End to First-Third Grades Urged in N.Y.

The president of New York City’s teachers union said Saturday the public school system is failing its students and called for the elimination of grades one through three in favor of group learning.

Sandra Feldman, president of the United Federation of Teachers, said thousands of students go through the nation’s largest public school system without learning to read, write or count.

She said promoting “confused children who cannot read or write” condemns them to further failure.

Feldman proposed new primary school units to allow students to learn and achieve at their own pace. Under her plan, teachers would decide on an individual basis when a student would enter the fourth grade, and there would be no first, second or third grades.