Photograph by Dave Parker
On a recent June morning, 6-year-olds Ethan Lee and Adrian D’Souza were hunched over a book about sharks in their kindergarten classroom at
James Madison Primary School in Edison, N.J. Ethan read the titles of the book’s chapters to Adrian. Scattered around the room, other pairs of children sat shoulder-to-shoulder at low tables, murmuring over their books. Ella Filson, their teacher, and Debbie Gibilisco, a co-teacher who helps with special-education students, hovered nearby, occasionally pulling up a tiny chair to listen in.
“Shark attacks!” Adrian piped up when Ethan asked him which chapter he would prefer. Ethan dutifully turned to page 28 and began reading, breezing through words like “surfboard” and pausing only briefly to sound out the word “tugged.”
Like most kindergarteners, Ethan couldn’t read any words at the beginning of the year. But after a year of daily
