BCAT News

A multi-year effort to revamp K-8 literacy in Burlington schools is nearing a key milestone as a literacy task force has narrowed its list of potential curricula down to two programs. That was the summary of a Literacy Night presentation recently, shared by Assistant Superintendent Dr. Lisa Chen and two literacy experts who have been working with the district on the curriculum review. 

Since August, Chen, Interim K-8 Literacy Coordinator Dr. Bonnie Nichols, literacy consultant Gail Lovette, and more than 30 Burlington educators have been reviewing curricula that make use of the science of reading, a firmly established evidence base of cognitive and behavioral research demonstrating the best approach to making fluent readers and writers. 

“The science of reading is really a very rich, very established evidence base around how we know students develop their learning skills and the best ways to inform reading instruction and writing instruction,” Lovette said. “It’s not one-size-fits-all, it’s not a fad, it’s not a political agenda – it is a very, very well established research base. Everything we’ve done has been under the umbrella of science reading.” 

Lovette was hired to help the district revamp its literacy curriculum, and she said Burlington was already doing a lot of things right. “When I started my work with Burlington, there were many aspects of the science of reading that were evident in the classrooms I visited, and that’s not always true, so hats off to the BPS educators.” 

Nichols said all of the work of the literacy task force was grounded in a core statement: “Every BPS student has the right to learn to read, every BPS student deserves to learn to read, and every BPS student wants to learn to read.” 

Out of four curricula considered, the literacy task force narrowed it down to two finalists, and are now asking for community input on which to choose. The two finalists were Amplify CKLA 5-8 and Amplify ELA 6-, as well as Wit & Wisdom paired with Really Great Reading. Both programs are approved by the state, and both include readings that are knowledge-rich, grade-appropriate, and filled with diverse characters. Both programs intertwine all the core processes that happen in the brain as a child learns to read: decoding, vocabulary, background knowledge, verbal reasoning, word recognition, phonological awareness, sight recognition, oral language development, phonics, and more. 

BPS parents have received information packets on both programs through the district’s messaging platform, ParentSquare, and have been asked to fill out a survey with their preferences by January 21. The Literacy Task Force hopes to present its findings on the best literacy curriculum at the February 11 School Committee Meeting.