The meeting featured a detailed presentation by Dr. K, the Director of Learning Achievement, who outlined the curriculum’s components and the rationale behind its adoption. This new curriculum focuses on structured literacy, which is underpinned by the science of reading—a comprehensive body of research that has been developed over four decades. Structured literacy emphasizes a sequential, systematic, explicit, and diagnostic approach to teaching reading. Dr. K highlighted that this method is important for 50 to 75% of students who require explicit instruction in phonics and language comprehension to improve reading skills.

The adoption process began in the 2021-2022 school year, following a failed pilot of other materials that teachers found inadequate. The board collaborated with teachers to pilot and evaluate various resources, leading to a consensus on CKLA and 95 Phonics Core due to their alignment with the science of reading and positive pilot results. Teachers noted significant improvements in student performance during the pilot, especially with the 95 Phonics Core program, which covers foundational skills for grades K-5.

The curriculum implementation includes professional learning for teachers. Training sessions were held for teachers in May and August, with ongoing professional development planned throughout the academic year.

During the meeting, videos were shown to illustrate classroom activities using the new curriculum. These clips demonstrated students engaging in structured literacy exercises, such as learning letter sounds and decoding words, which aim to build both foundational and advanced reading skills in a systematic manner.

In addition to the curriculum discussion, the meeting touched on the legislative requirements of the READ Act, which mandates specific instructional practices and screenings to support literacy development. The district is aligning with these requirements by using approved curricular resources and planning for additional teacher training.