Chancellor Joel Klein has announced a new pilot program in 10 high-need grade schools to improve reading education, based on E.D. Hirsch's Core Knowledge curriculum (for reference, see his popular 1988 manifesto, Cultural Literacy, and the series of parent-focused education books that followed).

The K-2 program integrates phonics and content (no stranger to many early-grade classrooms), with an emphasis on nonfiction and classical sources, like mythology, as well as fiction. Reading gains for students in the pilot program will be compared with students in 'control' groups, who will participate in the current DOE reading curriculum.

Education academics and in-the-trenches teachers have long criticized the de-emphasis of phonics in kindergarten and first-grade classrooms. In fact, many teachers routinely include phonics instruction, especially in classes with large numbers of students who are learning English, in addition to the mandated DOE reading curriculum.

Private funds have been raised to pay for the program, which will cost $2.4 million. New York is one of eight cities nationwide to use its classrooms as test labs for the program, which is designed to give students a foundation of knowledge along with reading mechanics and eventual proficiency. Other sites include a mix of rural and urban schools (with mixed academic needs) in Georgia, Florida, Indiana, Oklahoma, and the South Shore Charter Public School in Hull, Mass., where Dr. Hirsch's son is the principal.

It's not known whether parents can opt in or out of the program (or the control groups) or how the 10 high-need New York schools were chosen. All are in the "outer boroughs" -- four in Queens, three in the Bronx, two in Brooklyn, and one in Staten Island.