NYC Charter Literacy Consortium

We are excited to share the design of NYC Charter Literacy Consortium (CLC) with a mission to equip NYC charters with the resources, expertise and sustained support needed to achieve full literacy for all of their students.

INTRODUCING THE CLC

NYC’s charter sector provides exceptional opportunities for students, and has the potential to go even further, joining in city-wide efforts to ensure that, by 2035, all school-aged youth in New York City are fully literate. The CLC aims to bring the charter sector together around that goal. Though the CLC’s effort focuses on literacy, we expect charters will develop operational practices that dramatically lift student achievement even more broadly.

The CLC will be facilitated by the Center for Public Research & Leadership (CPRL) at Columbia University. Initial funding for the CLC will be provided by The Peter & Carmen Lucia Buck (PCLB) Foundation. Conversations are underway to engage other philanthropic partners and thereby expand eligibility and funding amounts. At this time, the CLC expects to have up to $10 million available to support all aligned and interested charters for its first year (school year 2026-27).

INVITATION AND NEXT STEPS

We invite all charters that are willing to commit to ambitious student achievement goals and that meet criteria around size, grades served, and current proficiency levels to submit an expression of interest by Monday, January 5, 2026. CPRL and PCLB will schedule 1:1 conversations with all interested charters throughout January 2026 to further discuss program design, commitments, charter-specific goals and funding. A formal grant application will be made available to selected charters in February 2026.

ABOUT THE CLC

KEY PROGRAM COMPONENTS

1. Evidence-based instructional tools implemented well and at scale: At the foundation of the CLC is a commitment to implementing high-quality instructional tools rooted in the science of reading. Each participating charter organization selects or refines the tools that best meet their students’ needs, which will include:

  1. Knowledge-building curriculum: Evidence-informed materials that guide what students learn and how instruction is delivered. Must be aligned to rigorous standards and validated by an external organization to ensure quality.
  2. Interventions: Targeted supports designed to address specific learning gaps or challenges.
  3. Assessments: A system of curriculum-based assessments, screeners, and diagnostics that measure student learning and progress and inform instruction and supports.

2. Network-specific instructional capacity building: Beyond the tools themselves, the CLC builds each network’s internal ability to use those tools effectively, sustainably, and consistently across schools. Participating organizations receive:

  1. Professional learning & development: Ongoing professional learning from vetted providers for strategic and instructional leaders to learn how to sustain the work and progress long term as well as build knowledge and skills related to the science of reading.
  2. Strategic support and technical assistance: Customized implementation support from CPRL focused on curriculum roll-out, data-driven interventions, visibility, and strategic and change management support.

3. Rigorous and transparent measurement of progress: To ensure accountability and support meaningful improvement, charter organizations participating in the CLC commit to shared measurement expectations:

  1. Student progress: Annually reported at the school and grade level, enabling tracking toward shared consortium goals for student literacy achievement.
  2. Implementation progress: Reported quarterly to assess how effectively networks are adopting and strengthening evidence-based literacy practices and tools.
  3. Teacher experience and perception: Annual survey of teachers to gauge perceptions of and feelings about the literacy initiative and of levels of curriculum implementation.
  4. Leader experience and perception: Annual survey of strategy and academic leaders to gauge perceptions of and feelings about the literacy initiative, program experience, and sentiment to adapt the consortium’s work and approach.
  5. Family experience and perception: Annual survey of families to gauge perceptions of, feelings about, and engagement with the literacy initiative.

4. Cross-network and cross-sector learning and improvement: Through the CLC, charter leaders will accelerate literacy gains by tapping into shared best practices and problem solving with each other and citywide partners. Community of practice components include:

  1. Cohorts by readiness and focus area: Small peer learning groups organized by shared literacy readiness levels and grade-bands to focus on priorities and challenges most relevant to each member.
  2. Strategic leadership convenings: Periodic convenings for network-level strategy & academic leaders to share bright spots and troubleshoot challenges with support from expert sponsors.
  3. Just-in-time learning labs: Short, responsive learning sessions – 60-90 minute – open to network-level and school-level literacy leaders to address newly surfaced needs or challenges across cohorts (e.g. data interpretation, curriculum implementation, AI enabled tools, intervention integration).
  4. Charter–district collaboration: 2-3x per year, engage with NYCPS and other high-performing education partners to shape cross-city coherence, align on literacy progress to stay ahead of policy shifts and leverage wave of city-wide efforts.

ELIGIBILITY

Charter schools – single-site or networks – are eligible to apply for membership to the consortium if they:

  • Are serving Elementary and/or Middle School students in New York City (K-8)
  • Have a minimum 40% literacy proficiency across students based on most recent NYS 3-8 ELA scores

In joining the consortium, charter organizations commit to:

  • Set and work toward clear literacy improvement goals
  • Establish and meet annual, measurable targets toward full literacy for all students
  • Meet minimum expected 3-year overall ELA proficiency gains of 9 – 15 points based on the NYS 3-8 ELA test, depending on organization’s initial proficiency levels
  • Meet minimum expected 3-year decrease in percentage of Level I students of roughly 15 points based on the NYS 3-8 ELA test, depending on organization’s initial levels
  • Develop a 10-year roadmap to reach full-literacy, with clear milestones and annual progress targets
  • Use high-quality instructional tools aligned to the science of reading and validated by an external organization – either already using or commit to adopt evidence-backed curriculum, interventions, and assessments in first year of program
  • Partner with an approved professional learning provider to support curriculum onboarding (if needed), leadership development and knowledge building, and ongoing professional learning support
  • Share agreed-upon student literacy data with CPRL and CLC funders to track collective progress
  • Administer annual experience & perception survey to teachers, leaders and families
  • Participate actively in the CLC’s community of practice

FUNDING

Participating charter organizations benefit from both direct general operating support and fully-funded high-value services over 3 years to kickstart their efforts to adopt, implement, and improve evidence-based practices required to meet the literacy needs of each and every student. Supports include:

  • Direct general-operating funding to strengthen instructional capacity
  • Primarily, these philanthropic funds are intended to support staff time, enabling participation in and focus on this initiative. There are certainly other costs critical to literacy instruction (curriculum, intervention materials, assessments), so schools may also elect to use these funds more broadly.
  • Funds will be granted directly to participating charters.
  • Fully funded professional learning partnership
  • Consortium membership includes a fully paid partnership with a high-quality professional learning vendor, who will be paid directly.
  • Charter organizations select a partner from a vetted list that best aligns to their working model and needs.
  • Fully funded collective learning and system-level supports
  • Participating organizations gain access to coordinated support from the Center for Public Research and Leadership (CPRL) including:
  • Strategic planning and change management support
  • Common measurement, analysis and data dashboards
  • Cross-network learning communities and convenings
  • This support provides charter leaders with direct leverage to make more informed decisions; build stronger instructional, change management, and measurement systems; and maintain momentum through this literacy work.

Final funding amounts will be determined after gaining a better understanding of sector interest and need; these will be shared before schools are asked to submit a final application to the CLC.

KEY DATES

  • Dec 4, 2025 – Request for expression of interest form opens
  • Dec 12, 2025 – Virtual information session hosted by CPRL and PCLB.
  • Jan 5, 2026 – Responses due
  • Dec 4 – Jan 6, 2026 – On a rolling basis, meetings scheduled with school/network leaders who submit an expression of interest
  • Jan 5 – 30, 2026 – Meetings between school/network leaders, CPRL and PCLB
  • By Feb 6, 2026 – Selected charter schools invited to complete full NYC CLC application to determine final funding needs
  • March 6, 2026 – Full NYC CLC application due
  • Spring 2026 – Recommendations for funding presented to PCLB Board, with any/all grants distributed shortly thereafter

Questions? Contact Yaneli Rubio – yaneli.rubio@columbia.edu – Associate Director at CPRL