{"id":204417,"date":"2026-05-28T11:53:14","date_gmt":"2026-05-28T11:53:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/204417\/"},"modified":"2026-05-28T11:53:14","modified_gmt":"2026-05-28T11:53:14","slug":"nyc-curriculum-finder-shows-what-students-learn-in-reading-classes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/204417\/","title":{"rendered":"NYC curriculum finder shows what students learn in reading classes"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sign up for Chalkbeat New York\u2019s free daily newsletter<\/a> to get essential news about NYC\u2019s public schools delivered to your inbox.<\/p>\n

Is your child learning about animal behavior, how the 19th Amendment was ratified, or Japanese internment during World War II?<\/p>\n

A new tool quietly launched by New York City\u2019s Education Department gives families and the broader public a window into the topics students are learning about in English language arts classes at any given time. It also serves up free digital books connected to the specific unit students are learning about.<\/p>\n

The platform, known as the NYC Reads Curriculum Finder<\/a>, includes a trove of information about what elementary school and some middle school students are learning in English classes down to the school and grade level. It displays questions students are learning about \u2014 \u201cwhat does it take to make a successful invention?\u201d in one third grade unit \u2014 as well as the types of materials students are using, such as biographies, films, poems, and opinion pieces. <\/p>\n

The curriculum finder is part of a broader push<\/a> to ensure students are building on their literacy skills outside of school. Officials hope the database will give caregivers, educators, and after-school providers an easy way to boost students\u2019 vocabulary and background knowledge, which research suggests<\/a> is an important element of reading comprehension. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to democratize this information about what curriculum a school is using and what a student is learning,\u201d said Jennifer Ramos, an official at the Center for Public Research and Leadership at Columbia Law School, the organization that took the lead in creating the tool in partnership with the Education Department. \u201cEveryone can look it up and say, \u2018Okay, kindergartners in this district are learning about trees.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

The tool is tied to the city\u2019s reading curriculum mandate<\/a> that requires all elementary schools, and eventually all middle schools<\/a>, to use city-approved reading programs<\/a>. Educators are expected to follow pacing guides, making it possible to track what topics students are learning about at precise times throughout the year. Schools were previously allowed to pick their own curriculums and hundreds of schools used a program that was discredited by reading experts<\/a>. <\/p>\n

We’re on a need-to-know basis.<\/p>\n

Every weekday morning, Chalkbeat New York is bringing thousands of subscribers the news on public schools and education policy that they need to start their day. Sign up for our free newsletter to join them.<\/p>\n

The curriculum finder \u2014 which was developed in partnership with the city\u2019s Department of Youth and Community Development and the nonprofit organization ExpandED Schools \u2014 is still a work in progress. Many elementary schools appear to have no curriculum information listed, the tool\u2019s search functions do not always work seamlessly or display correct information, and it was out of commission in recent days as officials worked to make updates.<\/p>\n

An Education Department spokesperson said the tool is in an \u201cimprovement phase\u201d and officials are \u201cimproving completeness and accuracy of school listings.\u201d Users can also submit reports of missing information or other feedback directly on the site. <\/p>\n

An early target for the tool is after-school providers and community organizations, who have long struggled to sync their programming to what students are learning during the school day in part because reading curriculums were historically not consistent between schools or even from classroom to classroom. <\/p>\n

Ashley Jones, who helps supervise free after-school programs operated by the Coalition for Hispanic Family Services, said staffers have sometimes relied on informal hallway conversations with teachers or gleaning clues from students\u2019 homework to get a sense of what\u2019s going on in classrooms. <\/p>\n

\u201cSchools are busy \u2014 we\u2019re all busy,\u201d Jones said. It can be difficult to find time to coordinate with students\u2019 classroom teachers and the curriculum finder tool could help bridge that gap, she added.<\/p>\n

Despite some glitches, Jones said the organization has started to experiment with the tool and is thinking about how to encourage her staff to incorporate it as they plan for next school year. She hopes the next step is more training for after-school staff to support student literacy, even as her program\u2019s goal is not to simply extend the school day.<\/p>\n

Other providers have yet to hear about the tool.<\/p>\n

Emily Kirven, who runs Read 718<\/a>, a Brooklyn-based organization that provides tutoring to hundreds of struggling readers, said she is \u201cexcited to play around with it.\u201d<\/p>\n

To access books that are connected to what students are learning in class, families must log in with their Education Department accounts, which could create a barrier for her staff accessing the materials, Kirven said. But she noted that it would still be useful to know what topics students are learning about because the organization likely has books on hand that tie in to the relevant topic. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt just would be helpful knowing what they\u2019re doing in different grades of different schools so that we can continue to better align our instruction.\u201d<\/p>\n

Alex Zimmerman is a senior reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Alex at azimmerman@chalkbeat.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sign up for Chalkbeat New York\u2019s free daily newsletter to get essential news about NYC\u2019s public schools delivered…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":204418,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[29858,8216,29857,28383,9794,29856,29859,29855,8780,736,128,130,129,6984,3315],"class_list":["post-204417","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-reading","tag-and-the-schools-principal-yael-leopold","tag-book","tag-chancellor-banks","tag-class","tag-classroom","tag-deputy-chancellor-carolyne-quintana","tag-harlem","tag-p-s-125-the-ralph-bunche-school","tag-read","tag-reading","tag-reading-city","tag-reading-city-headlines","tag-reading-city-news","tag-student","tag-students"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204417","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=204417"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204417\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/204418"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=204417"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=204417"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=204417"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}