Hello again!
Remember us? No, you didn’t miss anything. This is actually our first newsletter for the 2023-2024 school year–just in time for the last day of school!
We want to share:
- Our new website
- District updates, including a literacy needs assessment and English Language Arts new curriculum selection process
- A few links of interest
- Thoughts on what’s next
New Website
We now have a Brookline Literacy Coalition website where you can access our newsletter archives, as well as recordings of past events and links to interesting and useful resources. We hope you will check it out and share!
District Updates
Hill for Literacy, a consultant hired by the Public Schools of Brookline, conducted a Needs Assessment to inform district plans to improve the way reading and writing are taught in the district.
The consultants administered surveys, collected inventories of instructional programs, assessments, and professional learning opportunities in PSB, held focus groups with staff, and visited classrooms. They issued recommendations to inform a District Literacy Plan. You can read the Needs Assessment Report here.
At the June 13th School Committee meeting, Jodi Fortuna, Assistant Superintendent for Teaching and Learning, Michelle Herman, Senior Director for Teaching and Learning, and Kristin Gray, Interim K-8 Literacy Coordinator, presented information about next steps, including the selection and implementation of new ELA curriculum. You can watch this presentation and discussion here, starting at 27:43 (The recording appears to be labeled “June 6” but it is actually from June13). You can review the slides here.
A few key points:
A district literacy leadership team has narrowed down choices to three programs: ARC Core, EL Education and Fishtank ELA. These are all considered “High Quality Instructional Materials (HQIM)” and vetted by MA DESE Curate tool as well as the organization EdReports.
Here is a helpful website where you can explore these three curricula. Two of these programs include foundational skills (phonics/phonemic awareness; decoding) while one does not and would need to be supplemented. Currently, Wilson Fundations and Heggerty Phonemic Awareness programs are used in many PSB classrooms to teach foundational skills, and the selection team will decide whether to maintain their use or replace them with a foundational skills program included in the chosen curriculum.
The curriculum review process will take place over the summer and fall. They are seeking participation of multiple stakeholders including representatives from parent groups (e.g. SEPAC, LPAC, BAFN). Please reach out to Jodi Fortuna if you would like to be part of this selection process.
Once the curriculum is selected, they will recruit K-2 teachers to volunteer as “early adopters”, from November to June of next year, and then scale it up to all K-2 teachers in the 2025-2026 school year while recruiting ‘early adopters’ in grades 3-5 and planning for implementation in 6-8.
In addition to the training provided by the publisher of the selected program, PSB will be participating in the MA Tiered Literacy Academy. The intent is for this professional development to help rebuild the coaching capacity in the district. (Literacy coaching positions have been cut from the current budget). The district has also applied for a grant from the state for further professional development and implementation support.
Based on the response to a question from a school committee member, we understood that the focus will be on improving Tier 1 classroom instruction via this new program and the intention is that student needs will be better met within the classroom. We are less clear on whether and when there will be changes to the type of interventions that students who need more support (in Tiers 2 and 3) receive and how that will be aligned to Tier 1.
Another of our questions concerns infrastructure and sufficient time to support teachers with this professional learning and implementation of new curriculum. We hope the curriculum review team will consider usability and alignment with the district’s systems and resources as they make their choice.
We look forward to hearing about which curriculum is selected and we hope that these decisions and processes will ultimately lead to better outcomes for students.
Links
In this podcast interview, Dr.Jack Fletcher explains dyslexia in an exceptionally clear and practical way. We think it’s a must listen.
Goal #1 in PSBs Strategic Plan, adopted in February 2024, is “Increase achievement for all students by establishing, implementing, and regularly assessing a consistent, high-quality, and challenging curriculum delivered using evidence-based practices.” Please listen to this terrific discussion with Dr. Pamela Snow about “Using Evidence in Education”.
A great learning opportunity, the Accelerate Literacy Virtual Summit, is coming up very soon-June 23-28. There are over 50 presentations by researchers, parents, teachers, and reading specialists (including Brookline Literacy Coalition’s own Miriam Fein). This is a great opportunity to learn about effective and efficient methods of teaching reading and spelling from a variety or perspectives. Access to each presentation is free within 24 hours of its release. Or you can purchase a VIP ticket for unlimited lifetime access.
What’s Next?
The short answer is…we’re not sure. We’d like to continue to keep you posted about happenings in the district and continue informing and advocating—and empowering and connecting community members with an interest in literacy.
Please let us know if you have ideas or would like to help with these efforts.
We wish you a fun, relaxing, and peaceful summer!
Miriam, Ola, and Ben