P.S. 26 in Travis is one of ten city schools that has opted into the Core Knowledge Reading Program for the upcoming school year.

The school's 30 kindergartners are among about 1,000 citywide who will be followed for the next three years as they navigate a curriculum that emphasizes the sound and meaning of words.

"It's so exciting to see a child come in – especially in kindergarten – and they don't know certain things," said P.S. 26 school principal Joanne Mecane. "Then by the end of the year you see the progression. So, I'm expecting this to be really a wonderful program."

The program is defined by its structure and its emphasis on non-fiction books.

"You want them to get a rich background of non-fiction," said Michele Picarello, who teaches second grade at P.S. 26. "That's where we notice a lot of children are lacking – in finding details of specific things that they're learning. So, vocabulary is a big part in that because when they're reading a non-fiction book, the vocabulary's usually higher than their understanding. So you need to build that vocabulary for them through big books and shared reading together."

According to the Department of Education, the pilot program at P.S. 26 and the nine other city schools will cost about $2.4 million and will be privately funded.

P.S. 26's two kindergarten teachers were being trained to teach the program when NY1 visited the school Thursday and weren't available for comment, but those who teach higher grades know the importance of learning the basics.

"Children going into the third grade – it's very important to build that foundation of literacy because they need the reading comprehension skills and all the strategies to take the state tests in third, and fourth and fifth grade," said Lisa Marsetti, a second grade teacher at P.S. 26

The students participating in the literacy project will be compared to a control group of peers from city schools with comparable demographics.