A lawsuit seeking class action status has been filed in the Massachusetts Superior Court against famed literacy experts Lucy Calkins, Irene Fountas, and Gay Su Pinnell, as well as the Reading and Writing Project at Mossflower, Greenwood Publishing Group (DBA Heinemann Publishing), HMH Education Co., and the board of trustees of Columbia University’s Teachers College.
The suit, filed on behalf of three Massachusetts children and their parents by Justice Catalyst Law and Kaplan & Grady, seeks substantial relief for students and families across Massachusetts allegedly harmed by the defendant publishers and authors’ literacy products. The suit also seeks a court order requiring defendants to warn schools and families of the alleged defects in their literacy products and other relief.
The lawsuit is the latest challenge to early-literacy products and methodologies that do not focus on phonics, as recommended by proponents of the science of reading. The lawsuit claims, “For decades, scientists and educators have understood that the first step in teaching literacy is robust, daily, and extensive instruction in phonics.
“Because Defendants’ curricula do not contain the building blocks for teaching effective early-childhood literacy, huge numbers of children, including countless children in the Commonwealth, have suffered devastating and often ongoing setbacks in their educational development and life trajectories,” the suit continues.
The action focuses on Massachusetts, where, in 2023, less than half of all third-graders in the Commonwealth met expectations for the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS) English Language Arts Exam, and, according to the Boston Globe, “roughly 70% of Black third graders, 80% of Latino students, and 85% of children with disabilities did not meet the state’s benchmark.”
