How This NYC Principal Implemented a New Reading Curriculum

Joanna Cohen, an elementary school principal at P.S. 107 in Brooklyn, saw balanced literacy fail to meet the needs of a large group of students over the years.

The New York City Department of Education announced in May 2023 that schools would be required to choose from three literacy curricula it identified as aligned to the science of reading. Cohen began the long, challenging, process of implementing one of them, Wit and Wisdom in her school.

The first step was teacher buy-in. Here, she explains how she achieved “99 percent” buy in, and how implementation went in its first year. Even with the support of her staff, the work has been incredibly difficult.