Year 1 Report: Sowing the Seeds for Literacy to Flourish
After the ambitious New York City Reads initiative's first year, data released in August 2024 revealed a rare bright spot: Harlem Community School District 5 made up significant ground, hitting its highest literacy rates in decades. We explore what may have led to these results and made District 5 one of only 3 districts to see positive results.
Visit the Partnership PageA new case study, “Harlem Community District 5: Sowing the Seeds for Leadership to Flourish,” unpacks the investments that likely contributed to historic literacy improvements in one year.
We explore an innovative partnership between New York City Public Schools and Leading Educators to support the implementation of HMH Into Reading through ongoing professional learning, side-by-side teacher coaching, and leadership capacity building.
Promising Signs of Impact
Year 1 Results At-A-Glance
District 5 was one of just three NYC districts to show literacy gains on the 2024 state exams. More detailed data from iReady reveals similar trends:
- By the end of the 2023-24 school year, all grades saw proficiency at least double on iReady, and four schools increased iReady scores by over 30 percentage points from the beginning to the end of the year.
- Kindergarten and 1st grade showed the largest changes in students scoring at or above grade level on iReady with 43 and 33 percentage point increases, respectively.
Using quasi-experimental methods carefully reviewed by external researchers, we found compelling evidence of impact, including a 97% chance the program had a positive impact and a nearly 70% chance it was larger than 0.10 standard deviations. Achieving this level of confidence in a program effect of this size after using state-of-the-art quasi-experimental methods is particularly impressive in the first year of a new curriculum.
Dr. Dawn Brooks DeCosta, the deputy superintendent, shares:
There’s a real focus, more fidelity, and integrity with the use of the curriculum. We see much more cohesion across and even within each school, so it’s not like going to a different school every time you walk into a different room.
It’s still a work in progress, but I feel like we’re light years ahead of where we were, and we’re seeing the impact on student outcomes in a positive way.”
Download the Report
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Are you looking for curriculum-based support that goes beyond unboxing to actually move practice? Are you thinking about new ways to drive a culture of literacy in your community? Let’s talk.
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