Grafton — Principals and assistant principals from Millbury Street Elementary School and North Street Elementary School told the Grafton School Committee on Jan. 7 that the district has implemented a new EL English language arts curriculum this year, adopted a new 6th-grade math program and launched Project Lead The Way modules in the elementary innovation zone, and they described early academic and classroom observations.

The principals said the district’s shift toward EL aligned instruction reflects a broader “science of reading” approach that combines phonics foundations with language-comprehension work; teachers are midway through the first year of implementation and are adjusting pacing and planning time. They also reported that 6th-grade teachers have adopted an accelerated illustrative-math sequence intended to align more cleanly with middle-school courses, and that Project Lead The Way (PLTW) has replaced a former computer/technology rotation in a multi-week innovation module model.

School leaders described why the changes matter: the EL curriculum emphasizes classroom discourse, explicit vocabulary and writing about reading, which principals said has led to deeper student talk and early improvements in writing and comprehension measures. One classroom video shown to the committee featured a third grader explaining her reading strategy and “reading contract,” which presenters said illustrated the EL curriculum’s language-comprehension goals.

Presenters noted early assessment signals. They reported unusually strong student-growth percentiles on statewide MCAS in some grades last year — citing 6th-grade growth in both schools around 65–70 percentiles — and said that, unlike some pilot periods that transiently depress standardized results, here teachers reported both increased engagement and stronger writing outcomes. The district plans a STAR universal-screening assessment in coming weeks to provide more current, item-level data.

Project Lead The Way is scheduled as consecutive multi-day modules (presenters said modules often run 15–20 days or roughly six-week cycles), requiring a redesign of related-arts schedules so students can work day after day through the engineering process. Second- and third-graders completed “Grids and Games” coding units in Scratch Jr.; fourth- and fifth-graders worked on input-output pair-programming units tied to math; sixth-graders completed an “infection detection” engineering challenge that simulates disease transmission and response.

Presenters said the schedule changes affect all related-arts teachers — art, music, library and physical education — and described practical constraints (for example, clay units or kiln firings) that require coordination so classes are not missing essential materials. A specialist, Laura Legeau, helped finalize schedules for the pilot year, presenters said.

The schools are also in year two of a standards-aligned report card and aligned progress report. A recent change routes emailed report cards to families through the Bright Arrow communications platform rather than relying on the parent portal, which presenters said has increased direct family receipt. Committee members asked about the progress-report scale; presenters confirmed the current progress-report marks are recorded on a 1-to-3 scale.

School social-emotional learning work was described as intentionally aligned to CASEL competencies; presenters said SEL is integrated into EL lessons. Principals emphasized that “educators” includes paraprofessionals, secretaries, custodians, lunch staff and bus drivers as well as classroom teachers.

Committee members asked about student supports for anxiety and trauma; presenters said school adjustment counselors and a student-support team meet regularly and that the district currently provides building-level counseling and behavioral supports. North Street’s leaders reported an increase in English-language learners (ELLs) — roughly 28 ELL students at that school as of the presentation — and said many new arrivals include families affected by recent world events; staff are adapting group lessons, translation and intake supports. Presenters described a centralized data intake system that flags concerns to the appropriate staff (adjustment counselor, school psychologist, BCBA) for follow-up.

Attendance was discussed: presenters reported chronic absence at district elementary schools around 8–9 percent, which they estimated as about 54 students out of roughly 600 (presenters said the district rate is lower than many Massachusetts districts). Committee members and staff noted ongoing outreach to families and that attendance improvement remains a priority.

Presenters and committee members said implementation is a multi-year effort. They asked for continued planning time for teachers, regular review of assessment data and community communication. Several committee members praised the presentation and asked to track data from STAR and MCAS in upcoming reports.

Questions and follow-ups noted at the meeting included: how PLTW scheduling will be refined where material constraints exist (art clay, kilns), continuing professional learning community time for teachers to debrief modules and assessment timelines for STAR and MCAS comparisons. Presenters said they will continue to bring assessment updates and implementation reflections to future committee meetings.

A brief list of programs and resources cited in the presentation: EL (ELA curriculum in use this school year), Illustrative Math (6th-grade math), Project Lead The Way (elementary PLTW modules), Bright Arrow (report-card delivery), STAR assessment (benchmarks), MCAS (state assessment) and CASEL (SEL framework).

— End of presentation section