Pa. assembled literacy experts for reading reforms. Some say they were never asked to do the work
In the wake of falling reading scores, schools across Pennsylvania are rethinking the curriculum they use to teach students to read and write. To support this, state lawmakers asked the Pennsylvania Department of Education to create a council to review the many different curriculum programs vying for district dollars.
But the reading experts and classroom educators Pennsylvania assembled for that council aren’t being leveraged in the way the law intended, according to multiple council members, education advocates and state lawmakers. They say that’s resulted in a rushed process, bungled by third-party consultants and uneven adoption across the state.
Without strong guidance, some council members warn students and parents may end up with “the cheapest thing available” instead of programs more effective at bringing up test scores. The final product, they add, could confuse school districts more than it helps them.
Instead of analyzing programs and recommending the best options, Drexel University professor Mary Jean Tecce DeCarlo said she and her fellow council members are positioned as “more of a sounding board” for decisions already made by the Department of Education and consultants from the San Francisco-based education research firm WestEd.
That’s counter to what one legislator who drafted the bill behind the council intended.
In October 2024, lawmakers passed a bill ordering state education officials to assemble a 20-member council which would create a list of curriculum options school districts can adopt to meet the General Assembly’s standards for evidence-based reading instruction.
Subsequent legislation in 2025 required them to come up with lists of universal screeners — used to assess students’ proficiency three times yearly — and professional training courses for teachers aligned with the latest research in reading instruction.
But DeCarlo said the council has been presented with lists already reviewed and near-ready for release, without rigorous inspection by council members.
“There’s not, ‘Should we include this screener? Should we include this professional development?’” she said.
“Everything’s behind the scenes,” said Candace Hall, vice president of the Pennsylvania branch of the International Dyslexia Association, who frequently attends the council meeting as an onlooker. “They were talking about, ‘What does the document look like?’ And I’m thinking, is this the best use of our time? Is this the best use of the professionals on the other end?”
