Alexander Russo:

The big education story of the week is the negative effects of inadequate literacy instruction on parental trust — and the lack of sufficient coverage needed to cover the literacy reform effort. 

What’s being attempted in NYC and many other parts of the nation is one of the biggest education stories of the decade. “No major metropolitan school district has ever managed to raise reading achievement at scale — or to make higher test scores stick,” writes Robert Pondiscio in a sobering overview of NYC Reads in the outlet Commentary. 

Researchers, school systems, and publishers responsible for the prolonged use of discredited methods and materials are — not surprisingly — trying to avoid accountability. Nineteen different Teachers College colleagues declined to comment or didn’t bother to respond, including the discredited former head of the program, according to the Columbia Spectator’s Sabrina Ticer-Wurr. To block Ohio’s efforts to improve literacy, Reading Recovery is suing Ohio, reports EdWeek’s Sarah Schwartz.

And yet parents and the general public still know precious little about how their kids and their schools’ efforts are going, week in and week out. “It’s no accident that Moms for Liberty has embraced the ‘science of reading’ movement,” writes NYC parent and journalist Kendra Hurley in Slate. “Reading instruction drove a wedge between me and my kids’ teachers.”