Driving Positive Change Through Goals & Reviews

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In May of 2022, leveraging a DESE Grant and ARPA Funds, we decided to move forward with ARC Core as the ELA Curriculum Tool for our K-5 students. This decision materialized after three years of advocacy, both behind the scenes and in various public forums. When I initially joined the School Committee, the Science of Reading was dismissed as a fad and viewed by some members of the administration as leading to dull, rote instruction. Through hours of advocacy, I was able to slowly move the needle - both with other members of the School Committee and the Administration. I am grateful that our Assistant Superintendent of Student Services, Dr. Jennifer Stys, understood precisely what I was discussing and was fully engaged in expanding knowledge and understanding throughout the district. I observed that I started making progress with the administration when I noticed our former Superintendent started quoting "Ending the Reading Wars: Reading Acquisition from Novice to Expert" by Castles, Rastle, and Nation in our Student Opportunity Act submissions.

The first significant public discussion on the topic occurred in my capacity as a parent and general member of the Special Education Parent Advisory Committee (SEPAC). While I was an elected member of the School Committee, I collaborated with the SEPAC leadership to establish the first Reading in Reading Subcommittee within the SEPAC. This Subcommittee worked with the Assistant Superintendent of Student Services to create training materials and literature for Parents and Staff. Much, if not all, of the material we produced is still available on the district's website and can be found here.

That Subcommittee set the foundation but was not the end of the conversation. The following year, as Chair of the School Committee, working with the new Superintendent, we executed our first Strategic Offsite in August of 2021. Before the offsite, we asked all attendees to listen to an Ed Leaders in Literacy Podcast entitled "Turning It Around." It was at this offsite that the School Committee, Administration, and Union Leadership adopted the 'All means All' focus, ensuring that all of our students can achieve their goals. Later that school year, I proposed establishing an Advisory Committee to the School Committee to assume the work previously handled by the Reading in Reading SEPAC Subcommittee. While the School Committee didn't initially accept the proposal, we ultimately agreed on an Advisory Committee to the Administration, and that Advisory Committee was comprised of parents and staff who were passionate about Literacy. 

While the Advisory Committee was in the midst of its work in late 2021 and early 2022, we learned that the district had been selected to receive approximately $200,000 in DESE Grant Funds to support the selection of new curriculum tools focused on the Science of Reading. Around the same time, the Reading ARPA Advisory Committee was working to determine the community's needs for which the ARPA funds could be applied. I was also a member of that Committee. As the likelihood of the formation of the ARPA Committee increased in the Fall of 2021, I encouraged the School Committee and Administration to advocate for the use of some of the ARPA Funds for ELA Curriculum Tools.

With that expiring DESE grant and the potential for ARPA Funds, the Curriculum selection process entered high gear, and the Administration created a Literacy Leadership team to review and select a new ELA Curriculum. After conducting their research, reviewing the materials, visiting other districts that had implemented the curriculum, and scoring the options using a robust rubric, the Administration and Literacy Leadership team recommended the procurement, implementation, and associated training of the ARC Core curriculum toolset. With the selection of ARC Core finalized, the School Committee and Administration advocated heavily to the Reading ARPA Advisory Committee (RAAC) and the Select Board to use $2,000,000 of the over $7,500,000 in ARPA funds to move forward with the purchase of ARC Core. After careful consideration, it was agreed that ARC Core would be the one request of the Reading Public Schools, both the Administration and the School Committee. After a detailed presentation by the Superintendent, the Literacy Leadership Team, and other members of the School Committee, RAAC voted 6-1 to recommend the distribution of ARPA funds to the Select Board. A similar presentation was provided for the Select Board, leading to a 5-0 vote in favor of distributing funds to support the selection of ARC Core, and years of advocacy reached a climax.

As with any significant change, the decision to change course is, of course, not the end of the road. We are continuing to advocate for improvements in the ARC Core curriculum while also prioritizing training for our Teachers, including offering and supporting Hill for Literacy courses for many of our K-5 staff members. We have also continued our work in the Middle Schools, where the Administration has built another Literacy Leadership team. Over a few years, they worked to educate, inform, and lead the staff in selecting Amplify ELA for Grades six to eight.

All of this started with behind-the-scenes advocacy, was supported through years of data which demonstrated gaps in our children's ability to engage in English Language Arts activities (reading, writing, spelling, etc.), supported through reams and reams of scientific data about how children learn to read, and was crystalized in reviews in detailed, written reviews of the Superintendent at the end of the 2019-2020 school year and again at the end of the 2020-2021 school year. Furthermore, that evidence was then utilized by our new Superintendent and Assistant Superintendent during the 2021-2022 school year, culminating in the selection of the ARC Core in May 2022.

Finally, while I will acknowledge that ARC Core isn't perfect, I must also recognize the robust early returns. For example, our third graders, after their second year of ARC Core implementation, scored in the 95% across the entire state on their Spring 2024 ELA MCAS. These are early returns, and we will not rest on our laurels; instead, we will continue to focus on improvement, which will open up opportunities for all our students to learn and excel.