The Teachers College 69传媒 and Writing Project, the instructional consultancy housed at Columbia University and founded by the popular and controversial literacy icon Lucy Calkins, will soon be shutting its doors, Sept. 1.
The college is dissolving TCRWP and Calkins will step down as director. Calkins, who remains a tenured faculty member at Teachers College, will be on sabbatical for the 2023-24 academic year.
Teachers College is creating a new division offering reading and writing professional development, the Advancing Literacy unit, which several former TCRWP staff will lead, according to the college鈥檚 announcement.
It鈥檚 a big shift for the college, which has been TCRWP鈥檚 home since it launched four decades ago, and for Calkins, who built her reputation in the literacy world on the project鈥檚 workshop approach. And it comes as Calkins has come under fire over the past few years from education researchers and some teachers who say that her approach is not aligned with the evidence base behind how children learn to read.
In an interview, Calkins said she made the decision to move on, in part to focus on 鈥渢rying to address the reading wars.鈥� Teachers College did not make anyone available for an interview before publication.
鈥淚鈥檓 proud of the work that we鈥檝e done with Teachers College 69传媒 and Writing Project. It鈥檚 been a talented group of people working with enormous dedication to make a difference,鈥� Calkins said.
鈥淔or me a big plus in all of this is that I made the decision on what鈥檚 really a passion project of mine, which is to try to get past the鈥攚hat I regard as鈥攆ake reading wars and to try to find common ground,鈥� she said.
Calkins and her team will continue offering professional development services through her company, now called . Many of the staff listed on the former TCRWP website are also on the staff list for Mossflower.
Calkins has also launched a new website, , which she says she hopes 鈥渂rings people together and supports civil conversation.鈥�
Who is Lucy Calkins?
Calkins has become a divisive figure in the literacy community, as the 鈥渟cience of reading鈥� movement has picked up steam over the past few years. In general, that movement endorses a systematic, explicit approach to teaching students letters and sounds, coupled with efforts to give all kids a broad base of content knowledge critical for comprehending what they read.
Calkins鈥� Units of Study for Teaching 69传媒 have long taken a different approach. The workshop-style curriculum prioritizes student choice and independent learning. Teachers demonstrate the skills and habits that good readers have, and then students practice them on their own in books of their choice, with teachers acting as guides. The materials are popular, with 16 percent of K-2 teachers saying that they use the materials in a 2019 EdWeek Research Center survey.
But in the last couple of years, education researchers and curriculum evaluation organizations have argued that the materials don鈥檛 explicitly teach the letter-sound knowledge that many kids need to learn how to read words鈥攁nd they have argued that the curriculum鈥檚 practice of matching kids with books at their purported reading 鈥渓evel鈥� can prevent equitable access to rich, complex text.
Last year, Calkins launched a revised version of her Units of Study that aimed to address some of these concerns. It received mixed reviews鈥攕ome from educators and experts who thought the changes represented a big step forward, and others who believed they did not go far enough.
On the Rebalancing Literacy site, Calkins doubles down in response to her critics and accuses journalists of making false claims about her products.
鈥淚n the last year, there have been a lot of podcasts, articles, editorials, programs, that are scaring the public into thinking that somehow half the teachers in America have been hoodwinked into teaching reading in a way that deprives kids of the essentials that they need,鈥� she says, in a video on the site.
鈥淭hey鈥檙e actually suggesting that kindergarten and 1st grade teachers are not teaching kids their ABCs. That is absolutely inaccurate. Teachers are being undermined by those messages, and kids鈥� lives are being affected.鈥�
What will this mean for schools?
For the 2023-24 school year, the work of TCRWP will transfer to the new Advancing Literacy unit, which is part of Teachers College鈥檚 Continuing Professional Studies division. It will provide professional learning both for schools that use the Units of Study curriculum and those that use other materials, according to the Teachers College statement.
The college did not specify, however, whether the Advancing Literacy unit will use TCRWP鈥檚 workshop approaches and other materials.
鈥淸Teachers College] will ensure that its professional development programs are informed by the latest research and evidence and that the College continually finds new ways to translate faculty scholarship into timely assessments, interventions, and research-based practices,鈥� the college鈥檚 announcement reads.
Education Week asked a spokesperson for Heinemann, the company that publishes the Units of Study, whether the dissolution of TCRWP will affect customers.
鈥淗einemann looks forward to partnering with Dr. Calkins and her colleagues and continuing our collaboration with Teachers College as they embark on this next phase of supporting educators across the country who use Units of Study resources,鈥� the company responded in a statement.
鈥淲e remain committed to supporting the innovation and ongoing development of the Units of Study reading and writing programs.鈥�
