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Sandwich schools report early gains from UFLY literacy rollout and expand teacher training
Summary
District literacy leaders reported reductions in the number of students needing Tier 2 reading intervention after implementing the UFLY Foundations curriculum, announced expanded professional development and summer supports.
Sandwich Public Schools officials on April 29 described early progress from the district's rollout of UFLY (University of Florida Literacy Institute) Foundations, a structured K'3 program focused on decoding and phonics.
Presenters explained the program provides a daily 30-minute explicit instructional block in kindergarten through third grade and uses ongoing informal weekly progress monitoring plus benchmark screening with the Imagine Learning screener. Jen Kirk, a district literacy lead, said the program is research-based and is already being used as a core curriculum in the district's third-grade classrooms while earlier grades use it as part of tiered instruction.
Winter benchmark results presented to the committee showed reductions in students requiring Tier 2 reading support: the February screening indicated a 33% reduction at grade 1 and a 28% reduction at grade 2 compared with the prior baseline. Presenters said those gains are in line with expectations and that final spring data will be reported after the May assessment window.
District leaders described monitoring practices: teachers administer informal weekly encoding checks and dictated-sentence writing samples; two-to-three benchmark screenings occur annually depending on grade. The district screens K'3 twice a year to meet state requirements and, by choice, screens Forestdale students three times per year.
Administrators announced expanded professional development: full-day UFLY trainer sessions for kindergarten and first-grade teams and combined sessions for second and third grades in the last week of May, plus invitations to the district's Summer Scholars program (July 13'30) for students in interventions. The district also said teachers who need extra support can observe demonstrations and Q&A with trainers.
Committee members asked about students who receive speech-language services; presenters confirmed classroom teachers deliver the UFLY block and students on IEPs receive additional services from speech-language pathologists as appropriate.
District officials said they will return with final May screening results and that they plan to scale teacher training to sustain a K'3 tier-one implementation.
