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Oakwood Schools touts new 'Wit and Wisdom' ELA curriculum, expands STEM training
Summary
District leaders and teachers described classroom results from the Wit and Wisdom ELA curriculum, tiered phonics interventions and a 30‑minute daily Win Time block, and announced expanded STEM partnerships and building‑level STEM champions to broaden coding and robotics offerings.
Dr. Gupta said Oakwood Schools has seen rapid classroom uptake of its new ELA curriculum and expanded STEM training, pointing to teacher training, targeted phonics interventions and student work as evidence of progress.
Emmy King, a third‑grade teacher at Smith Elementary, told the audience that implementing the district’s ELA curriculum, Wit and Wisdom, “has been a game changer.” She described lessons that combine texts, art and video to deepen students’ background knowledge, and said students now use Socratic seminars and evidence from readings and media to write and defend four‑paragraph opinion essays about topics such as the Apollo 11 mission.
That classroom work is part of a broader literacy strategy, Dr. Gupta said. The district is in year three of a foundations program that provides a multisensory, research‑based approach to phonics for K–3 students; it pairs Hegarty for phonemic awareness in K–1 and maintains Wilson Reading System trainers to support tier‑3 interventions for students with significant reading challenges. Dr. Gupta also described “Win Time,” a daily 30‑minute block at the elementary level for targeted reinforcement or enrichment.
Oakwood’s leaders also highlighted district outcomes and capacity. Dr. Gupta said Oakwood earned a five‑star rating on Ohio’s report card and noted that the district’s average class size is 20 students. He emphasized expanded access to advanced placement and career‑tech pathways at the junior high and high school levels.
Student speaker Joseph Hong, a senior at Oakwood High School who plans to attend Johns Hopkins University, credited AP classes and teachers—including an early AP World course with Mr. Dieters—with helping prepare students for college‑level work. He also pointed to extracurricular opportunities such as the Wright Scholar internship program at Wright‑Patterson Air Force Base as part of the district’s college‑ and career‑readiness offerings.
On STEM, Dr. Gupta said Oakwood has partnered with Jason Learning to benchmark current STEM work and provide a roadmap for next steps, and has named STEM champions at each building to collect artifacts and lead implementation. Kindergarten teacher Jody Allen described a hands‑on activity tied to Last Stop on Market Street in which students designed and built three‑dimensional buildings from their drawings, collaborated on measurements and documented their work with photos.
Dr. Gupta said the district is also working with AASA, the National Superintendent Association, to refine a districtwide STEM plan that will incorporate coding, robotics and engineering challenges across grade levels.
No formal votes or policy changes were taken during the presentation; speakers focused on classroom practice, partnerships and classroom outcomes. The presentation moved on to further discussion of STEM benchmarking and next steps for implementation.
