Byram Hills pilots UFLI phonics in kindergarten to accelerate early reading

Byram Hills Central School District presented a plan to pilot the University of Florida Literacy Institute (UFLI) phonics program in its K–2 classrooms, with the goal of accelerating decoding so students begin reading connected text earlier.

Megan McCauley, the district’s K–5 curriculum chairperson, told the board the district has been reviewing literacy instruction for several years and identified two main shifts: a renewed focus on systematic phonics instruction and on fluency. “Within the first five lessons, children are already starting to blend those sounds together,” McCauley said, adding that some kindergarteners are already reading words under UFLI.

District principals described what classroom implementation looks like. Peggy, principal at Coleman Hill Elementary, said she observed UFLI lessons in kindergarten with multiple teachers and emphasized the program’s eight routines per lesson and weekly progress monitoring: “Every single Friday, our children are doing their progress monitoring, which you can think of as a little mini test, to see that we are mastering what was taught that week.” The team said the program consists of 128 lessons across kindergarten through second grade.

School leaders contrasted UFLI’s pacing with the district’s prior core, Foundations, saying Foundations’ early units were longer and delayed blending. Under UFLI, teachers reported students moving from letter–sound work to blending words in a shorter timeframe. The presenters explained that progress monitoring uses short dictation/spelling-style checks to evaluate decoding and to inform small-group instruction and Tier 2 interventions for students who need more practice.

On assessment and outcomes, the panel said fluency screening (measured as words per minute and accuracy) will begin in late first grade and be administered three times a year. Staff also described efforts to link classroom progress monitoring to a district data dashboard so teachers and administrators can follow students’ literacy trajectories over multiple years and across schools.

Board members asked about differentiation for students who enter kindergarten already reading or who need slower pacing. McCauley said teachers will use weekly data to differentiate within lessons and provide targeted small-group instruction so more advanced students continue to be challenged while other students receive additional practice.

The district said UFLI is in its first year of implementation; staff expect instruction to take about 20 minutes daily once teachers reach full proficiency. Officials emphasized this is an early-stage pilot and that longer-term impact will be tracked using state ELA results and the district’s longitudinal data platform.

The board did not take a formal vote on curriculum adoption during the meeting; presenters described the pilot and said they will return with updates as implementation and data collection continue.