Somerset County parents get another chance to review proposed new elementary reading curriculum

Posted 7/25/22

WESTOVER — Somerset County Public Schools will hold another community meeting on selecting an elementary reading curriculum after the Board of Education tabled the recommended program.

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Somerset County parents get another chance to review proposed new elementary reading curriculum

Posted

WESTOVER — Somerset County Public Schools will hold another community meeting on selecting an elementary reading curriculum after the Board of Education tabled the recommended program.

The session will be held 6 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 9 at the Board of Education meeting room, and parents and guardians of elementary school children are especially welcome as the last public meeting on July 11 drew primarily community interest.

The agenda will explain the selection process, the programs reviewed, teacher input and the recommended curriculum by Amplify called “CKLA” (Core Knowledge Language Arts).

The runner-up was “Into Reading” by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, but it was a distant second among teachers.

Two others, “Wonders 2023” by McGraw Hill and “myView” by Savvas were in the top four, but Lilly Welch, supervisor of reading/ELA told the school board they were eliminated. Reviews of the various choices considered can be found at Edreports.org.

Superintendent Dr. John Gaddis said the concerns of community members — none of them parents of elementary school students — were more about the content of the books than the skills teachers would use to teach. He said he now has to face 30 teachers who will want to know why the curriculum they preferred was not approved.

Following the July stakeholders meeting, “No one talked about phonemic awareness, nobody talked about the foundational skills, it was about the content of the books,” Dr. Gaddis said, with one calling it “a Marxist curriculum.”

“It’s so much more than the (book) selections, it’s the skill development,” he said.

At the start of the July 13 board meeting during public participation Matt Lankford, parent of a high school student, reminded board members about Policy 500-4 titled “Curriculum Development” which was adopted last September. In part it states: “Curriculum development, adoption and implementation will be the responsibility of supervisors, principals, and other administrators and professional staff under the guidance of the Division of Instruction staff.

“When a new course is being introduced into the course catalogue, and subsequent curriculum is being chosen, a representative parent group will be chosen to review and provide feedback on the textbook or text choices.”

“As far as I’m aware there’s not been anyone as parents chosen to review this curriculum,” Mr. Lankford said, calling the elementary grade students “our most vulnerable,” and asking who picked the last K-5 course “that is deemed a failure?”

Following that, Mr. Lankford’s wife Jeania Lankford said it was “too important to rush,” and stakeholders did not have time to look through the books and the curriculum.

Board member Caleb Shores who attended the parent session said it was “very informative” and hopes they can come to a consensus on the curriculum. He encouraged parents to be pro-active so they can be knowledgeable about it.

Board member Bill McInturff said tabling the policy was not a reflection on Ms. Welch or the hard work of the committee, but also urged parents “help us make some of these decisions.”

The subscription to the former curriculum from McGraw Hill expired June 30. It was in two parts for grades K-2 and 3-5 and the goal is to have a single program covering grades K-5. Anyone with questions may contact Ms. Welch at 410-968-1616 or lwelch@somerset.k12.md.us.

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