The Brooklyn School of Inquiry, a K-8 gifted and talented program known as BSI, gained permission to not adopt Chancellor David Banks’ signature literacy initiative requiring all elementary schools use one of three city-approved reading curriculums.
According to Chalkbeat New York, the decision to grant a waiver comes at a crucial moment. Nearly half of the city’s 32 local school districts adopted new curriculums this school year, and all districts must do so by September.
The move by BSI may prompt other school communities to ask for an exemption, the news outlet said.
Banks has stated the city can improve literacy rates by mandating schools use a small number of vetted programs, as many schools have used popular curriculums that have now been discredited. Many literacy experts and advocacy groups, including the city’s teachers union, support the effort by the DOE.
Students and families from BSI, however, have repeatedly shown up at public meetings to critique their school’s new curriculum, created by the company Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Read more about it on Chalkbeat New York.
