Wakefield Public Schools Reports on Early Success of New K-4 ELA Curriculum

Superintendent  Douglas Lyons is pleased to report on the early success of the new K-4 English Language Arts (ELA) curriculum implemented this school year (23-24) in the Wakefield Public Schools as part of a key partnership between district administration, curriculum leaders and teachers. 

The early data indicates increased student growth and achievement in ELA, and it comes at a time when Massachusetts is considering mandates through the Literacy Launch campaign which would require all districts in the state to move toward what Wakefield has already implemented. 

Last year, a comprehensive ELA curriculum review took place, organized by Assistant Superintendent of Schools Kara Mauro and involving faculty, staff and specialists across all levels. In undertaking the review, the team keyed in on early literacy skills, including a focus on an ELA curriculum that could be consistently deployed and aligned across all grade levels and schools in Wakefield and that is rooted in the science of reading. The team chose EL Education as the core K-4 curriculum and opted to fully implement Heggerty K-2 and Fundations K-3 to address foundational skills development.

According to the EL Education Website: “EL Education’s Language Arts Curriculum has been created with substantive content understanding—science, social studies, or literature—at its heart. Students acquire a deepening understanding of that content and they simultaneously acquire all the key literacy standards of reading, writing, speaking, and listening, which have been carefully embedded within the content.”

This transformative curriculum, aligned with the Science of Reading, was implemented across Walton, Woodville, Dolbeare, and Greenwood Elementary Schools under the guidance of Valerie Drinan, Humanities Curriculum Coordinator, and Michele Labrecque, Humanities Coach. The district’s innovative approach was funded by over $100,000 in state grants for High-Quality Instructional Materials.

Understanding the enormous amount of work it takes to implement a new curriculum, the district offered multiple options to classroom teachers, including options to stagger implementation of the new curriculum over multiple years. However, the response was telling: 100% of classroom teachers opted to implement the new curriculum immediately for the 2023-2024 school year. The District also created a group of teachers and administrators who have experience using EL Education who offered professional development support to aid in implementation.

The results have been immediate and telling. The shift from a balanced literacy approach to a more structured ELA curriculum has already shown significant benefits. Early results are promising: data from DIBELS 8 and iReady Reading Diagnostic assessments reveal notable increases in both achievement and growth scores, especially after only four months into the new curriculum.

DIBELS 8 is a highly regarded early literacy screener used to measure the acquisition of literacy skills from kindergarten through fourth grade. It is administered three times per year to provide consistent, actionable data.

Preliminary data indicates that  students have achieved growth targets earlier than predicted. Midyear iReady Diagnostic data shows that more than half of Wakefield’s third and fourth grade students have met their annual growth goals earlier than predicted, which is a promising forecast for end-of-year achievement gains. 

Improvements in DIBELS 8 scores are particularly significant because they indicate that students are making progress in foundational literacy skills such as phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, and accuracy—skills essential for reading success. Higher scores on this assessment suggest that students are better prepared to tackle more complex reading and comprehension tasks as they progress in their academic careers.

“We are now collecting DIBELS data with mClass in a way that is significantly more organized, efficient, and useful than in past years,” said Brian Schmitt, Principal at Walton Elementary, explaining the impact of these improvements. “This systematic use of data guides our foundational skills intervention groups and helps communicate progress to parents about their child’s reading development.”

There is also anecdotal evidence that suggests student engagement is improving with the new curriculum.

“It’s great to see our students so excited about their learning.  Whenever I enter a classroom, and there is an EL lesson happening, the engagement level is off the charts and as an administrator that is exactly what you hope to see,” said Matt Carter, Principal of Woodville Elementary School.

Added Erica Bibo, Grade 2 Teacher & EL Leader at Dolbeare Elementary: “The children are having very rich discussions about higher level texts.  The exposure to the curriculum/texts has made the children extremely knowledgeable about the subject area along with core literacy skills, which are being applied in other subject areas.  Their excitement for learning is very evident.”

EL is a knowledge building curriculum which also opens the door to opportunities for enrichments related to the topics. For example, earlier this year a local TV meteorologist visited Wakefield first graders to enhance one of the modules, and the district is seeking new enrichment opportunities across the district for next year that aligned to the topics within the grade levels.

“The implementation of Heggerty and Fundations in K – 2 has provided all students with the most essential foundational skills for reading and spelling. To see Kindergarten students confidently reading and spelling words and identifying digraphs and blends within words is incredible,” said Beth Ortega, Kindergarten Teacher & EL Leader from Dolbeare Elementary “There is nothing better than seeing their faces light up when they are able to read and write new words!”

This early success simply would not have been possible without complete buy-in from the teachers in the classrooms.

“We were so excited that all of our teachers jumped right in during our first year, and we are so proud of all of the hard work that has been poured into the implementation,” said Valerie Drinan, Wakefield’s Elementary Humanities Coordinator. “It’s exciting to see students engaging in deeper conversations about topics they are learning and to see and hear the excitement as they share their work with their classmates, teachers and leaders from across the district.”

Superintendent Lyons would also like to recognize the diligent work of Assistant Superintendent Mauro, who oversee ELA curriculum selection and implementation process.

“Assistant Superintendent Mauro engaged in teambuilding right out of the gate, and the results speak for themselves. The team set goals to improve our curriculum and drive better student outcomes, and the families of Wakefield are the beneficiaries of that fine work,”  he said. “The new and consistent K-4 ELA curriculum will no doubt pay dividends as this generation of students progresses all the way through high school and beyond.”

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