Parents challenge CET principal on literacy program materials for 3d and 4th grade. [Updated with Editor’s Note]

A local educator sparks discussion when she suggests that the use of a magazine to teach reading cannot substitute for an actual curriculum..

CET principal Kerri Bianchi

This past week we reported on the Croton-Harmon Board of Education’s unanimous appointment of school superintendent Stephen Walker for another five years, despite objections by a number of parents that his job performance should first be evaluated.

Among the parents voicing this position was local educator Nicole Curran (see clip below), who, among other things, criticized the district for its lack of communication with parents about what their children were being taught and how it was being done.

The following day, on the village Facebook page Croton Community Group, Curran posted a sharp critique of a message sent out on Friday by Carrie E. Tomkins Elementary School (CET) principal Kerri Bianchi about CET’s strategy for teaching reading. Curran praised the strategy being adopted for Kindergarten and 1st and 2nd grades (the Science of Reading approach and specifically the popular Heggerty Bridge phonemic awareness programs), but strongly questioned the plan to use the magazine Storyworks as key curriculum for the 3rd and 4th grades.