Lawndale pilots Amplify and Discovery science curricula; parents review materials and raise implementation questions

Teresa Jones, district coordinator, presented two science curriculum options at the DPack family engagement meeting and invited parents to trial materials and submit feedback: Amplify Science and Discovery Education. "Los dos programas han sido diseñados con base en el programa NGSS," Jones said, referring to the Next Generation Science Standards alignment for both vendors.

The district is piloting the two curricula to replace an older, out-of-date program and to move beyond supplements such as Mystery Science. Jones said pilots are running in selected grades (kindergarten, third and fifth) this school year; one grade (fourth) currently has no volunteer teacher for the pilot. The pilot's minimum instructional expectation is roughly one hour, two times per week, but teachers may adapt the cadence: some are teaching as often as five times per week for one hour.

Amplify Science was described as teacher- and student-facing with small printed readers, student research notebooks and hands-on kits (the district circulated "bolsos"/kits to parents for preview). Discovery Education offers a digital library, videos drawn from the Discovery channel archives, and consumable student tech-books that students can take home; Discovery organizes three to five units per grade and provides a large virtual library of multimedia. Both vendors provide English and Spanish materials and resources for multilingual students; Jones said translations were presented as human-reviewed rather than purely machine translated.

Parents and teachers praised both options for different reasons. Several parents said Amplify's small printed readers and hands-on kits were a good fit for early elementary students, while others said Discovery's digital materials and documentary content may better prepare students for later grades. Concerns raised included the frequency of piloting at some grades, the absence of a fourth-grade pilot volunteer, the cost and logistics of kits, and the need to ensure clear translations and teacher training so materials do not cause confusion (a reference to past math materials problems was cited).

Jones said the pilot will inform a formal adoption recommendation but no adoption vote was taken at the meeting. She said that if the district adopts a new curriculum it will replace the current core science program and not simply supplement it; Mystery Science and other supplements would no longer be the primary resource. Parents were encouraged to submit concrete examples in their feedback to help the adoption team evaluate usability and translation quality.

The district did not make a decision during the meeting; staff said teachers currently participating in pilots will continue testing materials and that a later adoption recommendation will follow pilot evaluation.