Tyrone Howard is a professor of education at UCLA who serves on a research advisory board for the publisher of the curriculum, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, and as a fellow at their International Center for Leadership in Education.
He says NYU’s report is based on too small a sample size.
“To call it culturally destructive, I think is a huge overreach,” Howard said.
He says the primary goal of the curriculum is to teach children to read — something he says it does well — but acknowledges it’s also critical for all children to see themselves reflected in what they learn.
“I’ll be frank. No program is perfect,” Howard said. “But I think what you look at with ‘Into Reading,’ you will find the kind of ethnic and racial and cultural representation that I think is more reflective of our student population today.”