Elizabeth City-Pasquotank board adopts new ELA curriculum for grades 3–12

The Elizabeth City-Pasquotank Board of Education unanimously approved new English-language arts instructional materials for grades 3 through 12 at its April 27 meeting, moving to ELA Guidebooks for grades 3–5 and a hybrid of ELA Guidebooks and CommonLit for grades 6–12.

District presenters said the adoption aims to improve alignment with state standards, increase consistency in instruction, and embed daily writing practice. "The ELA Guidebooks provides a turnkey, high quality...for our students to critical think and build background knowledge," said Terri Doughty, a fourth-grade reading teacher who piloted the Guidebooks.

Supervising staff described the selection process and rollout plan: an ELA resource hub for teachers, unit planning in spring and summer, training sessions in August, and ongoing professional development during the year. The presenters also said they solicited teacher feedback and used an AI tool to help prioritize implementation tasks. "We used AI," a district presenter said, "and we said to AI, please prioritize, from 1 to 10 the things that we need to make sure that we integrate while we implement HQIM."

Board members asked for clarifications about writing instruction, grading and digital access. Presenters told the board the materials are accessible on district Chromebooks and are open-source; they noted potential supplemental purchases for printed materials. The board confirmed that both Guidebooks and CommonLit align with the North Carolina standards and that principals and teachers will receive planning and training support before students return.

The motion to adopt the curriculum was made, seconded and approved by a unanimous show-of-hands vote. District staff said classroom-level implementation will begin with planning before the end of the school year and continue through professional development during the summer and into fall.