Transcript: Mayor Adams, Chancellor Aviles-Ramos Expand Signature Initiatives NYC Reads And NYC Solves, Continue to Strengthen Literacy and Math Instruction In New York City

April 21, 2025

Wendy St. Juste, Principal, Dock Street School: Good morning, everyone. And welcome back to what I hope was a restful spring break. Today, you are [here] on this exciting day and a warm welcome to all our cabinet members, deputy chancellors, elected officials, superintendents, administrators, principals, teachers, families, and students. My name is Wendy St. Juste, and I am the proud principal of the Dock Street School for STEAM Studies in District 13. 

I am honored to be joined by our mayor, Eric Adams, and our school's chancellor, Ms. Melissa Aviles-Ramos, who we will hear from soon. Today, we will hear an important announcement on a critical update to our New York City Solves and New York City Reads initiatives. I'd like to take a moment to personally thank our mayor, chancellor, and leadership for continuing to emphasize the importance of reading and mathematics proficiency for our young people. Here is our wonderful mayor, Eric Adams.

Mayor Eric Adams: Thanks so much, Wendy. And thank all of you. You know, we often, on our walk on music, we say there are two types of people, “Those who live in New York and those who wish they could.” New York is a special place, and I think sometimes we forget that. No one wakes up in some small town somewhere and say, “Hey, I want to go to another small town.” People wake up wanting to be in New York. And everything is big here. 

When I sit down with my colleagues across the country, mayors, they debate about who's number two and number three, and they look at me and smile because they know New York is number one. And if we are the best city on the globe, then our educators are the best educators on the globe. Our police are the best police on the globe. Our Fire Department is the best Fire Department on the globe. Our students are the best students on the globe. 

Everyone mimics us. Everyone wants to be like us. It's not everyone, I want to be like Mike. I want to be like New York City. This is a place where dreams come alive and a diversity, the accumulation of all of the cultures from all over the globe come here and make this special product. In the New York City Public Schools, our children come together and they bring together all of the things that they learned in their environment. 

This is a place where you don't hang around those who look like you, talk like you, walk like you, eat the same food, listen to the same music. That is not who we are. Who we are is, as David Dinkins once stated, “We're the great mosaic.” That's our special product. That's our secret weapon. And nothing brings out the importance of that secret weapon than our educators, allowing these young minds to develop their full personhood, not only to be academically smart, but to be emotionally intelligent, to face the challenges that they're going to face. And it's real. 

And teachers inspire, teachers encourage, teachers help us grow. As a young man who was dyslexic and was mimicked every time I read and stumbled over the words and people laughed at me, mocked me,  called me names and [calling me a] dumb student. It was my teachers who sat down and embraced me and hugged me and talked to me and encouraged me. And it's because of them I am who I am today. 

And that is why we have to give our young people the opportunities that they deserve. And we're pouring everything that we have into New York City public schools, from paying our teachers and principals a salary that they deserve to show that we respect them, to making sure we have a clean, safe environment with our school safety agents and with our New York City Police Departments and partners, and making sure we have an authentic leader at the helm in our chancellor and what she brings to the table and her commitment and dedication. 

And so I know firsthand how important education is. Do you know when I go to Rikers Island, I've been on Rikers Island visiting inmates and correction officers more than any man in the history of this city. And when I walk into a room of young people and I ask, “How many of you have a learning disability?” 80 percent for the most part, will raise their hand. 

You know, 30 to 40 percent of the people on Rikers Island have learning disabilities. Just think about that for a moment. The crime is not what they committed on the street. The crime is that we betrayed them and not diagnosing their learning disability so they didn't feel dumb, but they just learned differently. Every one of those inmates could have been a mayor if we would have given them the tools that they needed. Well, you know what? We're going to give them the tools that they needed in this administration. 

You know, many things have changed from the times that I sat in the classroom, and too many children are still being left behind. We're dealing with the issue of chronically absentees. We're dealing with the issues of mental health concerns. We're dealing with the issues of bullying. We're dealing with so many issues, but we can overcome them, and students in urban and suburban districts across the country are reading at an inexcusable level. Look at those numbers. 

When you leave here today, go Google the reading levels of Detroit, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco. Just look across the country [at] what our children are reading at. They're not inherently born with an inability to read and learn. Something goes wrong by the time they leave their mother's womb and by the time they graduate from high school. We've missed something in between, and we have to address that. 

Our administration sees this crisis in urgency and focus, and we're going to take clear steps, bold steps. We're going to be unafraid to try things new and differently to get a better product. We can't continue to do the same things that we have been always doing and expecting to get better results. That is just not going to happen. 

So we are building on the success of the proven reading and math curriculum that built the foundational skills students need. Our New York City Reads program has used a back-to-basics phonics-based system to improve reading across all grade levels. And our New York City Solves curriculum is revitalizing how we teach our children to do math. 

These programs have successfully combined high-impact instructional materials with intensive teacher training and classroom support, and today we are proud to announce that we are expanding both programs. Beginning this Fall, New York City Reads curriculum will now, for the first time, serve 102 middle schools. And New York City Solves will be expanded to an additional 84 middle schools and will be available at a total of 184 middle schools this coming school year and all middle schools citywide by 27-28 school year. 

The results of these programs have been encouraging right from the start. New York City Reads has resulted in a 1.8 point increase in K-2 screening data. And over 57 percent of families have reported an immediate positive impact in their child's reading after engaging with New York City Reads curriculum. Both addressing our educational crisis, it is important that we take clear steps to move forward to educate our children. 

We cannot expect our hard-working teachers to cobble together their own materials in order to teach the most foundational skills in our schools. And we must ensure that every student can develop strong reading and math skills regardless of their background, circumstances, or their zip code. In addition to the new curriculum, this is something that I am so proud that we're doing. I really want to thank the chancellor about this. We [now] have universal dyslexia screening. 

Every time I get an opportunity to talk about it, I'm going to talk about it, you know? Folks, I woke up in the morning and I would drop to my knees and say, “God, please don't make me read.” If I read that day in school, the whole day, they would mimic me in the cafeteria [and] in the gym. They would talk about how I stumbled over words. They would laugh at me. And I just hated going into that classroom. 

Can you imagine a child that's dyslexic thinking he's dumb walking into that room and sitting on the back of that chair? “Dumb student”. It just hurts. It hurts. It hurts. And if we identify it early, that child can know that they just learned differently. If you have your ADD, if you have dyslexia, if you have a learning disability, you learn differently. 

And your skills, if you're just given the opportunity, those skills would allow you to really develop your ability and your creativity. And we're doing that. We're doing dyslexia screening. We're catching our children upstream so we're not pulling them out of the Rikers River downstream. This is huge for what we're doing for a countless number of children that are experiencing learning disability and dyslexia. 

Thank you so much, Chancellor, for doing this. And we created the first ever public school dedicated to supporting students with dyslexia and related learning disabilities. We have expanded access to both pre-K and 3-K. And we're continuing to work to ensure that every child who wants an early childhood education seat will have access to one. 

We have expanded our Summer Rising program offering 110,000 students funding educational program during the Summer months. That learning loss, those of you who are educated, you all know it. You know what happened with the Summer learning loss where these children come back at the end of the summer and they have a real deficit, particularly in communities of color. 

In economic stable communities, those children have a complete plan of what they're doing for the summer. Visiting a museum, taking a trip somewhere, experiencing an educational opportunity. Our children, just the opposite. They don't have any real plan to continue to reinforce and get prepared for the next year. 

Summer Rising is crucial that these children continue to have the opportunities they know. But we go on even further. We added fifty seven gifted and talented programs because we know children excel at a different pace. Built thirty two new schools and added over 26,000 classroom seats through major construction and modernization projects. 

And what I like the most and what is extremely important, we paid teachers the salaries that they deserve. That is so crucial. Nine new schools will open in the coming school year, including a new school focused specifically on healthcare. One of the number one employment opportunities in the future is healthcare. And we are expanding our dual language programs because this chancellor welcomed 40,000 new children from the migrant and asylum seeker population. And every child, regardless of their documentation, should have the ability to be educated. Job well done, chancellor. 

In addition to offering our students a quality education, we are also creating [programs] that help young people prepare for life after school. Every child's not going to go to college right away, [they] may go later. It took me fourteen years to get my master's going at night. But every child has an opportunity to provide for their families. 

So our Future Ready NYC program will connect students to apprenticeships that lead to good paying careers. From plumbing to carpentry to electrician, all these things. I knew I was in the wrong profession, folks, when my [electrician] drove off in a Porsche. Those are good jobs. Don't let anybody kid you. Those are good jobs. But we know that all this must be built on a solid foundation of basic skills of reading and math. 

That is why we continue to expand these successful programs, especially students who learn differently. We want them to have an opportunity. And that equality of opportunity is the mission of this administration. From universal pre-K to our selective high schools and technical training programs, New York City must remain a great place for working class people to raise healthy children and families. 

And it must be a place for opportunities. And that is our mission. That is our calling. That is our north star. If we give these young people an opportunity, they will have a place in our society and [be] able to grow up in the greatest city on the globe. No place like this. No place like our educators. No place like our students. And no place like the place we call our home, New York City. I want to turn it over to our great chancellor, Chancellor Aviles-Ramos. 

Chancellor Melissa Aviles-Ramos, Department of Education: Is this not the best way to come back from the brink? Thank you. I want to thank Mayor Adams for not only leading this great city, but also leaning into his experience as a student. And instead of shying away from that narrative, lifting it up, to remind us that every single student in New York City can and will achieve if they have the right team behind them. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. 

I also want to thank our central team who has been instrumental in making New York City Reads and Solves a success. Deputy Chancellor Dr. Danika Rux and Chief Academic Officer Dr. [Miatheresa Pate]. Their entire team. Our superintendents, who many of them are here today. Big round of applause for all of you. Thank you for being incredible. 

We also have to thank our many partners who help make New York City Solves and Reads a success every single day. Not only our internal folks, but there are some really key external partners. Our advocates, our elected officials, our community-based organizations, many of our parent leaders who are here with us today, and of course our unions. 

When I joined our central team a few years ago, I brought with me years of experience in our classrooms and schools as a high school English teacher and literacy specialist, a principal, and a district leader. And when I became a teacher in 2007, I thought that I was going to walk into my classroom and meet a bunch of eager adolescents who were going to talk about Shakespeare and Toni Morrison and Chaucer, and they were not excited to do any of that. 

But the reason they weren't excited isn't because they didn't have intellectual curiosity or because they couldn't embrace the rich themes that spans across these incredible texts. It's because many of them could not read. It's because they were so scared of everyone learning their secret that at 14, 15, 16, and older, they were not able to decode some simple text, and they certainly struggled with comprehension. This is unacceptable. 

And I stand here, and I think about my own educational journey and the sacrifices that my mother had to make for safety. It wasn't even because the school was any better than a public school, but because she deemed it to be more safe than the other schools. And I think about the mayor's journey, and I think about myself not being diagnosed with ADHD until later on in life, and in many moments feeling like I wasn't good enough. 

I share that narrative with the mayor. And so when we stand here before you and we talk about giving access to our students, it's because we truly understand it. And when I think about my experience as a teacher and how many of my students, because I didn't have the toolbook at the time, they went on to feel like they weren't good enough. 

Many of my students who have reached out to me as chancellor to congratulate me, I have reiterated to them, you are more than good enough. And I stand here proudly as chancellor working with an amazing team of deputy chancellors and superintendents and chiefs and coaches so that we can finally get this right and children don't have to be left behind. That is the ultimate role for us as educators when we talk about equity and access. 

It was clear to me that we really needed to continue with New York City Reads and Solves, something that started under Chancellor David Banks. He would frequently say, “The kids can't read.” He laughed because he heard him say it a lot. But what we had to think about was, what is that blueprint? What do we have to do? And we knew that part of it was making sure that there were curricula offered in our schools that were rooted in research, in the science of reading. 

We also needed to make sure that teachers were not left to have to figure out how to make decisions around curriculum and instruction because all we want them to do is teach. This does not take away the flexibility that teachers need in their classrooms to deliver instruction that meets the needs of their children. But when you're designing curriculum and writing lesson plans and trying to cater to different readiness levels in one classroom, that is hard. And I can say that because I was a teacher. 

And so New York City Reads and Solves is extremely important because it's giving our children a foundation with the tools of support that teachers need to make this happen every single day. And today marks a recommitment and an expansion of this work, bringing New York City Reads and Solves to more middle schools and more districts, including launching New York City Reads in grades six to eight for the first time. 

We cannot leave any child to slip through the cracks. And as I saw from my own teaching experience, it is our responsibility to build strong readers and mathematicians at every age. And we are going to continue providing unprecedented levels of teacher and school support to get there. So I'm proud that 80 percent of New York City Reads teachers and 77 percent of Solves teachers feel supported by school leadership as they implement these initiatives. 

Y ahora en español.

La alfabetización y las matemáticas son lo más importante de todo lo que hacemos y cada estudiante debe graduarse como un buen lector y un matemático competente. Durante mucho tiempo, nuestros estudiantes estuvieron atrasados en lectura y matemáticas, y a nuestros maestros se les dio el manual equivocado para ayudar a los estudiantes para mejorar. 

La expansión de New York City Solves y Reads a las escuelas intermedias en 14 distritos de la ciudad hoy en día muestra nuestro firme compromiso de asegurar que nuestros estudiantes tengan el currículo básico que necesitan para tener éxito más allá de sus años en las escuelas públicas de Nueva York. Usando currículos basados en evidencia, le damos a los estudiantes la oportunidad de lograr el éxito académico. 

Translation: And now in Spanish.

Literacy and math are at the heart of everything we do, and every student must graduate as a proficient reader and a proficient mathematician. For too long, our students were behind in reading and math, and our teachers were given the wrong manual to help students improve.

The expansion of New York City Solves and Reads to middle schools in 14 boroughs across the city today demonstrates our strong commitment to ensuring our students have the core curriculum they need to succeed beyond their years in New York City public schools. Using evidence-based curricula, we give students the opportunity to achieve academic success.

So I'm so proud to lead a school system that has invested deeply in the fundamentals fixing long-standing inequities when it comes to literacy and math outcomes. This work will live on in our classrooms for years to come, and to hear directly from boots on the ground, I am very proud to introduce Lauren Devita. 

Lauren has been teaching math for 15 years and is currently a middle school math teacher at M.S. 379, College Point Collaborative, and she went through traffic and parking issues, y'all, and left her babies, and she came here to talk to you about our amazing program, so let's give it up for Ms. Devita.

Lauren Devita, Math Teacher, M.S. 379: Good morning. So as stated, I'm Lauren Devita. I've been teaching math for more than 15 years. I'm currently teaching math at College Point Collaborative in Queens, and throughout my career, I've seen many curriculums come and go, but the implementation was always the same. I do, we do, you do. That's why I was very skeptical when the new shifts were announced. 

To move from modeling to sensemaking and putting your trust in a high-quality shared curriculum was very daunting, but after beginning with an open mind and embracing the shifts rather than doubting them, I saw amazing things start to happen in my classroom. 

One student in particular, James, had always been very reluctant to participate, but after giving him a little time to get comfortable with the shifts, I started to see his hand go up, and then I started to hear amazing conversations happen with his partner and the other students around him, and slowly but surely, he was raising his hand every day to participate in front of the whole class. Now he's blossomed into one of my best mathematicians. The freedom to explore and make sense of math gave him that opportunity. 

Currently, my school is using Amplify Desmos, which provides students with multiple entry points, and where previously I've seen students shut down, I now see them flourish. Being able to take a step back and let students engage with the task and come to a conclusion on their own was honestly really scary at first, but now it's a breath of fresh air. 

You might be surprised to hear that Amplify Desmos has a heavy digital component since math has always traditionally been pencil and paper, but by utilizing technology, students are given access to animations that help deepen their understanding, responses from other students, and so many other supports that would have been otherwise inaccessible. 

With a newfound confidence and independence, students come to class every day ready and willing to dive into a new task. Whether we're fully ready for it or not, the world is changing, and we need to equip our students with the tools to navigate that changing world. Thank you for your time.

Chancellor Aviles-Ramos: I am now super proud to introduce a leader, an educator, and someone who has been a huge supporter of New York City Reads and Solves before it even had a name. She continues to be on this journey with us and she is here today to talk to us about her experience with New York City Reads and Solves. She is the executive director of Educators for Excellence in New York. She is a dear friend of ours, Marielys Divanne.

Marielys Divanne, Executive Director, Educators for Excellence: Buenos dias, good morning. I'm very proud to stand here today. As the chancellor said, my name is Marielys Divanne and I have the honor of serving as the executive director of Educators for Excellence New York for the past 15 years. We have been lifting the voices of teachers, 17,000 members strong. And we ensure that they are a key voice or the leading voice in the issues and policies that impact the classroom and the profession. 

Today, this is a major, a major moment and a major win. And that is because it is a major win for teachers, it is a major win for students, it is a major win for families when we talk about the expansion of NYC Reads and NYC Solves. It's life changing for those families and those children. It is life changing for this city to ensure that we are focused on the future of our students. And that we have high quality implementation materials, research base, literacy and math curriculum that is accompanied by professional learning for our educators, so that they all feel ready and empowered and ensured that they can lead this change. 

And so, yes, thank you for applauding for that. I want to take a moment to talk about what it's been like without these initiatives. Before these initiatives, two-thirds of Black and Latinx students were behind in reading and math on state tests. That level of inequity is unacceptable. And NYC Reads and NYC Solves were boldly launched to address this. 

Now, we've seen the research and we know what it shows us. It tells us that high quality instructional materials paired with professional learning improve student outcomes. NYC Reads and NYC Solves are grounded in research and put our students in a position for future success. 

Now, as educators for Excellence New York, we have been meeting and serving hundreds of educators over the past year. And what we are hearing loud and clear is that right here, in our beloved New York City, we are on the right track with these initiatives. 

The key finding is that confidence and momentum are growing with time. Teachers know this is a better way forward than the inconsistent, incoherent materials or patchwork approaches of the past. You've heard from educators here today, and they have been calling for the expansion to middle school. They have been signing petitions, they have been meeting with the chancellor and her team and releasing policy recommendations because we are seeing progress in teaching our students the most fundamental skills for future reading and math success. And that today is a huge victory that our teachers have been calling for. 

Now, to be clear, today's announcement isn't the finish line, it is not at all. We need to get implementation right. And I want to take a moment and pause and thank the chancellor and her team for making and ensuring that they are meeting and listening to teachers throughout this process of implementation. And not only listening, but then taking action on the feedback that educators are giving. 

We need to ensure that current and future city leadership support sustaining and enhancing these initiatives. This was a bold move by the mayor. This was a bold move by the former chancellor. It continues to be a huge and bold move by this leadership and our current chancellor, the amazing Melissa Aviles-Ramos. And I want to just make sure that we are all clear that it will take all of us. 

Many of us in this room, as I look across this room, have been at it for decades in this city, pushing for literacy and pushing for math change. We have it, this is the beginning, and we must continue. We need everyone in this city, from policy makers to parents, to support what is working. Giving back to our students and listening to our students and our teachers, and ensuring that we don't move backwards, that we move forward. Just like today's commitment to sustaining and doubling down on NYC Reads and NYC Solves. Our students deserve nothing less. Thank you so much.

Mayor Adams: It's a great indicator. You covered everything.

Question: I got a couple. One, I noticed that there's some middle schools that are using NYC Reads curriculums that are different from the elementary school curriculums that their districts are mandating. I also noticed that none of them are using the HMH curriculum and was wondering why.

Chancellor Aviles-Ramos: Thank you so much for the question. Yeah, we actually– a lot went into the process for expansion, including looking at what the majority of the districts are currently using. So I'm going to ask Deputy Chancellor Rux to join us and talk a little bit about the thought process that went into this expansion and the selection of materials.

Deputy Chancellor Dr. Danika Rux, Department of Education: Thank you for that question. When we thought about expansion, we went to our superintendents and asked them where they would like to expand. And what we found is that, through their engagement process, many of them decided to go with the curriculum that they were using already for their elementary schools. 

And so, we looked at that data and the majority of them were expeditionary learning and how did I forget? And wisdom. And so, those are the districts that we decided to expand with right now. That doesn't mean that we're not going to add additional curricula in the future. But right now, that is where the superintendents identified the need to expand and that is where we decided to move forward with the work.

Question: And can you just say among the new NYC Reads middle schools and Solves middle schools, what percentage of them are going to be using a new curriculum? Like how many of them are already using the curriculum that they're now being mandated to use?

Deputy Chancellor Rux: The districts that are– the curriculum that they're using right now, the majority of them want to continue to use that same curriculum for their middle schools. So that is why we're moving in that direction. No one identified and wanted to switch curriculum. If that was something that they wanted to do, we certainly would have looked into it. However, that was not the reality.

Chancellor Aviles-Ramos: We can provide you with the follow up information and I would give you a further breakdown.

Question: You referenced some screener data on New York City Reads. We also know that some test scores came out that showed a dip in the school districts that began to implement this curriculum. Can you talk a bit about why it was important to stay the course? Why that dip doesn't worry you going forward?

Chancellor Aviles-Ramos: 100 percent, and that's a great question. So first of all, we know that other districts, not quite as large as New York City, but other districts across the country have embarked on this type of ambitious curriculum initiative. 

Literacy initiative, but rooted in changing curriculum and practice. And they also experienced some drops. So that is something that we expected, because an implementation of this size in a city this size, it takes a lot and we knew that. And that's why close partnership with unions and with parents and making sure that we are truly listening to what's happening on the ground so we can address any issues is so important. 

The other piece of it is we don't talk enough about the intervention piece. And so one of the things that we started when I became chancellor was taking inventory of how many interventions are happening across the city to support students who are still struggling to access some of the curriculum. If you have roughly 40 interventions happening across the city without rhyme or reason, we need to add that as part of the New York City Reads and Solves plan. 

And so Dr. Rux and Dr. Pate and their team have gotten together to start streamlining some of these interventions. So that we were actually suggesting the right dosage and frequency and monitoring progress at the intervention level. So this is a multi-pronged approach. This is not something that just happens when we just implement a curriculum. There are other factors, such as the types of intervention. 

What does tier two instruction look like as well? The curriculum really addresses tier one. But then what happens at the tier two and the tier three level? Those are all things that this administration is tackling right now. And so I'm super confident as we embark on state exam season that we are going to see improvements. 

And the improvements are only going to increase because, realistically speaking, to think that a curriculum overhaul is just the answer would be naive of all of us. And since we're experienced educators, we know that that's not the case. Interventions, doubling down on good instruction, making sure we're paying attention to those tier two and tier three supports is all part of the plan.

Mayor Adams: Okay, Spring break is over, let's get back in school. Thank you.

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