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Principals outline new ELA curriculum, interventions as diagnostics show large gains
Summary
Elementary and secondary principals told the Carlisle Local board they are in year one of implementing MyView ELA and expanding individualized interventions such as Edmentum; internal diagnostics showed double‑digit growth for seventh and eighth graders, and the district plans further training and schedule changes.
Building principals told the Carlisle Local Board of Education that the district is in the first year of implementing the MyView English language arts curriculum and is expanding individualized interventions after recent diagnostic assessments showed substantial short‑term gains for middle‑school students.
The elementary update, presented by Mr. Milner, said the district chose MyView from the state’s approved list and described it as “a structured literacy program based on the science of reading.” He said teachers across grade levels are receiving training on the science‑of‑reading approach and that the district is working to pair that training with classroom materials and supports.
“Science reading is a big push right now in the state,” Mr. Milner said. He added that wider Chromebook access allows the district to extend online interventions to younger students; the elementary team has expanded use of Edmentum to create individualized learning paths in both reading and math.
Secondary presenters credited a combination of targeted interventions and scheduling changes with strong gains on the district’s diagnostics. “Seventh graders in math, they’ve grown 85%. In reading, they’ve grown 81%,” the secondary principal reported, and said eighth‑grade gains were similarly large (math 95%, reading 87%, language arts 87%). The principals cautioned those figures reflect growth between internal diagnostics rather than state summative scores.
District leaders described several near‑term actions to sustain improvement: restructuring gifted services to concentrate expertise, adjusting special‑education/intervention staffing to provide more direct instruction, creating common planning time for grade‑level and subject teams, and refining intervention plans tied to the state’s reading improvement monitoring process. The superintendent said the Montgomery County ESC is providing curricular support and named Molly Stamp, a former Carlisle teacher, as a consultant familiar with district needs.
Officials also flagged attendance as a continuing challenge: the secondary report noted chronic absenteeism at roughly 20% at the junior high and said the district is working with families, counseling staff and local judicial partners to address the problem.
Next steps recorded at the meeting included continued teacher training on science‑of‑reading practices (with a training completion target mentioned for June), further analysis of diagnostic data, and continued partnership with regional support services to align interventions with state guidance.
The presentations were part of the superintendent’s administrative report and drew questions from board members before the meeting moved to routine business.
