The Curriculum That Turned Millions of Kids Into Struggling Readers

Lucy Calkins' Units of Study curriculum was created under the auspices of Teachers College at Columbia University and removed from New York City public schools in a two-year process ending in 2025.

This New York Magazine article explains how and why that curriculum failed to teach so many children how to read. It was written almost 20 years before the demise of Units of Study, which shows how long it took the NYC Department of Education to come to its senses.

Why parents should know this history

Many children who struggled under balanced-literacy instruction were not incapable of reading. They had not been directly taught the code. That distinction is important because parents can often help children catch up with systematic phonics practice, decodable books, and short daily lessons.

If your child has been told to look at the picture, guess what would make sense, or memorize words instead of sounding them out, begin with the phonics assessment and the how to teach a child to read guide.