Since the pandemic, Massachusetts schools have seen students’ reading abilities plummet, with studies showing more than half of the state’s fourth graders can’t read proficiently. A new lawsuit filed in Massachusetts Superior Court is pointing the finger at publishers.

Several Massachusetts families filed a class action lawsuit Wednesday against publishing companies Heinemann and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt over their curricula meant to teach young children how to read.

The families claim that for years, the publishers falsely marketed their curricula to school districts as 'research-backed,' when some studies claimed they were ineffective.

“What we’re asking for in our lawsuit is pretty simple,” said Karrie Conley, a plaintiff. “Our schools need to teach reading in a way that actually works. They need lessons and materials that actually work, and it shouldn’t be the schools or the taxpayers’ bill to foot. It should be the people who broke the system in the first place.”

Heinemann issued a response to the study in question, calling EdReports’ rubric 'narrow,' adding that it 'does not capture the scope and power of the day-to-day literacy work happening in classrooms.'

Conley, other plaintiffs and their legal representation claim the publishers’ curricula didn’t include enough phonics instruction, which teaches students to ‘sound out’ what they see on the page.

Benjamin Elga, founding executive director of Justice Catalyst Law, alleges the publishers ‘dragged their feet’ in acknowledging this.

“The defendants dragged their feet to acknowledge their shortcomings when they did begin to make updates to their curricula,” Elga said. “They turned around and charged school districts with a fix, think about that.”

The issue of illiteracy among Massachusetts students is one that Gov. Maura Healey and the Massachusetts Legislature have set their sights on, with Healey citing low English language arts MCAS scores during her State of the Commonwealth address in January.

“That number reflects social inequities,” Healey said. “It also reflects the fact that many districts are using out-of-date, disproven methods to teach reading. Children are paying the price. Some are struggling for years to catch up, if they even can.”

Efforts to get students’ literacy skills back on track have included the $20 million ‘Literacy Launch’ program, and an additional $38 million in federal grants for school districts.

But the lawsuit is believed to be the first case in which consumer protection laws related to deceptive marketing have been applied to a publisher’s curriculum.

The lawsuit was filed by Justice Catalyst Law and Kaplan & Grady, and seeks “substantial relief for the generations of students and families across Massachusetts harmed by the defendant publishers and authors’ discredited literacy products and deceptive marketing.” It also seeks a court order requiring the publishers to warn schools about “defects in their literacy products and other relief to fully remedy the situation so school districts have quality literacy instruction materials.”