East Haddam staff favor Bookworms after year of piloting; board asks for more review of Wit & Wisdom

East Haddam School District reading specialists recommended Bookworms as the best fit to fill the district’s K–3 comprehension, vocabulary and fluency needs after a year of piloting and evaluation, the curriculum team told the committee.

The presentation, led by the building literacy team, summarized a waiver the district filed (submitted Feb. 28, 2023) and the December 2023 transitional waiver from the state that found the district met expectations for phonemic awareness and phonics but fell short on fluency, vocabulary and comprehension. Staff said they used the Great Schools Partnership hexagon tool and the IMET instructional evaluation tool to judge candidate programs and focused pilot work on Bookworms and Wit & Wisdom, both newly on the state-approved compendium list.

Team members said Bookworms was piloted schoolwide (module one from early September to mid‑November, with module two through January) and that the district invested a Right to Read small‑town grant (deadline Sept. 30, 2024) to purchase full Bookworms materials. By contrast, staff described Wit & Wisdom as a shorter, publisher-supported “mini pilot” (January–mid‑February) using free module materials for four teachers rather than a full paid rollout.

Teachers who piloted Bookworms reported increased student engagement, confidence and writing stamina, and emphasized the shared‑reading structure that puts a book “in hand” for early readers. Several classroom teachers said Wit & Wisdom’s emphasis on a single complex text and art‑based inquiry felt rigorous but resulted in lower engagement among younger students during the limited mini pilot.

Administrators and teachers told the committee they considered research and EdReports reviews while prioritizing local fit and teacher capacity. Presenters cited EdReports evaluations that rate Bookworms as partially meeting some criteria and said the district weighed practical usability and existing classroom structures when judging which program teachers could implement successfully.

Board members voiced concerns about the asymmetric pilot timelines and staff allocation. Committee member Sean questioned how an effective comparison could be made when Bookworms had months of schoolwide piloting and consultant support while Wit & Wisdom received a much shorter, smaller‑scale pilot. The board pressed administrators to explain why grant timing and program logistics led to the imbalance; staff said the grant spending deadline and availability of free pilot materials constrained options.

In response, administration (including Dr. Deito and Principal Peterson) said the decision to invest grant funds in Bookworms was made collaboratively and noted that Bookworms implementation included consultant support and extended professional development beginning the prior June. They offered to arrange additional sessions with the Wit & Wisdom publisher and to provide the committee with further implementation materials to allow a fuller evaluation before a final recommendation.

The committee agreed to pursue additional information and gave the administration until the May policy meeting to present further evidence and publisher materials; the district’s transitional waiver runs through July 1, 2025. The transcript records the plan for further review but no final board vote on program adoption in this session.

The committee’s discussion repeatedly framed the choice as a tradeoff between rigorous knowledge‑building (a strength of Wit & Wisdom) and early‑grade engagement and decodable text access (a strength teachers attributed to Bookworms), and emphasized teacher capacity, available consultant support and budget constraints as decisive practical factors.

Next steps: administrators said they will coordinate further publisher briefings, clarify what additional materials or paid components would be required for Wit & Wisdom implementation and return to the committee with that information ahead of the May policy meeting.