Revere Local highlights early-literacy push and new math supports for students with intensive needs

Revere Local curriculum leaders presented a package of classroom materials and instructional changes intended to boost early literacy and math understanding for students with intensive needs.

Missus Roach, the district's curriculum director, told the board the plan centers on Number Worlds intervention materials, 48 MathStart storybooks and hands-on manipulatives that teachers will use to make abstract math concepts concrete. She described classroom activities such as a cash-register/coffee-cart role play to teach money concepts and said the materials will be housed in the district office for teacher review.

The district emphasized alignment between the intensive-needs classroom and resource-room materials so students moving between settings encounter the same sequence of instruction. Roach said the district adopted LETRS and other Science of Reading training before the state requirement and is using the Simple View of Reading and Scarborough's Reading Rope to guide screening, diagnosis and intervention.

RTI case managers described the district's use of Acadience as the universal screener and walked board members through benchmarks for kindergarten through second grade: first-sound fluency and letter naming in kindergarten; phoneme segmentation and nonsense-word fluency in first grade; and oral reading fluency plus an oral retell in second grade. Michelle Pertzewski, the kindergarten RTI case manager, outlined how benchmark data triggers targeted interventions and progress monitoring.

Presenters illustrated the process with a case study in which a student moved from the district's red-risk band to strong growth after a combination of classroom and targeted intervention time. The presenters said parent-facing reports are produced by case managers (not printed directly from the platform) to reduce confusion about benchmark interpretation and that MAP family reports begin in second grade.

Board members praised the focus on alignment, teacher-to-teacher collaboration and family-friendly reporting. The district said resources and a recorded Early Literacy Night are available on the Teaching and Learning page of the district website.

The curriculum presentation was a first reading item; no board action was taken. Next steps include continuing implementation in classrooms, monitoring benchmark and MAP data, and returning to the board with any recommended policy changes or additional funding requests.