{"id":319952,"date":"2026-08-13T00:40:20","date_gmt":"2026-08-13T00:40:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/319952\/"},"modified":"2026-08-13T00:40:20","modified_gmt":"2026-08-13T00:40:20","slug":"teachers-union-threatens-to-pull-support-of-nyc-reads-after-poor-reading-scores","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/319952\/","title":{"rendered":"Teachers union threatens to pull support of NYC Reads after poor reading scores"},"content":{"rendered":"

The head of New York City\u2019s teachers\u2019 union threatened to yank his support from a major literacy initiative in public schools<\/a>,\u00a0blaming this year\u2019s dismal reading scores on the Mamdani administration prioritizing paperwork over progress.<\/p>\n

The United Federation of Teachers has supported the initiative, known as NYC Reads<\/a>, since it was announced in 2023. The loss of the union\u2019s buy-in would mark a radical shift following last week\u2019s troubling state test results \u2014 which nearly wiped out gains in reading proficiency only a year prior<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not going to support it if they want to implement it the way they did this year,\u201d UFT President Michael Mulgrew said in an interview Wednesday. \u201cIf this administration wants to continue to waste everyone\u2019s time and not get the better results that we know we need, then we\u2019re not going to support it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe like the idea. We\u2019ve been supporting it from the beginning, but somebody\u2019s got to put them in check.\u201d<\/p>\n

The UFT\u2019s explanation for what went wrong with this year\u2019s reading scores is just one of several theories about the dramatic decline. Some experts have said the fluctuations, which were observed statewide, could be a sign of inconsistencies in the standardized tests<\/a> between school years. The Mamdani administration has pointed to data from short, regular assessments known as \u201cscreeners,\u201d which have continued to suggest that students are becoming better readers.<\/p>\n

The city\u2019s Department of Education disputed the UFT\u2019s characterization of the changes under the Mamdani administration, which they said were limited to the introduction of new interventions aimed at struggling learners.<\/p>\n

Mayor Mamdani and his schools chancellor, Kamar Samuels, have so far pledged to stay the course with NYC Reads. As part of the initiative, the school system has been phasing in mandated curriculum over the last few school years at all elementary schools and slowly expanding it to middle schools. NYC Reads is set to launch in some high schools for the first time next school year.<\/p>\n

\"Schools<\/p>\n

Barry Williams \/ New York Daily News<\/p>\n

Schools Chancellor Kamar Samuels is pictured on March 5, 2026. (Barry Williams \/ New York Daily News)<\/p>\n

The UFT said it continues to support literacy curriculum rooted in the \u201cscience of reading,\u201d<\/a> a research-backed approach to reading instruction focused on phonics and reading comprehension, and professional development for teachers.<\/p>\n

However, Mulgrew took issue with supplemental programs that he said were recently added to the main literacy curriculum, which the union boss said were \u201ccontradictory\u201d and \u201cnot designed to be used with each other.\u201d The DOE disputed the programs are new or required by NYC Reads.<\/p>\n

The UFT said the Mamdani administration also reinstated an \u201cold way\u201d and \u201cpaperwork\u201d\u00a0that had been relaxed under former Mayor Adams\u2019 second chancellor, Melissa Aviles-Ramos<\/a>. That gave teachers more flexibility in the classroom to personalize instruction to students\u2019 current skills and abilities, he said, while the DOE maintains there have been no changes to regular assessments or the pace of the curriculum.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat happened was this year, the new administration came in, and even though we were doing really well, we saw it went right back to the old way, which is: How do we produce more paperwork?\u201d Mulgrew said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s why a couple months ago I started telling everybody in the administration (and) DOE that we would not get the same test scores \u2014 which turned out to be true.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

Shutterstock<\/p>\n

The New York State Education Department building in Albany. (Shutterstock)<\/p>\n

Dominique Ellison, a spokeswoman for the DOE, disputed the union\u2019s assessment<\/p>\n

\u201cMr. Mulgrew is wrong,\u201d she said. \u201cThere are no new pacing or reporting requirements for NYC Reads. This evidence-based approach has been lauded by education experts across the country, and our screener data is showing it works, which is exactly why our administration expanded it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe remain focused on teaching our kids to read,\u201d Ellison added.<\/p>\n

Data released Friday showed that just half \u2014 50.3% \u2014 of all students in grades 3 through 8 scored as proficient in reading \u2014 a drop from about 56% the school year before. Alarmingly, results for the youngest students, third graders, in particular, plunged 14 points, with only 44% scoring proficient in the subject. This year\u2019s results marked the first time that third graders were required to take the test on a computer.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0six-percentage-point tumble practically erased a seven-percentage-point<\/a>\u00a0jump the prior year<\/a>, which the Adams administration at the time said was proof that NYC Reads was delivering results for children.<\/p>\n

The dramatic swings in literacy proficiency have sent shockwaves through the education community<\/a>. Both the city and state education departments have promised to study the results.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese results raise important questions and deserve careful, rigorous analysis so we can ensure we\u2019re measuring what students are learning,\u201d Samuels said in a statement Friday.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe (New York State Education) Department takes this decline seriously and will conduct a detailed analysis to better understand where students are experiencing challenges, which student groups and communities have been most affected, and where additional support and resources are needed,\u201d spokesman J.P. O\u2019Hare said in a statement last Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Independent auditors conduct two reviews of state exams each year; none have found issues with past tests, according to the state education agency.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The head of New York City\u2019s teachers\u2019 union threatened to yank his support from a major literacy initiative…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":319953,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[67,85,267,9,24,264,11,10,12],"class_list":["post-319952","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-education","tag-latest-headlines","tag-local-news","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-county","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/319952","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=319952"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/319952\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/319953"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=319952"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=319952"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=319952"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}