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As many kids fall behind, schools try a new approach to teach how to read
Only about one-third of elementary school students in the U.S. are reading at grade level, according to the recent National Assessment of Educational Progress. In response, many schools are rethinking how they teach kids to read.
In one New York City first grade classroom, Melissa Jones-Diaz goes letter by letter, teaching the specific rules that form the English language. For decades, most schools felt it was unnecessary to explicitly teach kids these rules, preferring to give students time with books on the belief they would most likely figure it out for themselves.
Now, specific, detailed instruction is taking over.
“It was a big shift in my teaching, in my understanding of how students learn to read,” Jones-Diaz said.
The Science of Reading isn’t so much a curriculum as a grassroots movement best known for arguing that phonics, or the relationship between letters and their sounds, is key to learning to read.
It’s powered by parents who believe the old system left their kids behind, and the movement is quickly transforming how reading is taught.
In 39 states and Washington, D.C., laws have been passed or rules have been made requiring schools to follow the Science of Reading approach.
That generally means new books and new teacher training with a focus on phonics.
Jason Borges is overseeing New York City’s new reading program, which began with a partial rollout last year and will be in every classroom this fall.
“What we were doing was not working,” Borges said. “Fifty-one percent of students are not at proficiency and not close to proficiency.”
As the new methods take over, old approaches like queuing —where kids look at pictures in a book to guess the word— are being pushed out.
Instead, when students flip through picture books, they’re now taught to ignore the pictures and focus instead on the letter groups.
Research is showing the new method helps, but somewhat modestly. A recent Stanford study found two years of the approach was like getting an extra quarter-year of learning.
Implementing the changes can also be hard, and knowing just how far to push those changes is still being worked out.
“It’s not just about phonics, right? There’s so much more to teaching reading that I worry that things will be not only too reductive, being just phonics, but then also that things do get taken a bit too far,” Borges said.
The nation’s largest school system is attempting that balance, and the test results will be eagerly awaited.
Tupperware and some of its subsidiaries filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, the once-iconic food container maker said in a statement late Tuesday.
The company has suffered from dwindling sales following a surprise surge during the COVID-19 pandemic, when legions of people stuck at home tried their hands at cooking, which increased demand for Tupperware’s colorful plastic containers with flexible airtight seals.
A post-pandemic rise in costs of raw materials and shipping, along with higher wages, also hurt Tupperware’s bottom line.
Last year, it warned of “substantial doubt” about its ability to keep operating in light of its poor financial position.
“Over the last several years, the Company’s financial position has been severely impacted by the challenging macroeconomic environment,” president and CEO Laurie Ann Goldman said in a statement announcing the bankruptcy filing.
“As a result, we explored numerous strategic options and determined this is the best path forward,” Goldman said.
The company said it would seek court approval for a sale process for the business to protect its brand and “further advance Tupperware’s transformation into a digital-first, technology-led company.”
The Orlando, Florida-based firm said it would also seek approval to continue operating during the bankruptcy proceedings and would continue to pay its employees and suppliers.
“We plan to continue serving our valued customers with the high-quality products they love and trust throughout this process,” Goldman said.
The firm’s shares were trading at $0.5099 Monday, well down from $2.55 in December last year.
Tupperware said it had implemented a strategic plan to modernize its operations and drive efficiencies to ignite growth following the appointment of a new management team last year.
“The Company has made significant progress and intends to continue this important transformation work.”
In its filing with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware, Tupperware listed assets of between $500 million and $1 billion and liabilities of between $1 billion and $10 billion.
The filing also said it had between 50,000 and 100,000 creditors.
Tupperware lost popularity with consumers in recent years and an initiative to gain distribution through big-box chain Target failed to reverse its fortunes.
The company’s roots date to 1946, when chemist Earl Tupper “had a spark of inspiration while creating molds at a plastics factory shortly after the Great Depression,” according to Tupperware’s website.
“If he could design an airtight seal for plastic storage containers, like those on a paint can, he could help war-weary families save money on costly food waste.”
Over time, Tupper’s containers became popular that many people referred to any plastic food container as Tupperware. And people even threw “Tupperware parties” in their homes to sell the containers to friends and neighbors.
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