Hamtramck School District outlines curriculum overhaul and flags state funding risk for multilingual services

Sean Shoppeford, the district’s director of K–12 instruction, told the Hamtramck School District Board that the district is rolling out several curriculum and instruction initiatives aimed at classroom consistency and improved student outcomes. Shoppeford said the district will implement K–5 Reveal Math this year, continue the K–5 Wonders ELA rollout, introduce a 6–12 social studies sequence and expand instructional coaching across buildings. He said the district has 11 instructional coaches this year and has published a coaching handbook to guide a 6–8 week impact cycle for teacher coaching.

Why it matters: Shoppeford said the initiatives are intended to create measurable, vertically aligned instruction from kindergarten through 12th grade so the district can better assess the effectiveness of curricular choices. "We need to be able to measure its effectiveness," he told the board, describing committees formed in English, math, science and social studies to support alignment.

The presentation included the district’s plan for multilingual learners. Natalie, the district’s MLD director, presented preliminary WIDA testing trends and a breakdown of multilingual learners (MLs) by school. She reported that many buildings now have ML populations over 60 percent and stressed that some student groups—"newcomers" and long‑term ELs—require targeted intervention. On testing policy, Natalie said, "WIDA is Michigan is not an opt out state," emphasizing that the assessment is mandatory for identified ML students and affects building accountability.

Funding worry and call to action: Natalie said the district received notice that "section 41 is not on the budget with the Michigan House of Representatives," and characterized that omission as a threat to funding that supports multilingual services. She urged the board and community members to contact legislators and said the district can provide letter templates for advocacy.

District leaders also described culture and climate work with an outside consultant, Dr. J. Marsh, and noted an updated emergency operations plan and a small '97c' grant application (up to $2,000 per building) for safety assessments.

What’s next: The board asked for additional comparative data once statewide or peer district results become available. The district said it will return with more detailed building‑level comparisons when the full dataset is released to families and districts.