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District team recommends adoption of 'Emerge' elementary ELA curriculum; materials to be public for review
Summary
Snoqualmie Valley staff recommended the elementary curriculum 'Emerge' after a multi-curriculum pilot, saying the adoption aligns with the districts structured-literacy priorities and a recent state house bill on early literacy; the adoption team and curriculum review committee reportedly voted 100% in favor and materials will be available for public review at the district office.
Snoqualmie Valley School District staff told the board they recommend adopting the elementary English-language-arts curriculum "Emerge" following a multi-year pilot and a structured review process.
Kelsey Carr, who led the presentation, said the district evaluated four curricula (including Amplify, Savvas MyView/ReadyGen, Benchmark Advance and Emerge) against a rubric that prioritized research alignment, standards implementation, differentiation, accessibility and teacher usability. Carr said the adoption teams pilot across K— grades and the district curriculum review committee (DCRC) both returned unanimous support for the recommended program.
"We had 100% of the vote for Emerge," one presenter said during the presentation, and adoption-team members and teachers involved in the pilot provided consistent positive feedback about the curriculums alignment with structured-literacy practices and teacher usability.
Candace Warren, a literacy specialist at Cascade View Elementary, described how Emerge presents the "reading rope" components together in a single program so foundational skills and comprehension strands are taught in an aligned progression from kindergarten through fifth grade. Warren said the curriculum includes phonemic-awareness routines, strong foundational skills instruction, and strategies for teaching multi-syllable words and affixes at upper elementary levels.
Presenters emphasized that the recommended curriculum supports multilingual learners with an embedded multilingual guide and focus-group protocols, provides study-group and focus-group structures for tiered instruction, and includes accessible multimedia and vocabulary routines. They also said the curriculum includes a bias-screening score (presenters reported a 35 out of 37 score during their review) and integrates social studies, science and SEL standards across units.
Board members asked about teacher workload, vertical alignment with science and social studies, the pilots grade coverage and the timeline. Presenters said the adoption team included K— teachers, interventionists, ML specialists and special-education staff; they said materials will be available for public viewing at the district office per board policy and that the vendor will finalize digital materials before an August rollout for teachers. Presenters also stated that the curriculum meets the districts expectations under a recently signed state house bill on early literacy practices and will support the districts structured-literacy standards ahead of the laws 2027 requirement.
The board was invited to view the materials at the district office and to contact the adoption team with follow-up questions; no formal board vote on the adoption took place during this meeting.
