Teacher committees are currently finalizing recommendations in these areas, with plans to present their findings to the School Committee in the coming months. A sustainable funding structure for curriculum review and adoption remains an ongoing challenge. While the curriculum review cycle is essential to maintaining high-quality instructional materials and alignment across schools, funding for curriculum adoptions is not currently embedded in the Office of Teaching and Learning’s operational budget. Curriculum Implementation During the past year, the district continued implementation of several major curriculum initiatives. In science, Newton began implementation of OpenSciEd, a nationally recognized, inquiry-based science curriculum designed to strengthen conceptual understanding and scientific reasoning. Because of the scale of the materials required for hands-on science instruction, the district is implementing this curriculum over multiple years to manage costs and support teacher training. The district also continues to strengthen literacy instruction across elementary and secondary classrooms. Current investments include curriculum materials and professional learning that support reading comprehension, writing development, and foundational literacy skills. English Language Arts Priorities Recent student performance data has highlighted areas where additional instructional support is needed. Analysis of both local assessment data and MCAS results indicates that students across grade levels face increasing challenges with complex informational texts. Winter student skill benchmark (STAR) and MCAS data show mastery levels for informational reading that decline across grade bands: ● Elementary: 74% mastery ● Middle School: 51% mastery ● High School: 47% mastery In response, the FY27 budget prioritizes several key literacy initiatives designed to strengthen reading and writing instruction across the district. Funded priorities include: ● UFLI Phonics Training to strengthen early literacy instruction ● EL Education student workbooks, which provide structured reading and writing practice aligned with the district’s core ELA curriculum These materials support daily student engagement with complex texts through annotation, writing, and vocabulary development. However, several additional literacy investments requested by the Office of Teaching and
Learning were not funded in the current proposal. These included: ● Additional informational text sets for middle school classrooms
● Writing practice and assessment platforms ● Professional learning for literacy specialists ● Replacement of classroom library materials
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