“It has an app that parents can go on and see what they’re doing in class and track progress … All of the lessons come with ideas for parent engagement throughout the lesson, so we think it’s so important not to just involve parents maybe at the end of the school year or one night, but involve them in what we’re doing across the entire year.” The curriculum “has a robust library of e-books for students and parents in both English and Spanish,” Baynes said at the meeting. “We believe that increasing parent engagement, consistency across our schools and providing new ideas and structure for our teachers will improve student outcomes in our program,” Baynes said.īaynes said that a curriculum committee made up of teachers, administrators, staff members and community stakeholders started looking at 16 different curricula in September.īy March, the members narrowed down the group to their top four choices and then unanimously picked The Creative Curriculum for Preschool because it aligned with district criteria: promoting family engagement, providing research-based content and offering guidance on children with disabilities.įamily engagement was a huge priority when choosing a new curriculum, Baynes said.

Since the current pre-kindergarten curriculum was developed in 2016, Joseph Baynes, special education coordinator, said it is always important to evolve. 'They also notice the transfer of these skills during Reader’s Workshop, allowing students to spend more time improving their reading fluency and comprehension.' 'As I visit our K-3 classrooms across the district, the overwhelming feedback I get from teachers is how much growth their students have made in reading, spelling and fluency since implementing Fundations, Geodes and Lexia,' Paladino said. “This year has been a bit of a challenge, only because the state has decided to insert themselves into what’s otherwise a local board decision,” said Marc D’Amico, director of K-8 leadership and curriculum, at the meeting. Officials said they are unsure what happens if the waiver is not approved. The district has yet to hear back about its curriculum waiver.

The new one, which Jones approved, will be implemented in September. Paladino also said that the district had to switch its reading assessment tool, which screens the entire K-3 population to help identify students who may face reading disabilities, after the state withdrew its approval.

The state “thought they would be getting 40 waivers from across the state and they ended up getting somewhere between 110 and 120 … we have many districts taking the same approach that we are,” Jones said. Superintendent Toni Jones added that implementing a new curriculum would cost “over $1 million.”

Piper it happened one summer