Mayor Adams’ Education Legacy

Adams’ most significant educational achievement will be his overhaul of New York City’s reading curriculum.

Mayor Eric Adams. Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office

The role of a mayor in charge of education in a large city is twofold: ensuring students are learning and keeping the public school system financially and operationally sound. Mayor Eric Adams will be remembered for progress in the first area, and mistakes in the second.

During the pandemic, Adams largely continued his predecessor’s policies, including school masking. It is now widely acknowledged that keeping students masked until March 2022, and toddlers in preschools until the end of June that year, was a mistake.

He will also be remembered for failing to tackle the Department of Education’s expenses. Despite steep enrollment declines, the DOE budget grew at least $1 billion annually throughout his administration, and per-pupil costs are projected to reach $42,000 this year, the highest in the nation.

Adams repeatedly warned about the financial strain of the state’s new class-size law, which mandates smaller teacher-to-student ratios, and about the disruptions caused by the arrival of over 48,000 migrant students. But he ultimately dropped his opposition to the class-size mandate, even as the growing immigration crisis strained city resources.

Adams’ most significant educational achievement will be his overhaul of New York City’s reading curriculum, correcting the mistake of relying on balanced literacy for over 20 years.

From the start, Adams and Banks prioritized early literacy, focusing on students with dyslexia and other reading challenges. The first school Chancellor Banks visited was Bridge Prep Charter School in Staten Island — a model for supporting students with reading disabilities.

In 2022, the administration announced a universal dyslexia screening plan and opened two schools inspired by Bridge Prep’s approach: South Bronx Literacy Academy and Central Brooklyn Literacy Academy. The effort was deeply personal for Adams, who is dyslexic and has spoken about his own challenges of learning to read.

In 2023, Adams and Chancellor David Banks launched NYC Reads, requiring all districts to adopt one of three curricula grounded in cognitive science and linguistic research, known as the science of reading. The initiative also provides coaching and professional development to help teachers successfully implement the new curriculum.

With this decision, Adams aligned New York City with the most successful efforts to improve reading instruction in the country.

Not everyone agrees with all aspects of NYC Reads. Curriculum experts questioned the inclusion of Into Reading as an approved option, noting that it did not earn high marks from The Reading League. Yet 22 of the city’s 32 districts chose it. Even so, Into Reading represents a clear improvement over the Lucy Calkins balanced literacy curriculum.

Early signs are positive: reading proficiency rates rose by 7.2% after implementation. Education advocates hope the momentum continues. Tim Castanza, founder of Bridge Prep, urged future administrations to “commit to high-quality teacher training and development,” while Robert Pondiscio of the American Enterprise Institute warned that real results will take sustained effort: “NYC Reads is a long game.”

Thankfully, the new Chancellor Kamar Samuels said he will “double down” on NYC Reads. The question now is whether the new administration will tackle the problematic Into Reading curriculum and continue the investments in teacher training and continuous improvement of the program.

New York’s choices resonate far beyond the city. Kareem Weaver, now a national literacy advocate with the NAACP and featured in “The Right to Read,” recalls when New York’s adoption of balanced literacy in the early 2000s prompted Oakland, where he taught and where a phonics-based curriculum was showing promising results, to follow suit.

“It does matter what New York City does,” Weaver says. He believes Adams’ decision to adopt a science-based reading curriculum could have a nationwide ripple effect: “It’s bigger than New York. Everybody fell off a cliff following balanced literacy.”

There is plenty to criticize about Adams’ tenure in education. But we should praise his courage in addressing the reading crisis in NYC and correcting the mistake of adopting balanced literacy.

Let’s hope Mayor Mamdani learns from the lessons Adams leaves behind.