocio Guzman during class at Sylvia Mendez Elementary School in Berkeley on June 3, 2026. (Beth LaBerge\/KQED)<\/p>\n

BUSD eventually selected two new programs for all elementary school-aged kids: a functional phonics and morphology curriculum, and a Spanish-language equivalent \u2014 programs that experts say aren\u2019t just the right way to teach kids with learning differences \u2014 but are great for all young learners.<\/p>\n

In a final report <\/a>delivered at the end of BUSD\u2019s recent school year \u2014 its first using the new approach district-wide \u2014 Kim Gibbons, the district\u2019s former literacy consultant and most recent settlement monitor, told the school board the \u201c shift\u201d she observed \u201cis one of the clearest indicators that improvement efforts have really started to become embedded within the district\u2019s culture and systems.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to Gibbons\u2019 analysis, the district\u2019s youngest readers showed the largest gains: 79% of BUSD kindergarteners were reading at or above grade level by the spring, a 27% improvement from the fall. Of first graders, 86% finished on track, a 19-point jump over the year.<\/p>\n

Still, according to the report, challenges remained. Nearly a quarter of second graders at one of two unnamed focus schools identified previously as lagging in adopting the new methods remained well below benchmarks.<\/p>\n

And while Hispanic K-2 students showed strong growth alongside some benchmark improvement for African American students, longstanding achievement disparities persist between white and African American students, especially in older grades.<\/p>\n

\"\"Rocio Guzman, a two-way immersion teacher, teaches at Sylvia Mendez Elementary School in Berkeley on June 3, 2026. (Beth LaBerge\/KQED)<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know we\u2019re not done,\u201d BUSD Literacy Coordinator Rose James said. \u201cThe data doesn\u2019t look as good as we want it to look, and it never will. We\u2019re going to keep going.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gibbons found that the district had met its legal obligation to the settlement, but some families still worry the district still isn\u2019t ready to fly solo when it comes to literacy education.<\/p>\n

Lindsay Nofelt, a Berkeley mom of a dyslexic child as well as a BUSD middle schooler, has tracked the district\u2019s literacy transformation, creating a resource website <\/a>for other families.<\/p>\n

Nofelt said a monitor is still needed because she believes the report, which focused on grades K-5, hasn\u2019t proven BUSD met the settlement goal of \u201censuring fidelity of Literacy Improvement Program implementation\u201d in upper grades.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe settlement is not complete until middle school students have better instruction and support. They don\u2019t read many books. It\u2019s a roulette wheel based on what teacher you get,\u201d Nofelt said.<\/p>\n

George Ellis<\/a>, director of the California Reading and Literature Project at UC Berkeley and BUSD\u2019s former settlement monitor, disagreed. He said while the district has overhauled special education interventions for middle schools, structured literacy likely won\u2019t be the focus of any future changes to overall middle school curriculum because it\u2019s not age-appropriate.<\/p>\n

Yet Ellis said he understands why some families are reluctant to lose a rare level of oversight.<\/p>\n

\"\"Rocio Guzman, a two-way immersion teacher, works with students during a reading session at Sylvia Mendez Elementary School in Berkeley on June 3, 2026. (Beth LaBerge\/KQED)<\/p>\n

\u201cThis was a very unique situation where you had outside monitors reporting on progress and compliance. You don\u2019t see that in public schools,\u201d Ellis said, \u201cI think the monitoring piece was a wonderful addition and a very necessary piece. I think at the same time at some point it became a crutch for going around the systems that are already in place for holding the district accountable for improving student outcomes.\u201d<\/p>\n

That said, Ellis said he believes the data shows Berkeley administrators and many teachers have successfully internalized a culture of data-based decision-making. He said he expects that to carry forward into real student gains beginning next year.<\/p>\n

Special education attorney Deborah Jacobson, who brought the original lawsuit, is optimistic, too.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere were many times where I was like, crap, we didn\u2019t have language in there that could enforce this, or that could do this, or that; we had some loosey-goosey language that was the result of years of exhaustion,\u201d Jacobson said, \u201cBut in the end \u2026 the experts \u2026 really did see a culture shift. That was the goal.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cIf you go around, everyone is reading,\u201d their teacher, Rocio Guzman, said. Guzman has taught at the Berkeley…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":373054,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[143,145,144],"class_list":["post-373053","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-oakland","tag-oakland","tag-oakland-headlines","tag-oakland-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/373053","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=373053"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/373053\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/373054"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=373053"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=373053"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=373053"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}