In the urgent debate about how to teach children to read in American schools, no one is more central than literacy professor and curriculum entrepreneur Lucy Calkins.
For 40 years, her organization, Teachers College Reading and Writing Project, and her widely purchased curriculum have inspired many educators. But there was also fierce backlash.Critics said Dr. Calkins downplayed and ignored phonics. huge amount of scientific research About how children become better readers.
According to recent reports, her group has now been disbanded by Columbia University Teachers College. announcement. Her organization, based on campus and consisting of a nonprofit chapter and several private companies, has for years shared a portion of its consulting and publication revenue with the university.
This marks the end of an era for Teachers College and perhaps another setback for Balanced Literacy, a difficult movement of which Dr. Calkins is one of its prominent leaders. be.
“Going forward, TC looks forward to fostering dialogue and collaboration between different evidence-based approaches to reading and writing, and ensuring that our programs align with the needs of the teachers and school districts we wish to partner with.” It is written in
Dr. Calkins, 71, remains a tenured professor on sabbatical. Last week, she announced the creation of her new company, Mossflower Reading and Writing Project, to continue her consulting work with schools. A number of staff members from Teachers College will join the new independent organization.
The severance of ties between Teachers College and Dr. Calkins comes amid intense political pressure on schools to better align teacher training and research.
From 2019 onwards, 42 states Passed legislation requiring schools and teacher training programs to use research-backed reading strategies.
These bills posed a challenge to Dr. Calkins and her organization.
Some people criticize her ideas cognitive scientist and instructional Expertsaid her curriculum was circumvented. Decades of established research, often called the science of reading. This body of research suggests that direct, carefully sequenced instruction in phonics, vocabulary building, and comprehension is more effective for young readers than Dr. Calkins’ instruction. a more gradual approach.
Her curriculum included teachers delivering “mini-lessons” on reading strategies while also allowing students plenty of time for silent reading and the freedom to choose their own books. Her supporters say these methods empower children, but critics say they waste valuable class time and allow students to become absorbed in texts that are too easy. are doing.
Some of the practices she once favored, such as having children guess words using context clues such as the first letter or illustrations, now Untrustworthy.
In the past three years, several prominent school districts, including the nation’s largest, New York City, have discontinued her program, although it remains widely used.
Kellyanne O’Meara, Teachers College’s new vice president for academic affairs, said in an interview that the school is parting ways with Dr. Calkins’ consulting group this summer as part of an effort to reorganize its broader reading efforts. He said he had decided. order. The university hopes to hire new faculty with more expertise in the cognitive science of reading and possibly launch a new training program for teachers online, she said.
“When you set up a center or institute, the work can get big and a little bit siloed,” Dr. O’Meara said. “There are a lot of ways we are looking at how we can improve.”
The school said some of Dr. Calkins’ former lieutenants will remain at the university, where they will create a new department called “Literacy Advancement” to train teachers in a broader range of curriculum and practices.
Dr. Calkins declined an interview request. In an email to the New York Times, she said, “It renews my commitment to working collaboratively with school teachers, away from the complexities that come with being part of a large university.” As a method, we established a new company.” ”
She also launched Rebalancing Literacy, a website that addresses what she claims are misconceptions about her work and reading research.
In recent years, Dr. Calkins and his colleagues have argued strongly that while phonics is important, policymakers and the media are overemphasizing it to the detriment of instruction that focuses on other reading skills. ing.
Still, in a 2022 interview with The New York Times, Dr. Calkins admitted that he has learned from his critics. For years, she was completely immersed in the elementary school classroom, she said, and she was not focused on cognitive science research. “I don’t think she thought about the MRI machine as part of her way of getting to know her readers,” she said.
At universities across the country, curriculum and instructional leaders rarely work closely with brain science experts, who often don’t translate that knowledge into classroom materials.
Rachel Gabriel, a literacy professor at the University of Connecticut, said the problem is a two-way street. For science academics, there may be little professional reward for partnering with elementary school teachers, she says.
Dr. Calkins holds a Ph.D. He earned a doctorate in English education and began his career as a writing professional. She bases her ideas about reading primarily on the work of New Zealand literacy theorist Marie Clay and Ohio State University education professors Eileen Fountas and Gay Sue Pinel, who have published curriculum , which has also been criticized.
All educators have balanced literacy skills, which dominant At a university of education that trains teachers for the country.
This year, Dr. Calkins released a new version of his reading curriculum for early elementary grades. It includes structured phonics and provides young children with books that include richer history and science content. While some longtime critics saw the changes as a step forward, it’s unclear how many schools actually adopted the new materials.
The move did little to quell the debate surrounding her and balanced broader literacy.
Timothy Shanahan, a leading literacy expert and professor emeritus at the University of Illinois at Chicago, said the split between Dr. Calkins’ consulting group and Teachers College is a reminder of a common problem in academia. Ta. It will be closely related to the faculty’s business entity.
He praised the university’s commitment to a diverse approach to reading, saying: “That’s exactly what a university should be.”
Mark Seidenberg, a neuroscientist and reading expert at the University of Wisconsin who has long criticized Dr. Calkins’ ideas, warned that there is a long way to go.
“At a place like Teachers College, you have the opportunity to really contribute something, but that means stepping outside established boundaries,” he said, adding that psychology, cognitive science, He mentioned the need to hire faculty with the expertise to read through a linguistic lens. “It was easier to identify what went wrong with previous approaches like Calkins and understand what to do next.”
