District curriculum leaders briefed the Pittsford Central School District Board of Education on a newly adopted elementary K-5 math curriculum and associated supports, including a digital assessment component and professional development for teachers.
The presenter said the recommendation grew from research prioritizing student access to grade-level mathematics, problem-based learning, and strong teacher supports. The district piloted the program in 28 classrooms covering about 600 students and provided summer resources to 114 classrooms, 24 learning specialists and five AIS providers. Staff named Amplify as the vendor and described a digital component called mCLASS for benchmarks, progress monitoring and personalized learning paths.
The presenter described core features of the program: lessons that begin with activating prior knowledge, activities that support collaborative problem solving, teacher prompts for productive struggle, and embedded differentiation for remediation and extension. The presenter emphasized that only a portion of lessons are digital (about 10% for K-1 and about 20% for grades 2'5) and that paper options remain available.
Staff said teachers received training over the summer and rostering was completed by the technology team. The district will use universal screening and progress monitoring data from mCLASS (and aimsweb for K-1 screening) to guide multi-tiered systems of support and to track student growth with the goal of stronger transitions into middle school mathematics.
Board members asked about implications for honors-track identification and heterogeneous grouping. The presenter said the program provides more frequent data points and supports heterogeneous grouping in homeroom math, with embedded differentiation to support both remediation and extension. No formal board vote on curriculum adoption was recorded in the public presentation at this meeting; materials were provided in the board packet and the program rollout was described as underway.
Staff invited board members to visit classrooms to observe implementation and agreed to return with updates during the school year.