District hears competing pitches for K–6 ELA core as pilot wraps up

Benchmark Advance and Great Minds presented competing English language arts curricula to the Wallingford‑Swarthmore School District Education Affairs Committee as the district’s classroom pilot for K–5 ELA nears completion.

Committee Chair Dr. Sharon Badick told the meeting that pilot classrooms will finish instructional materials on Friday, Aug. 4, and that staff will survey teachers and students immediately after the pilot; the committee will receive a recommendation in May. The presentations summarized classroom materials, assessment and digital supports, and implementation plans.

Why it matters: the committee is narrowing an adoption decision that will determine the district’s primary K–6 ELA materials and the associated professional development, student consumables and digital platforms for multiple grades. Staff said a May recommendation will guide summer professional development and fall rollout planning.

Benchmark Advance, represented in person by John Wolf and Molly Felicia, described the Benchmark Advance 2026 package as a structured, research‑based K–6 program aligned to Pennsylvania standards and the science of reading. Wolf emphasized vertical knowledge progression and a balance of fiction and nonfiction across 10 units per grade; he described integrated phonics routines, decodables for early grades, weekly and unit assessments, and an online portal called Benchmark Universe that offers interactive ebooks, practice games and reporting for teachers. Benchmark staff said the 2026 edition increases explicit foundational instruction and adds practice and handwriting supports for early grades.

Great Minds staff presented Arts and Letters (K–8), represented by Dakota Pondis and regional implementation lead Ashley Cook. Pondis said Arts and Letters centers instruction around conceptually coherent, knowledge‑building modules that pair authentic literature with informational texts, grammar and writing tasks, and embedded supports such as prologue lessons for multilingual learners. The presentation highlighted a continuum of decodable texts for small groups, consumable student workbooks, teacher editions with language‑support boxes, and digital assessment/reporting tools. Pondis said Arts and Letters brings the same design DNA as the publisher’s previous Wit and Wisdom curriculum but adds additional teacher supports and integrated prologue lessons to front‑load language for students who need it.

Committee members asked both vendors about supports for students who struggle with decoding and about evidence for gains in student writing. Benchmark representatives said their program includes systematic, explicit phonics and additional practice options (videos, games, and decodables) in Benchmark Universe and that teachers can use the materials alongside a foundational skills program such as the 95% Group. Great Minds said Arts and Letters is designed to pair with a separate explicit‑phonics program for students who need intensive decoding instruction and that their writing progression and rubrics (carried over from Wit and Wisdom) give teachers tools to monitor growth across modules and years.

Both vendors described professional learning and implementation supports. Great Minds emphasized on‑site coaching, differentiated administrator training, and an 18‑lesson ProLog sequence to give multilingual learners and students with language‑based disabilities access to core lessons. Benchmark highlighted consultant visits and embedded PD videos in the Benchmark Universe platform.

The committee did not take a final adoption vote tonight; staff reiterated that the pilot ends in early August, teacher and student surveys will be run immediately afterward, and a May recommendation will be made to the full school board. Dr. Badick also noted that the recorded presentations will be available to pilot teachers and the broader community.

Other meeting business: the committee approved the previous month’s minutes and tabled the planned Professional Learning Communities (PLC) update until the committee’s May meeting.

Quotes from presenters are drawn from their remarks during the April committee meeting.