Staff Reports
New York’s own education department did what the public has been waiting for: it released the hard numbers. The New York State Education Department’s final school accountability determinations and the Grades 3–8 assessment results make clear that far too many children are not reading at grade level. If Albany’s answer is more committees and more cash with the same players in charge, parents should be worried — and voters should be angry.
What the NYSED data actually shows about reading scores
The NYSED report puts the statewide Grades 3–8 English Language Arts proficiency rate right around the low‑50s, with elementary grades clustered in the mid‑50s (Grade 3 about 54%, Grade 4 about 54%, Grade 5 about 57%, and the overall Grades 3–8 figure near 53%). The agency also issued final accountability determinations for the 2025–26 school year and identified a group of schools that need extra help — including 17 schools newly designated for receivership. Commissioner Betty A. Rosa and the department say they will offer targeted technical assistance, but let’s be blunt: numbers this low are not a call for nicer PowerPoint slides. They are a call for real change.
Why the same old fixes won’t cut it
Everyone has an excuse. Union leaders congratulate teachers for “working hard,” while political officials pat themselves on the back for spending more money. Meanwhile, classroom results tell a different story: too many kids can’t read well enough to learn anything else. Bureaucratic plans like “NY Inspires,” and endless compliance memos about attestation and curriculum alignment, are not the same thing as boots‑on‑the‑ground teaching. Add a culture of weak discipline, devices that replace books, and parents who shrug, and you get a perfect storm of failure. If we double down on the same people and processes that produced these scores, expect the same outcome.
Real solutions: accountability, school choice, and the science of reading
Start with accountability. If a school fails kids, it should face real consequences — closure, receivership, or replacement of leadership. Stop protecting ineffective teachers with lifetime tenure and opaque evaluation systems. Expand school choice so that parents can get their children out of failing buildings; vouchers and charter options are not a conspiracy, they’re an escape hatch. Require genuine literacy instruction grounded in the “science of reading,” not the latest education fad. Finally, bring common‑sense discipline back into classrooms, push back on screen addiction, and reward teachers who actually raise achievement, not those who shuffle paperwork to avoid blame.
New York’s reading crisis is not inevitable. It’s the product of policy choices and protected institutions that have little incentive to change. The NYSED data gives us the truth we need to act. Politicians can spin it, unions can grumble, and bureaucrats can redraw charts — or leaders can give parents real options, demand true accountability, and treat literacy like the emergency it is. Voters should remember which side chose outcomes over excuses when the next election comes around.
