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Charles County recommends HMH English 3D curriculum for English learners; 30-day public review planned
Summary
District staff recommended selecting English 3D (HMH) as the new K–12 English language development program, citing WIDA alignment, support for newcomers and students with interrupted schooling, and digital and print options; a 30-day public comment period and targeted outreach were announced.
Charles County Public Schools staff on April 8 recommended a single, districtwide English language development (ELD) curriculum — English 3D from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt — to provide consistent, standards-aligned supports for multilingual learners from kindergarten through grade 12.
Autumn Hoffman, the district ELD content specialist, said the program is aligned to WIDA language-development standards and covers all grade bands and proficiency levels. Staff told the board they selected English 3D after rubric-based reviews and pilots by 22 ELD teachers and received favorable feedback from teachers and students who used the pilot materials.
Hoffman told the board the program offers differentiated entry points for newcomers, long-term multilingual learners and students with limited or interrupted formal education, and that it includes both digital and print components to give teachers flexibility and to help newly arrived students transition to online assessments.
The staff presentation said the curriculum is research-based, includes consistent embedded instructional routines that reduce the cognitive burden of changing formats, and provides data and benchmarking tools to measure student growth across proficiency levels. Hoffman summarized pilot feedback: teachers liked the range of proficiencies the materials covered; students praised improvements in writing; staff raised concerns that some pilot lessons were long and asked for local flexibility in implementation.
Superintendent Maria Navarro and instructional staff said the materials would supplement, not replace, core instruction provided in classrooms. Staff outlined next steps: a 30-day public-comment and review period with translated materials and outreach to bilingual parent groups and community partners, and a plan to refine scope and sequence to fit local program models (push-in, pull-out, co-teaching and self-contained settings).
Board members asked about involvement of special education reviewers; staff said they would invite the special-education office and partners to review materials. The district also plans targeted outreach to Hispanic parental groups and to the Charles County Community Action and other bilingual contacts to ensure reviews are accessible.
Why this matters: ELD curriculum choices affect instruction for thousands of multilingual learners and will shape teacher supports, benchmarks for English proficiency and methods to monitor progress toward literacy and academic language standards.
