Willoughby-Eastlake reports midyear gains after first semester of new K–5 reading curriculum; middle-school math work continues

Willoughby-Eastlake City Schools administrators told the Board of Education on Feb. 10 that midyear screening shows measurable gains after the district’s first semester using the Amplify CKLA K–5 literacy curriculum and that work on a middle-level math adoption will continue into next year.

The district’s director of teaching and learning, Mandy Nagy, presented results from universal screeners and described classroom practices and implementation supports. "This data was based on about 13 weeks of instruction," Nagy said, summarizing phonemic-awareness and oral-reading fluency measures that were collected at the beginning and middle of the school year.

The midyear data showed reductions in the share of students scoring below benchmark on phonemic-awareness measures in kindergarten and first grade, Nagy said, and improvement in oral-reading-fluency groupings across grades 1–5. Nagy described a three-tier model: whole-group instruction, data-driven small groups during "win time," and targeted interventions delivered by Title I staff or intervention specialists. Principals lead grade-level PLCs that create and adjust small groups based on the screener results.

Board members and administrators emphasized that the adoption included a planned implementation sequence and professional development. Superintendent Dr. Ward framed the change as one of the district’s largest recent instructional investments: "we are in the midst of year 1 implementation," he said when introducing the presentation, noting the district provided summer and start-of-year training for teachers. Board members credited the district’s rollout and staff follow-up for the early progress.

Nagy also described pilot work in grade 6 for a CKLA ELA program and said the district is considering phased pilots in grades 7–8; no final decision has been made. On mathematics, Nagy said middle-school teachers have received platform and curricular training for the new HMH resource and that the district intentionally paced math implementation to allow teachers time to adapt to new teaming models. The district plans to use the program’s diagnostic tools and a planned math-audit of K–5 content alignment next year.

The presentation was informational; no board action was required on curricular adoption at the Feb. 10 meeting. Administrators said they will continue monitoring midyear-to-end-of-year growth and share results after the next screening cycle.

The board thanked teachers, building leaders and curriculum staff for the work supporting implementation and asked that the district continue to report progress at regular intervals.