'Left Behind' follows five mothers who successfully pushed to open the South Bronx Literacy Academy.
Five mothers’ yearslong fight to open a specialized public school for New York City children with dyslexia is featured in a new documentary playing at the Quad Cinema near Union Square through Thursday.“It's a triumphant story,” said director Anna Toomey. “You can see the pain that not only these women have gone through but other families, and you see their determination and perseverance.”
“For me to own up to the fact that the public school system that I completely embrace, advocate for and fight for is not built for my son, it’s like a breakup,” said Naomi Peña, an education activist and one of the mothers featured in the documentary. The South Bronx Literacy Academy began as a model classroom at a school in 2022 and opened as its own public school in 2023. The school’s teachers are all trained in Orton-Gillingham — considered the gold standard for teaching students with dyslexia to read — with small group instruction and extended literacy lessons. The school currently serves 98 students in the second through fourth grades, and the city plans to open another Literacy Academy in central Brooklyn next year.
Bronx parent Kerri Fleming said her son, a fourth-grader, was diagnosed with dyslexia last summer and was only reading at a kindergarten level when he started at the South Bronx Literacy Academy in September. She’s seen a transformation in his reading abilities and self-esteem.
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