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William Penn SD principals praise ELA pilots but flag assessment pacing and tech issues
Summary
Principals reported engagement and strong supports in Into Reading and SIVAS/MyView pilots but raised concerns about rapid spiral pacing, frequent assessments, and technology glitches; district will compare winter assessment data, survey teachers, and evaluate 1/3/5-year contract quotes before recommending a curriculum for 2026–27.
District staff and school principals reviewed midyear results from elementary English language arts pilots and outlined next steps before a 2026–27 curriculum recommendation.
Miss Tockely introduced the pilots and said district leaders sought principal feedback first, with teacher and student feedback to follow after winter assessments. "So for this overview, I asked for principals to give their feedback only from their leaders' perspective," she said.
Principal Safuni (East Lansdowne) praised Harcourt/Mifflin’s Into Reading for "strong support for foundational reading skills across kindergarten through fifth grade," highlighting targeted spelling progressions, short tabletop lessons, rich anchor charts and engagement features including an AI reading coach called Amira and interactive Classcraft activities. She cautioned, however, that "this program cycles through the reading skills very quickly" on a 4–5 day spiral that may not give struggling readers enough time to master concepts and that the program produces many assessments, requiring careful selection of which assessments to use.
Principal Catherine Smith (Ardmore) described piloting SIVAS MyView as "very rigorous and highlights student progress and is very data driven," noting embedded professional development, scaffolds for English learners and supports for special education students, and digital resources that reduce teacher planning load.
Staff also reviewed McGraw Hill Wonders 2023 feedback: professional development was praised for consistency and responsiveness, but principals said writing supports were less robust than expected and reported intermittent technology and assessment prepopulation issues. Miss Tockely said pilots are full-year and the district is reviewing price quotes for 1-, 3- and 5-year contracts to match budget constraints. She said winter MAP and Acadience results will be triangulated with non-pilot peers and teachers will be surveyed; a committee will synthesize feedback to make a final recommendation.
In response to board questions, principals said vendors provide guidance on assessment use, schools can select which module assessments to administer, and the district uses a Coachly subscription to schedule vendor consults. Miss Tockely added the district used the Reading League’s report card and Pennsylvania Department of Education guidance to screen curricula for required structured-literacy components before piloting.
Next steps: staff will collect winter assessment data, survey participating teachers and students, research publisher revision cycles on request, and return recommendations about which curriculum best fits instructional priorities and budget.
