Published in ConnectED Newsletter - Volume 8 - Issue 3 - May 2025
In November 2024, CUNY shared an RFP for the creation of microcredentials that would support colleges to sustainably embed the Science of Reading (SoR) in credited course sequences and noncredit offerings to meet the needs of pre-service and in-service teachers. Tied to legislation signed by Governor Hochul in April 2024, this initiative aims to ensure evidence-based reading instruction is used in the classroom to improve reading proficiency.
The RFP called for proposals in five categories: noncredit microcredentials for pre-service teachers; noncredit microcredentials for in-service teachers; credited microcredentials for graduate candidates (6-15 credits); articulations, transfers, or credit for prior learning; and in-program microcredentials (i.e., course sequence redesign).
Four teams of full-time and part-time CCNY faculty submitted proposals, all of which were approved. Here we describe the projects these teams worked on during the Spring 2025 semester.
Megan Blumenreich, Carolee Bongiorno, and Nicole Shields, three veteran literacy instructors, revised the undergraduate literacy course sequence for childhood education (EDCE 32300 and EDCE 42300) to ensure that the syllabi were strong in each area of NYSED’s recommendations to cultivate the “Big 6” for lifelong literacy. Revisions began with reviewing and adopting new articles and books that cover the latest understandings of the SoR. The revised syllabi include the use of SoR curricular materials that are currently adopted by NYCPS. These adopted texts and materials will be used in undergraduate classes to help students practice with materials they will encounter in the schools. Finally, they created a video library of expert NYC teachers engagingly demonstrating areas of the SoR that have previously been less robust in these courses (i.e., phonological awareness, phonics, spelling, and word study skill-building). These videos will be a reusable teaching tool for these courses.
Armineh Hallaran and Nicole Lorenzetti developed a Reading Specialist Advanced Certificate program. This microcredential will prepare general and special educators to provide effective research-based reading instruction to students with dyslexia and related disabilities. Despite the prevalence of dyslexia, with some estimates indicating 15-20% of the population experience some symptoms, this disorder remains widely misunderstood. While frequently characterized as a visual disorder where students “see words backwards,” dyslexia is a language-based disorder at the phonological level of processing. The Reading Specialist Advanced Certificate will provide students with foundational knowledge about dyslexia, reading and writing development, and how to design careful reading instruction to address the diverse needs of all learners.
In the summer of 2025, Prof. Hallaran and Prof. Lorenzetti will develop syllabi for SPED 3601K and SPED 3701K for implementation in Fall 2025, develop the syllabus for a new course focused on dyslexia and instructional methods for students with dyslexia and other reading disabilities, and pilot the syllabus with Special Education faculty for feedback and edits. They will also complete NYSED paperwork for program approval submission with the aim of offering it in Spring 2026.
Carmina Makar’s project aims to provide bilingual education students with relevant knowledge and tools to integrate evidence-based literacy practices in their work with multilingual learners. Recent professional development tools around SoR are geared towards the development of English; however, there are accommodations required in the work with multilingual learners. Prof. Makar has redesigned two existing courses: Teaching Language Arts and Reading for Bilingual Students (graduate) and Language and Reading in Spanish for Bilingual Education (undergraduate). She also designed a standalone module/workshop for students in the Bilingual Education and TESOL programs—Science of Reading and Multilingual Learners: From Research to Practice.
Andrew Ratner, Elizabeth Dunn-Ruiz, Laura Gellert, Judy Myrthil, and Lance Ozier worked together to address the need to prepare current and future secondary English teachers and teachers in the content areas (science, math, social studies, art, etc.) with the necessary knowledge and skills needed to work with adolescents and young adults who are at the beginning stages of reading and writing English. To do so, they integrated an SoR module into the curriculum and fieldwork of all existing School of Education courses focused on literacy development (e.g., Middle School Literacy). They also created a course of study for non-teachers, part-time teachers, and non-enrolled teachers interested in paid or volunteer literacy tutoring of grades 7-12 beginning readers. Participants will earn either Continued Teacher and Leader Education credits for taking two new courses or a microcredential for taking the two new courses in literacy tutoring plus two existing courses in literacy instruction that will be revised to integrate SoR.
Last Updated: 05/27/2025 19:10