Abstract
The widespread implementation of “science of reading” policies across national and local contexts in the past few years is yet another chapter in the reading wars (Preston, 2022; Thomas, 2024; Goldberg & Goldenberg, 2022). This is not the first time that a national panic about literacy has incited fierce debates over how best to teach reading. Since the publication of “Why Johnny Can’t Read” in 1955, the question of “how, when and how much phonics instruction” has been hotly contested among scholars and practitioners (Thomas, 2024; Flesch & Sloan, 1955). However, the current literacy policy landscape--in the wake of the neo-liberal education reform of the late 1990s and early 2000s-- is distinguished by top-down initiatives, increased accountability structures, and the proliferation of commercial curricula, all on a scale that was inconceivable in previous iterations of the reading wars. Notably absent from the current “science of reading” discourse and related policy are student voices and experiences. This article begins to fill the void through a case study of a group of parents and students in a progressive, public school in New York City when a top-down literacy program was introduced on a city-wide scale. It highlights how a particular group of students responded to a prescriptive commercial curriculum mandated in the name of the “science of reading” and explores what students learned about literacy and democracy in the process. This case study suggests that students as young as eleven and twelve have valuable insights to offer educators and policy makers, both locally and nationally, about what makes a literacy curriculum meaningful and effective.
Author Biography
Alina Lewis
Alina Lewis is a New York City public school parent and a former New York City public school teacher and administrator. She holds a PhD in Educational Theory and Practice and conducts research in adolescent history education and civic education. She is a local education advocate and an elected member of the District 20 Community Education Council in South Brooklyn.
Recommended Citation
Lewis, A.
(2026).
"This curriculum has no real reading:" A case study of student activism in response to a centralized curriculum mandate.
Occasional Paper Series,
(55).
DOI: https://doi.org/10.58295/2375-3668.1582