District narrows K–5 ELA vendor choices and outlines Act 20 implementation steps

The Jefferson School District’s curriculum director updated the board on curriculum and instruction work, emphasizing K–5 ELA alignment to the state’s science-of-reading guidance under Act 20 and the district’s early-literacy implementation.

After an initial review of approved resources, the district said it narrowed the ELA vendor list to two finalists and will conduct site visits on Oct. 30 and Nov. 4, followed by a late-fall pilot intended to inform a January decision. The director said the district will pilot the screener AIMSweb this fall (a state-adopted tool) in a practice round ahead of required winter submissions and that teachers are working on diagnostic and personal reading plans for students who screen below benchmarks.

The director described use of NextPath software to manage personal reading plans and said roughly 90–95 K–3 students fell below the 25th percentile threshold (the director said about 93 students) and that the district was about a quarter of the way toward completing required reading plans for those students. She noted that some curriculum materials the district used previously were not on the statewide approved list, so the team performed a crosswalk and added supplemental resources while pursuing a formal adoption.

Board members asked about funding; administration said the state funds the screener but not professional-development costs tied to Act 20 implementation and that curriculum-adoption reimbursements are partial and prorated based on participating districts. The director said professional development costs will be covered from the district’s general fund (fund 10) and that a formal promotion policy required by DPI will be presented after state guidance is released in January.