Stamford to pilot I‑Ready literacy tasks, adopt Magnetic Reading Foundations for K–2

At the May 13 Teaching and Learning committee meeting, Stamford School District leaders said the Connecticut State Department of Education invited the district to pilot I‑Ready literacy tasks statewide in K–3 next year and that the district will use those literacy tasks alongside the I‑Ready diagnostic as its universal screener in place of DIBELS and the FLSA.

Why it matters: The move consolidates multiple screening systems onto one platform, which district officials said will simplify data access for teachers and better connect assessment results to instruction.

Heather Corente of the Teaching and Learning department laid out plans to adopt Magnetic Reading Foundations as the district’s K–2 tier‑1 foundational literacy program. She said the program is research-based, will be used in grade-level core instruction and paired with small‑group intervention informed by literacy tasks and the I‑Ready diagnostic. Teachers will receive materials and training: two voluntary three‑hour summer sessions (with pay) and a mandatory August session for those who do not attend summer training; in-year coaching hours will be available from vendors and district literacy experts.

Corente and MTSS coach Rosanna Nargi presented results from a KT Murphy grade‑1 pilot. Nargi said the school regrouped 75 first-graders into four sections with co-teaching and intensive routines; progress monitoring using I‑Ready literacy tasks every two weeks across six weeks showed rapid gains. As one example, Nargi said a student moved from reading seven words to 18 and that many students moved to grade-level performance.

Jane Patel, a new‑arrivals teacher at Davenport Ridge who piloted Magnetic Reading with multilingual newcomers, said the program’s consistent routines and ready-made materials allowed instructors and paraprofessionals to teach across three grade levels and accelerate student learning. She reported a 103% average literacy growth in the new‑arrival center mid-window and said 88% of students exited to mainstream classrooms after instruction.

Board members asked how families will be informed and whether students’ personalized MyPath instruction will be accessible to parents. Administrators said they plan parent pop-ups, open-house demonstrations, parent letters included in the program and grade‑level outreach next year; they said MyPath is used by students in center rotations and not a parent-facing tool.

Corente said the Magnetic Reading rollout will include classroom decodables, teacher guides, decodable sets, sound‑spelling cards and an online teacher toolbox. Schools will conduct data reviews to match students to interventions such as Magnetic Reading prerequisite materials or BLAST for grade‑2 intervention.

What happens next: Principals will receive professional development soon, full teacher training is scheduled for August, and the district will pilot literacy tasks statewide with the state department of education next year. The administration will share EOY assessment data when available.

Quotes (selected): "Magnetic Reading Foundations will be used as our tier 1 for next school year," Heather Corente said.

"Our 1st student started with being able to read 7 words, and on their last progress monitoring, they were up to 18," Rosanna Nargi said of KT Murphy’s pilot students.

"We had a 103% average literacy growth in the new arrival center," Jane Patel reported for Davenport Ridge’s new‑arrival classroom.

Ending: The committee welcomed the early results and anticipated more end‑of‑year data; administrators said they will run family outreach and post training materials for teachers before the school year.