Mapping the Reading Improvement Sector in New York City The Role of External Support Providers in Improving K-3 Reading Outcomes

This report shares the results of a project designed to help build the collective capacity and increase the impact of the external support providers working to improve K-3 reading outcomes in New York City public elementary schools. In the first phase of the project, we identified all the programs in what we call the K-3 reading improvement sector in NYC 2014-15. In the second phase, we examined the extent to which a sample of these programs have the goals, resources, and personnel to improve reading outcomes system-wide. In the third phase, we mapped the relationships among a sample of programs in the sector in 2016-17, the sources they rely on to support their work, and the NYC schools with whom they partner. Making these relationships visible shows the extent to which students from different backgrounds and schools can get access to information, resources, and expertise, and the extent to which programs are in a position to increase their collective impact through coordination and collaboration. Among the findings: Over 100 programs are working in the K-3 Reading Improvement Sector in NYC The sample programs in the sector focus on a wide range of reading-related goals, but a limited number of programs have demonstrated effectiveness Twenty-six sample programs are connected to 161 different schools comprising 16% of all elementary schools in NYC (including 28% of the elementary schools in the Bronx and 26% of the elementary schools in Manhattan); and the programs are partnering with schools with relatively high levels of need in terms of both performance and poverty Just over half of the sample programs describe themselves as collaborating or partnering with at least one other sample program, but almost half were not in regular contact with any other sample program Sample programs received support from 57 different funders and 75 different sources for literacy expertise with little overlap These results suggest that sector programs have the goals, services, and personnel that could help improve K-3 reading outcomes in New York City; they have the connections to share resources and expertise with a large percentage of elementary schools; and several clusters of connected programs could serve as a powerful force for increased focus and collaboration in reading improvement across the city. However, the collective impact of the sector suffers from the evidence that goals vary considerably. Student and teacher programs differ in terms of their goals and personnel, and only a few programs have had formal outside evaluations completed. In addition, many of the sample programs in the sector are working in isolation from other sample programs and are informed by a wide range of sources of funding and expertise that are themselves likely to be only loosely connected. Although the clusters of collaborating and frequently connected programs could serve as a basis for expansion within the sector, the unconnected programs and the disparate sources of funding and expertise suggest that explicit strategies will need to be developed to support greater coherence in the sector and to increase the effectiveness of the sector overall

Constructing the Literate Child in the Library: An Analysis of School Library Standards

I examine one set of elementary school library standards (New York City School Library System, n.d.) in an effort to analyze the impact that the standards might have on literacy experiences for young children in one urban school setting. Employing a critical discourse analysis framework, I examine the language that the Empire State Information Fluency Continuum uses to privilege certain kinds of knowledge construction. Focusing on the descriptions of knowledge, inquiry, and informational literacy constructed by the standards, I argue that the Information Fluency Continuum perpetuates notions of literacy and inquiry that are linear and hierarchical. I argue that educator conceptions of inquiry, engagements with texts, and social responsibility practices must be widened. Rather than expecting students to follow a sequential set of steps, libraries might be a space where students are given agency to decide when and how they would engage in literacy and pursue inquiries

The School Library as an Other Space: A Case Study into Literacy and Identity

This study builds on research conducted in classrooms by proposing that literacy happens in a range of school spaces that educational research has traditionally left unattended, such as lunchrooms, hallways, and libraries. Libraries are one space, of many, in schools where literacy “happens,” despite the paucity of information about this complex space. This study explored the library as situated within a disagreement about how libraries should be utilized—either as democratic sites that provide access to a range of texts, or as sites of direct instruction in standards-aligned informational literacy. Informed by a spatial framework, this study investigated one school library to trace which literacy practices circulated in the space through observations, spatial maps, semi-structured interviews, and artifact analysis. Findings included the library functioning as a liminal space, where competing ideas about literacy circulated. Focal students demonstrated dominant notions of what “counted” as literacy, in that they engaged in discourses that were privileged within established conceptions of schooling. However, there were also pockets of playfulness, where the space began to “crack” and gave way to a construction that was fluid, interrupting expected literacy practices. In a context where classrooms continue to become constrained, alongside reduced funding for library programs, the diversity of literacy experiences that students can encounter decreases. Discovering what is possible in one space can offer fruitful discussion around the potential of school libraries, and other spaces for literacy, to strengthen literacy experiences in schools for our students who are most implicated by narrow definitions of literacy

Constructing the Literate Child in the Library: An Analysis of School Library Standards

I examine one set of elementary school library standards (New York City School Library System, n.d.) in an effort to analyze the impact that the standards might have on literacy experiences for young children in one urban school setting. Employing a critical discourse analysis framework, I examine the language that the Empire State Information Fluency Continuum uses to privilege certain kinds of knowledge construction. Focusing on the descriptions of knowledge, inquiry, and informational literacy constructed by the standards, I argue that the Information Fluency Continuum perpetuates notions of literacy and inquiry that are linear and hierarchical. I argue that educator conceptions of inquiry, engagements with texts, and social responsibility practices must be widened. Rather than expecting students to follow a sequential set of steps, libraries might be a space where students are given agency to decide when and how they would engage in literacy and pursue inquiries