The School District of Philadelphia released its Year 1 evaluation of the EL Education K-8 reading curriculum on August 28, 2026. The $25 million overhaul, funded partly by $19.4 million in federal pandemic aid, aimed to align instruction with the science of reading. But the report, based on surveys and focus groups with more than 100 educators, found that nearly all K-2 teachers and principals reported the curriculum's phonics lessons were not direct or explicit enough for the youngest students and that genuine teacher buy-in remained a challenge because of insufficient training and mixed messages about compliance, according to the district's Office of Research and Evaluation.
State test scores released in fall 2025 showed K-8 reading proficiency fell after the first year of the new curriculum. Roughly one-third of students were proficient in reading. Third grade proficiency dropped by nearly three percentage points, and the share of Philadelphia third graders reading proficiently is lower than it was a decade ago, Chalkbeat Philadelphia reported.
One school, George Sharswood K-8 in South Philadelphia, saw its share of students proficient or advanced in reading jump 11 percentage points to 43 percent in 2024-25, far exceeding the districtwide proficiency rate that dipped from 34 percent to 33 percent. Its third grade proficiency rose 20 percentage points, with more than half of third graders proficient compared to 31 percent districtwide, The Philadelphia Citizen reported.
Comparable rollouts in other cities
New York City's NYC Reads initiative required schools to choose one of three reading curricula, including EL Education, paired with mandated phonics programs. After the first cohort of schools implemented in 2023-24, state test scores fell citywide. Among grades 3-8, 49.1 percent of students were at or above proficient in reading, down from 51.7 percent the prior year. Implementation challenges included leadership turnover, slow starts, and unopened material boxes in schools, Education Week reported. In August 2026, the city's teachers union threatened to withdraw support, criticizing excessive student assessments and intervention programs that do not align with curricula, The City Reporter reported.
An SRI study of four urban districts that used science-of-reading curricula for at least five years found that while foundational skills were being taught, comprehension instruction was predominantly surface-level. Less than 25 percent of observed comprehension lessons engaged in robust learning. Teachers found the curricula too dense and struggled with implementation, The 74 Million reported.
Mississippi mandated science-of-reading-aligned instruction under a landmark literacy law. The state's former literacy director, Kymyona Burk, now at ExcelinEd, has said that teacher preparation and training are essential to curriculum success and that it takes teachers at least a year to get acquainted with new materials even with support. Burk said no curriculum is a magic pill, Chalkbeat Philadelphia reported.
Researrch on curiculum implementation
The SRI stud, covering four districts in four states using three different curriculum, is not nationally representative but showed a consistent pattern of surface-level comprehension instruction and teacher struggles with dense materials, The 74 Million reported.
Drexel University literacy professor Mary Jean Tecce DeCarlo, who helps train Philadelphia teachers, said EL Education is strong at building background knowledge for reading comprehension but that its phonics instruction is not systematic or direct enough. She cautioned against the assumption that any phonics instruction is good phonics instruction and said it may take years for Philadelphia to see a turn in reading scores, Chalkbeat Philadelphia reported.
Education researcher Ashley Jochim of the Center on Reinventing Public Education said high-quality curriculum means little without investment in other supports for staff and students, including scaffolding for students left behind and addressing challenges like attendance and teacher turnover. Jochim said she is optimistic that districts can achieve improvements given the established research base on how children learn to read, Chalkbeat Philadelphia reported.