I suppose we’d been warned, weeks ago, that the New York City Department of Education was watching us. So I shouldn’t have been surprised by the voice mail from Commissioner Joel Klein’s personal assistant (a woman with a lovely British accent) that arrived just hours after I wrote this post.

As you may recall, I tweaked Commissioner Klein for refusing to admit that his “Balanced Literacy” reading program in use across the district was a fraud.

Well.

We connected late yesterday, and Joel voiced his strong disagreement. Didn’t I know that New York City and Boston both got better reading results at the fourth-grade level than any other city—and that they both use balanced literacy? Didn’t I see the latest research (referring to this What Works Clearinghouse review) showing that Open Court and Reading Mastery are lacking in evidence of effectiveness? He argued that New York City is actually doing quite well, thank you, in the decoding department, as indicated by strong fourth-grade reading scores. Where it falls down (as illustrated by poor eighth-grade scores) is in helping students develop comprehension. And that’s why he’s become boosterish on Core Knowledge as a way to help his kids learn content. If the pilot is successful and they “get implementation right,” he intends to take it to scale.

At first blush this all makes sense, particularly the reading comprehension part, except for his claims about New York City and Boston. According to the National Assessment of Educational Progress, neither New York City nor Boston made statistically significant progress in fourth-grade reading from 2003 to 2007—the years that most closely overlap with Klein’s reforms. (See graphic below.) That was also the case for low-income, black, and Hispanic children. Maybe Klein is still trying to take credit for the progress made from 2002-2003—progress that happened before his reforms were implemented.

So I appreciate the call, Commissioner, but I continue to worry that New York City’s students are not getting the early reading instruction they need. Thankfully the Core Knowledge program you are piloting also has a scientifically-based reading component for young kids, so at least 1,000 students will be getting the strong start they deserve. By all means, get the implementation right, and then take it to scale as fast as possible—that is, if you want to see actual gains in student achievement.