After review of five literacy programs piloted in the elementary schools this year, the district announced at the May 20 School Committee meeting that three will move forward for further assessment next year. Based on input from the pilot steering committee, review committee, pilot teams and community feedback, the three programs selected are ARC, Collaborative Classroom and Fishtank.
“We have been anticipating this day for months,” said Carmen Williams, assistant superintendent for instruction and innovation. “And we have a lot of information to share.” She said she wanted to first give a detailed explanation of how the pilot was run. “We were very diligent in creating a process and implementing it with fidelity. I think that’s really important.”
Director of Literacy Lisa Messina told the Observer that findings for all the programs in the first wave of the pilot were very positive. “None of them was a lemon,” she said. But a few “rose to the top” based on the district’s goals such as closing the opportunity gap and addressing implementation.
Arc and Collaborative Classroom met some key points that put them above the rest. “Some of the biggest highlights were what students are reading, the quality of the texts was a big one, diversity and representation in the texts,” said Messina. “Also scalability — the sort of trajectory of K to five. Which of these programs has a long life for implementation across all grades? Clarity was a big one — these two programs in particular seem to have really clear goals for learning, and that’s really important. And the ability to meet the needs of all learners was another category.”
Messina explained that Fishtank, which was added to the pilot late in the year, will also continue into the fall so the district can gather more data.
The next step will be to ensure the three programs have equal representation in each of the schools and across all grade levels. Teachers will once again be able to volunteer to pilot a specific curriculum, but if there are gaps the district will begin to request that teachers adopt a specific program to ensure the integrity of the pilot.
Williams said they hope to begin training teachers over the summer, but although they would be compensated for their time, they can’t be mandated to attend. “Our plan and what will actually happen may not be the same,” she said.
The district plans to select a new literacy curriculum in the spring of 2026 with intended rollout for the following school year.
“But even after we select a program, we train our teachers, we implement it with integrity,” Williams told the Observer, “there will be an immediate need to improve the program to meet the discrete and targeted needs of our students. There will be a need to increase the capacity of teachers for new learning and new opportunities, so we’re not going to get to a place of ‘done.’ This is the work of curriculum and instruction, it is a continuous cycle.”
Williams underscored the importance not only of evaluating and selecting a curriculum, but also ensuring that the conditions for change are ideal for success.
“It wouldn’t be productive for us to start a new program if conditions weren’t ripe for people to understand, receive it, actively participate, internalize, implement, practice, receive support for it,” she said. “If the conditions are not ripe for change, any new program will fail. Not because of the quality of the program, but because of the quality of the conditions.”
“I am excited for our district to move forward with ARC and Collaborative Classroom and now with Fishtank,” School Committee Chair Michael O’Brien told the Observer. “This is something that’s been very well thought out by our district leaders. I’m glad that as a district we’re being thoughtful and have a lot of data backing up the process.”
O’Brien said he was happy to learn that a final decision may be made sooner than anticipated and that the team has applied for grants through the Massachusetts Department of Education. He was encouraged by the presentation at Tuesday’s School Committee meeting. “This has been a big topic for the School Committee this year and to completely think about how we’re going to address our curriculum is important to our early learners. I’m pleased to see how this is moving forward.”
Pilot pushback
Unlike curriculum pilots over the years, this one was fraught with pushback from a handful of community members under the auspices of The Needham Literacy Coalition. Members’ continued efforts to convince the School Committee, district leaders and families to push for immediate elimination of all versions (including a revised version that was in the pilot) of Units of Study, the literacy curriculum used in Needham elementary schools, created friction between some parents and teachers/specialists, and led to misinformation within the community about the timeline of the pilot, cost considerations and grant eligibility.
“Before we get into the meat of the agenda,” Williams said at Tuesday night’s meeting, “I do want to take a moment to address the concerns that have been expressed through public comment.” She corrected the false belief that the pilot was in its fifth year: “This is the first year of a pilot. This is the first year we have had new materials in our classrooms for review.”
She stressed teachers, administrators and the district at large want the same “evidence-based” materials for which coalition members have called — but that is not a quick fix. “Even after we decide to move forward with an adoption, every year we will need to review these materials to ensure they meet all of our students’ needs. This is an ongoing practice.”
Williams said she was disappointed the tenor of the conversations with coalition members was demanding rather than partnering. Despite the friction, she said district leadership and the School Committee have liaised with the community so teachers could continue to focus on students. “We create space to protect teaching and learning.”
Looking ahead
Overall, teachers have supported the pilot process and are ready for the next phase.
“I feel the way this was designed and executed allowed every practitioner to be a part of the process,” said Aly Schenker, reading specialist at Sunita Williams Elementary School. “I feel 100% confident that the direction we’re moving represents the needs of all those folks, of all our children, of all our practitioners in all our places and spaces.”
“Because we went through this process, teachers are now ready to take on something new,” said Broadmeadow literacy coach Abby Siegel. “Every teacher here has talked about wanting to do something new, so there’s excitement with that.”
Melanie Sullivan, an Eliot School literacy coach, said she was excited to learn more about the knowledge-building approach to literacy, something she has not worked with before. “Part of the strength of moving forward is for us to learn from all these different approaches and grow our own skills and our understanding so that whichever program we end up with we can better meet the needs of all students.”
“It’s not necessarily the program,” Siegel said, “but it’s the time that we put into boosting our tier one instruction. It almost doesn’t matter what program we pick.”
Save as PDF