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District reports middle‑school ELA rollout, graduation dates and a new multilingual sixth‑grade orientation
Summary
District leaders on May 20 told the Portland Board of Public Education that the adopted middle‑school ELA curriculum is now in use in every grades‑6–8 classroom and that the district held its first multilingual orientation for families of rising sixth graders.
District leaders on May 20 gave the Portland Board of Public Education a monthly update on secondary schools, reporting progress on a planned rollout of an adopted English language arts curriculum in grades six through eight, a new multilingual family orientation for rising sixth‑graders, and the calendar for senior graduations and other year‑end rituals.
Assistant Superintendent Abdullah Ahmed presented highlights and called the month a time of celebrations and transitions. "This is the time of the year where there is a lot of celebrations and rituals in the schools," he said, and listed senior assemblies and graduation dates at Casco Bay, Deering and Portland High School.
Allison Dame, director of secondary academics, reported that principals, coaches and teachers completed three district walk‑throughs focused on use of the adopted ELA materials and on student engagement protocols. By April, Dame said, the curriculum was in use in every middle‑school ELA classroom and the district saw "dramatic growth" in teacher practice tied to the materials. She said pacing and ensuring exposure to all standards across the year will be a top focus for next year.
Grace Valenzuela, executive leader for multilingual family engagement, described a first‑ever orientation for families of rising sixth graders last week that included principals from King, Lincoln and Lyman Moore middle schools and offered interpreter services in Arabic, Khmer, French, Lingala, Portuguese, Somali and Spanish. "We were excited most of all about the engagement among parents and students who attended," she said.
Dame said the district also piloted a high‑school walkthrough process designed to give principals more consistent instructional feedback and that principals want to triangulate classroom observations with student assessment data (CenterPoint interim assessments and NWEA) in the coming year.
Why it matters: administrators framed the work as a mix of curriculum implementation, leadership development and family engagement as students transition from elementary to middle school and then to high school. Board members asked for clearer goal benchmarks to accompany reported walkthrough gains and requested that the district include target percentages on future reports so progress can be measured against agreed objectives.
Next steps: administrators said they will continue professional development around pacing and multilingual instructional moves, integrate interim assessment data into walkthroughs and expand opportunities for principals to visit one another's high‑school classrooms. The district listed graduation and celebration dates for late May and early June and said Portland Adult Education and PATH will schedule program‑specific ceremonies later in June.
No board action was required; the report was informational.
