001have a brief agenda um which I'll address a little bit more in a second but um for right now the first thing on it is the Pledge of Allegiance Pledge of Allegiance to the flag United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible okay um my understanding is that you folks have about an hour to spend with us we have um a policy thing we need to address after you leave which has nothing to do with any of you guys that go um and I want to leave time for a robust Q&A when you're done and also for this committee to meet after you leave to talk about what we just heard so um I don't want you to be offended if it looks like I'm acting
002like a timekeeper because I'm Gonna Act Like A timekeeper and that doesn't mean we don't want to hear from you it means I got to parse out the available time is that okay with you guys um it's your show go ahead you get it started it's okay the mic is up there it'll catch you oh okay yeah that is okay so I just wanted to thank you for having us here today the team has been working really hard for years on what we're presenting to you today it's been leading up to this exciting moment I want to introduce my team I have Meg leri reading specialist Kayla Parson's reading specialist Kati Hill third grade classroom teacher Jessica Lowry second grade classroom teacher Kayla mlof first grade classroom teacher and Sandra schwen kindergarten classroom teacher and
003this team makes up our building literacy team who has been involved in the main process of piloting this year but there are members who have also been involved for the years leading up to it with our waiver process and things like that which we'll get into and I want to just thank you for the time I want to thank this amazing group for the work because we couldn't possibly represent in this packet how much has gone in into the work of um looking through the compendium reading programs that uh the state recommended and the whole entire process so they've worked really hard and I'm glad that they have a chance to come today and share all of this with you on on behalf of the committee we're grateful that you put the time and came
004so nothing to thank us for you guys are doing the hard work I second that so the objective for the whole process was to implement um a Connecticut approved K3 reading program compendium at East hatam Elementary School and select the best one to support our Learners in doing so we comply with a Statewide mission to increase the effectiveness of literacy teaching and learning through advocacy research and education so that all Connecticut students are reading at or above grade level independently and proficiently by the end of third grade that's the ultimate goal of all of this work and researching these different resources to see what's going to help get our students there so in December of 2023 we received our waiver response um our waiver was submitted by February 28th 2023 and we did not here
005back until December and we were we were granted a transitional waiver so the results were that our curriculum model and program showed evidence of meeting expectations of the Connecticut General statutes as amended by Public Act 2367 in phonemic awareness and phonics but our curriculum models and programs did not meet expectations regarding fluency vocabulary and comprehension our district was granted the transitional waiver um which required us to add and substitute specific programmatic or curricular components so our next steps after receiving that information was to find a core program that meets expectations for fluency vocabulary and comprehension from the list of Connecticut approved K3 reading models and programs all right so we used the Scaro reading rope to show um how we had the hegerty foundation newly was approved um because these were already in our curriculum
006we Implement those and so that's all our word recognition phonological awareness and so when we were looking for programs we were really just looking to fill that language comp comprehension piece um because that the that's the part that was not approved by the state and so these pieces go together to make up skilled reading so really to develop skilled readers you need to have a strong word recognition instruction and you need to have strong language comprehension instruction and so that's what sent us on our search I have the all right so our lens for looking um at new programs we got this hexagon tool from Great Schools partnership I believe it was Sarah Great Schools partnership and this just helped us to really hone in on what we were looking for with our curriculums and
007so um you can see there is evidence so evidence is is there research or data supporting the program's Effectiveness there is usability that's is the program well- defined adaptable and easy to implement supports what training coaching or technical assistance is available for successful implementation capacity does the district have the staff resources and support to implement it effectively fit how well does it align with existing initiatives priorities and Community Values and the need does the program address a critical need within the district or school so we just kept all of these in mind as we were reviewing the programs initially all right and this just goes along with what I said before we have for phic awareness we have the hegr program which is just a daily Spiral Review of phonemic awareness um tasks so um
008phonic awareness is to the ability for children to manipulate the sounds and words and it's a really important foundation for reading development phonics we have foundations and hegr supports this foundations is a explicit and systematic phonics program um everybody does this K3 and it's a really great program that we've had in place for years and then youly we use that for intervention so tier two in the classroom and tier three out of the classroom it's just another explicit and systematic phonics instruction that um supports our students in developing those skills just one quick question these programs are all on the approved list from the state yes exactly so when we had um our approval they basically said these are good you can keep these and then um we need to find something for the comprehension
009P okay thank you so just add one thing to that they're a part of what they call a compendium so in order to be able to have um these other comprehension programs like the bookworms or Wht and wisdom or any of the others that are out there and published this is a part of the recipe so to speak so that it comes together so this is the phonics piece yeah we need to have others one of the approved all right so we're going to lay out the timeline of the work that has been done um starting in the spring of 2022 and the fall and winter of 2023 um we had submitted our waiver and had received our response um there was a small group of us that had gone to a um program preview
010at uh a school in Middletown it was the first one that they kind of set up so there were a few of us that went for the first round of of compendiums that were um approved by the state um we from that looked more closely at the E which was one of the um programs on that list we met with districts who were using El for feedback and at that time determined we did not feel like that best met our needs so we continued to research other approved programs and decided to obtain some samples specifically the CK um and then Dr Dorito brought us some programs and resources here we had a big table laid out for some time in the hallway and we came over in different shifts to look through those resources to
011see if there were other areas that we felt like those might address so we compared those options um that met the waiver requirements to address comprehension vocabulary and fluency we were introduced to the IM met tool which is an instructional evaluation tool looking at the different components of Cur Ula and how it meets the needs of students or doesn't meet the needs of students and from there we decided to look more deeply at two different U models wit and wisdom and bookworms which were on a recently approved list so then in March of 2024 our staff at the elementary school reviewed potential pilot materials we sought feedback from not only our staff but other districts that we have connections with so we continued to get that feedback about how programs were being implemented how Pilots
012were going and um we continued to have staff members participate in the learn Ela Roundtable to continue to brainstorm and network with colleagues in their processes to gain as much knowledge and information as we could our staff reviewed specifically um ckla wit and wisdom and bookworms and completed a survey and again narrowed it down to the two Whitten wisdom and bookworms as possible pilots in April of 2024 we conducted site visits and an in more in-depth review of the program components so we had virtual meetings with Representatives um who were connected to the different curricular models um and we visited hadam Killingworth and um a school in Marboro and saw both programs in action and were able to collaborate and talk with their reading Specialists their teachers um and in some case their administrators on
013how it was all going what some important takeaways were that we could bring back to our team so then in May of 2024 we were able to take everything we had learned about these different programs and our thoughts about doing wit and wisdom and book fors as our pilot um present them to Dr Doro and kind of talk about our process to date um in Fall of 2024 we were able to start our book pilot um prior to implementation this team um had a hand in guiding the rest of the staff in previewing um the programs pacing out what we would be doing planning for implementation and um engaging all of the grade level teams in um professional Learning Community meetings to get that off the ground and that was focused on bookworms at that
014point yes so we bookworms was the first one that we piloted um and during that time um Dr deito had invited um members of this team to participate in a master class series um that kind of ran from June to December um and ended with us presenting to the state about what our reading process was every meeting was kind of another um aspect of reading um so we focused we had a whole um session on Phonics and a whole session on vocabulary and comprehension and fluency so that we could develop our expertise and really know very deeply what we were looking for in our programs so that really helped guide us um and then September 30th 2024 was our deadline for spending a right to read small town Grant um that we had received in
015order to help fund some of this um pilot uh or fund some of the reading programs um so um Dr dedo and um principal Peterson approved the purchasing of the bookworms materials at that point that was the one that we had piloted um and it made sense to spend our grant funding on that program um and with this grant money we now have um materials on site for the full implementation of bookworms because we had to spend that money um by that point so that was what we purchased was um all of the materials for bookworms even though all we've actually used of it was the pilot materials so if I'm hearing you correctly you invested the entire Grant in bookworms before you ever started Whitten wisdom there was unfortunately a deadline for spending that
016grant money right but there was nothing preventing you from starting spending money on Whitten wisdom was it oh no absolutely not because made a choice yep yep the choice was made question I thought you only ordered the initial module and they sent you the whole thing and you were like oh we got to send them back because we never paid for all of thiss right they sent all these materials that are boxed up we never paid for them they just right they just happen to all show up but we reached out because we we invested a lot of time and energy into the learning about this and implementation we felt like it took time to to get our engines going with module one staff were starting to really get the pacing and the routines and
017the rituals of instructing with the book morms so we we invested some of the grant funds to then get the second modules and at the time we got the second and third because if we didn't spend it then um we would have lost it the timing of the Grant and the process for piloting resources did not align um we had until the end of this school year to select whatever program we were going to implement with full implementation needing to be in place for the fall of 2025 um the grant expired very quickly after we received it and the materials for WT and wisdom those were free that was a so the pilot from W and wisdom they did not charge okay so then that was our next uh winter last actually I'm sorry one
018question did you know that you were going to get that pilot in um information free when you made the decision about expending the money um we didn't nope okay so you made a choice I think you also consulted with the Reps from bookworms right with modules that were unused if they could potentially be returned for a portion of the money um I don't yes and they had said yes so those that are present could be returned for a portion of the money is that in process since you're going with the different we haven't decided what we're going with Y uh okay all right go ahead I'm sorry I've interruped so uh winter of 2025 we were able to do our Wht and wisdom pilot um same process for implementing the bookworms pilot um the team
019um didn't um need to preview Pace plan and do the professional development for the entirety of the school because we did a mini pilot so this team was the on we were the ones implementing um the wit and wisdom pilot so we did that amongst ourselves we worked together to preview Pace plan and do the professional development um to meet with the Whitten wisdom representatives to get that off the ground and Implement our mini pilot and then in April of 2024 um we um used the IM met tool um we had virtual meetings with representatives from each district regarding implementation um and we um used what we knew about Wht and wisdom and bookworms to fill out this tool and try to determine how um as you saw on the hex tool that um Kayla
020Parsons was discussing what was the usability what was the fit what was the capacity of our school to implement um all of these different things and try to compare the two programs um and how the roll out went for site visit we did our site visits too um so we had visited the different schools and we um took into account not only our experiences but other schools experiences with these programs we visited some schools that had been been implementing for multiple years um they did a lot of them did staggered rollouts so some of the teachers had been implementing for three years others had been implementing for two others this was their first year so we were able to get really valuable feedback from people who had implemented it for much longer and more comprehensively
021than we had to try and give us a sense of what that would look like as we move into the future with either of these programs um and they were implementing both programs uh no we visited different schools um that had some one that had adopted bookworms and one that had adopted Whitten Wiz the one that adopted bookworms did Implement a pilot of Whitten and wisdom prior to bookworms so they had that lens to communicate with us I'm honestly not sure if HK also uh looked at bookworms I feel like they might not have because they had implemented quite early on and bookworms was approved as a compendium after that date so um this is that same rope except now instead of we need something um for that language comprehension piece um we were um
022deciding between Wht and wisdom or book wors we also implemented geodes um which is a set of decodables that really would support um giving kids books in hand that were decodable to um tie that word recognition piece the phonics piece in with um you know giving them an actual book so they're not doing words in isolation um the geod books are valuable no matter which of the two programs we ended up going with so that seems like a logical choice to kind of tie the two and Goos is from the publisher of WT and wisdom so that's how you learned about them and so you we've already purchased geod from Y and geod is directly also connected to our foundations program so on the back of each of those books it will say linked to
023less in blank of your skill work that you did with foundations now you have this beautiful text that is also knowledge building and also kids can go through it and it's we call Safe they can go through and decode each of the words without struggling they're wonderful how long did the pilot for um bookworms last from September um second or about second week of September until about the second week of November was module one and then module two went into January so you spent the better part of three months on that one and it involved every teacher in the school is that what happened okay and how many uh how long was the pilot for wh wisdom how long did it take you guys January into February January and into February like halfway through February
024I believe so five or six weeks because it was considered a mini pilot they gave us the materials for um for what they called Arc one so and that's they recomended were part of that four one per grade level one at each grade level the ones that are here now I'm just going to read the blurb on book worms and on Wht wisdom so that you can get some more information about the two programs book worms is designed to expose students to a high volume of fulllength deeply engaging trade books to build knowledge and drive liter literacy instruction over the course of elementary school students will study 265 bu like texts these grade level texts are read by the teacher and through shared readings with appears multiple times each time with a different purpose the
025curriculum systematic phonics based foundational skills block features unique skill-based student groupings support supported by frequent assessments with tailored instruction for each group including protocols that are clear and simple for teachers to follow and then wit and wisdom core is a framework of strategic questions designed to guide teachers and students through Reading Writing and speaking about exceptionally rich and diverse texts many award-winning favorites are included that showcase diverse perspectives instructional protocols Drive deeply thoughtful inquiry into the material paintings photographs and music are thoroughly integrated and seamlessly connected to lesson studies artfully rendered phonics aligned readable text called geod reinforced students application of sound spelling patterns connected to the topics studied a lot of words both and yet you read them so well I tried I really tried that kindergarten reading amazing so now we're on we're
026going back to our lens our initial lens and I want to say that over the course of years I think you'll appreciate the fact that our lens has changed a number of times because we're looking at different tools that are brought um to our attention and then we look at what is a fit for us and what we can look at so initially when we went through that first tool that Kayla presented to you with the hex tool this is how we were raing our findings on both of um and this was done previous to Dr deito bringing us the imet tool so having looked at both programs we found that bookworms for us this was based on feedback from the te teachers after they had done it met in all of the areas and
027then when we looked through wit and wisdom we we found that the usability the fit and the capacity for us was not needing that was based on feedback from people implementing and I want to bring up too that when we look at um our evidence piece we also when we're close looking we did look at Ed reports which I'll get into another one and we had a lengthy discussion about that um Dr deito had brought the reports to our attention we looked at them as well and I think um like we'll say when we look at evaluations of any programs there's going to be pros and cons there's going to be studies that say yes this is great there's going to be studies that say it's not great I think that what we're most looking
028for is the fit for our community and what we see our readers and our Learners being able to succeed with as well as the teachers who are delivering that instruction and that resource so that we know that there's a lot of teacher buyin and that they are also ready to teach and trained with that particular program so having said that in terms of um the usability we felt that um bookworms had so let me back up a minute with the usability rating when you look at Ed reports they don't rate usability because on the Ed reports evaluation bookworms is a partial Al met and wit and wisdom is met and the reason for them not raing the usability is because bookworms is partially met so we don't have a reading for Ed reports on um
029usability they just don't read it on this one we felt the usability for bookworms was a yes for us and was not for wit and wisdom that was based on um we felt like staff knew what to do and how to prepare and how to assess some of our structures at the time were already in place we had put into place interactive read louds and had professional development on that so there's a part of bookworms where they will read a text together and do an interactive read aloud and because that structure was there teachers were already trained I will say that that exists as well in in Whitten wisdom they're able to also do that interactive real alloud but it brings in other structures that kids would not have been familiar with um was there
030something that would prevent them from being trained more no teachers are definitely available to all the things for sure so I don't think there's anything that prevents it um in terms of fit we felt like the fit with bookworms especially for our students was better um we felt like it was accessible to all students who were even struggling and learning um to be readers and to be fully engaged um that being said both bookworms and Whitten wisdom have texts that are considered to be um very high in terms of their vocabulary and their rigor and their complexity however bookworms presents a shared reading component and because of that those texts are less complex but they also help those students to have a book in front of them and Kayla will show you in a minute
031um a sample of that that they feel like they can access that they can put their finger in and that they can read and come along with that shared reading over the course of days they become more and more confident we saw that in our readers build stamina have confidence believe that they could be readers and that was huge for us that we felt like all kids were really feeling validated with that I just had a quick question um you were explaining about the complexity of the text yes could you kind of elaborate on that just so I have an idea of sure what you're talking about um so in terms of text complexity you're looking for books that have Rich vocabulary that have um kids even the expectation of the program would be to
032go back in that text and to be able to answer questions with comprehension in those texts so these complex texts might be texts that they can't read themselves but they can access because they're being read out loud to them um just like when we tell parents please read this story at home to your student that they can't read themselves we want them to be exposed to that level of complexity vocabulary that they can't decode and read and also presenting that vocabulary to them so that they know what they mean so as compared to um a book like biscuit which would just be a step into reader where they're just learning and engaging in a story that's just fun about a little puppy and has very large print and they're reading through it and pointing to
033the text while they're reading so it's less complex um which actually led to the rating um of partially met with bookworms because half of their texts are those shared reading texts for the purpose of they'll say turning students into bookworms turning them into having that love of reading and without that um that that makes that complexity of text be 50% versus 100% in Whitten wisdom is more of that 100% with Whitten wisdom they've created a volume of reading um collection that they for an additional price outside of the program you can purchase and those are their books that they would utilize for more independent reading um that's that's how they termed that in particular answer question um let's see in terms of the f we talked about the existing structures both programs absolutely have clear
034scope in sequence and um we just felt like the ease of implementation was there more with um with that also I will say that the author of bookworms Associates um the significant positive results on standard standards align test um that was also important to us and it was something that we looked at I will agree that the same would be with WT and wisdom so when you're reading these there's so many components as we went back to that hex tool you can see it up in the top left corner there's a lot of little indicators within that and so we went through it with what had the most and least there are some that exist in both of them um under capacity that's where we talk about um book worms has those shared reading books
035already in there um wit and wisdom does not it's an addition cost we have geod already so the capacity is there for either because geod is linked both to our foundations program as well as to wit wisdom so if you're doing lessons in wit wisdom that content building is linked to the geodes books so kids have those books there in their hand um that are decodable and they are also linked to our work building so um but in terms of capacity and dollar and cents we felt I'm sorry to interrupt you I apologize no that's fine there's a lot of information I understand well it's just there are um I think there's words that we might need to um sort of Define for us to understand um when you say usability whose usability yours or
036the kids the program usability but it's the program usability for teachers to be giving it to the students and then as such how the students students are using it so it's the program overall okay and when you same question about fit and capacity who who needs to fit this and whose capacity are you concerned about so I would say it personally and I don't want to speak for the whole team but I would say the fit needs to be appropriate first and foremost to the students that we're teaching because they're our priority they're the ones that we want to come out of this being um amazing readers and also loving the reading and the question the overarching question was how well does it align with existing initiatives priorities and Community Values and thinking back to
037the fact that we already had those interactive read alouds as a structure and we really liked that as a way to teach students were you doing those before you piloted bookworms yes that was previous initiatives um yep and I think I will say that when we presented our waiver um the interactive read alouds was at the time what we were implementing to supplement the comprehension and the vocabulary piece of our instruction along with the units of study that teachers had created that are in um thank you too many words this morning that are in Atlas already so okay and um isn't isn't that aspect of it what made it so that you got a transitional waiver instead of a full waiver corre okay so those pieces that you just described the state viewed as inadequate
038in some fashion I think it just wasn't enough it was it was the piece of what we were currently doing that was going really well the rest of it was kind of teacher created which I think the state well like I said it was inadequate in some fashion that I mean it's not a value judgment that's what they decided correct it was inadequate because it wasn't enough but the structure of it the interactive approach to reading a text was because that's exactly the structure that exists it's a common structure you know before that resource was even created it exists with bookworms and M as well I don't know if I have the next slid turn page and I don't um this is a piece of re research that was published in the elementary school Journal
039um it shows achievement results um measured by reading comprehension in grades three through five uh Bookworm schools gain significantly more than comparison schools in reading comprehension at every grade three through five um and also gained significantly more influency grades three and five uh so this was on their initial implementation year when it says comparison who who's what is being compared alternative programs it doesn't so it's any other program it's not W wisdom correct Y and so this is a day in a life this is an example of first grade materials this is to expand on what mag is saying so on the left side we have a Whitten wisdom book um it's Tomas and the library lady which which is a complex rigorous text that students engage with daily and then on the right side
040there's the bookor books so there's an Ela component um so this was an example of Alexander and the Terrible Horrible No Good Very Bad Day again a complex rigorous text that students engage with daily um for Tomas and the library lady it has the teacher read aloud the students are interacting with the text the same with the ELA portion and then bookworms also had the component of shared reading so this is an example of the biscuit series biscuit goes to school so students are supported as they engage with this text with more Independence increasing their volume of reading stamina and opportunities for skill and application so for this shared reading component it starts off it's a progression where it's a coral read allowed with teachers and students and then it'll move into an echo read
041students have opportunities to partner read and they also have time to work with the text independently um they can use the text for evidence when they're doing their written responses daily and so with that shared reading component we saw a really high increase in student engagement the students really loved these books they were excited to see what book was next in the series um this is an example of biscuit so they read several Biscuit books in first grade they also did a author study on Sid Hoff so the Danny and the Dinosaur books so books that are at their appropriate at their level and things that they can engage with um really helps build student engagement and um if any other teachers who piloted both programs this would be a good time to share kind
042of how our students felt about both programs abouts I'm kindergarten and both of them are very involved for kindergarten both programs very invol involved with the wit and wisdom we read one book five days a week we read it over and over and over again asking questions with bookworms we read the ELA book five times a week also but then we also get the shared reading another type of book so and then we have poems we have nursery rhymes and then we have a poem involved also so with bookworms I just found that there was more to read the kids they they lose interest quickly you know they're five and they lose so you know it's more in kindergarten sometimes is a little better just because you know they're little ping pong balls you know
043bouncing all over the place so I I um book worms that's what I liked about book works there was more opportunities to do different types of breing I I agree I think in terms of um you know student engagement wit and wisdom I was so hopeful because it looks it looks so good on paper because it talks about there's you know art that the kids are looking at there's some poetry infused in there but we ended up looking at the same piece of art every day for a week and the kids were like this again um and then in second grade we were reading books um in ela that had these lofty vocabulary words and we were really and then when we were reading in shared reading it was tying in those same vocabulary words
044except the kids had heard me read it we discussed it in depth and then they were applying it on their own so they were screaming in the classroom Mrs lry here's the word complicated remember we talked about that and that was the piece for me the student engagement piece that was really missing with WT and wisdom I thought we were going to get that with the art and the poetry and all of those beautiful pieces that look so good on paper but really it was the book inhand shared reading piece where they felt like readers and even the kids in my class who could not independently read the shared reading book were still working on you know the phonics piece and the decoding they were hearing me read it aloud they were Echo reading it
045there were pieces of it that they were really able to read um and it just really made them feel like readers so that for me the student engagement piece and the less teacher directed more feeling like I have a book in my hand um was a beautiful piece that and and we did look at Whitten and wisdom and they have this volume of reading add-on that you could purchase they had a book list of books that you could purchase to try to get that same experience from shared reading but there was already so much in wit and wisdom that to add anything else to it I think if we were to adopt that one we're really going to end up no program is perfect and we are definitely going to have to adapt either or
046just a little bit to fit um the needs of our school but I think with wit and wisdom it would be a matter of like taking some things out so that we could get the student engagement piece and I I didn't feel like adding in for the additional cost all of the they're called volume of reading right that was the b list yeah all of the volume of reading books and we also as a team reviewed the list of books that were on the volume of reading list and some of them are books that I've done as an interactive read aloud because they really weren't um they weren't as independent for a second grade reader it has the L lofty vocabulary that we're looking for um but we also want the students to really be
047able to dig in and feel like readers so that was kind of my experience with it from a third grade perspective um I think just to Echo what they've all said the student engagement was incredibly high with bookworms they're shared reading they feel like readers every day whether they're reading a chapter book a non-fiction text they're building knowledge but the big piece with third grade 2 is that they're reading but they're responding to their reading every day they're writing about what they read um they are writing in many different ways they're writing letters journal entries opinions they're going back into the text to find evidence to support their answers um so really their writing stamina was through the roof with bookworms um the vocabulary that they engaged with um preparing them for higher text and
048those standardized testing that they're going to get a get a chance to take this year really exposing them to different words and using them in context um so with Whit and wisdom I saw a big decrease in my student engagement those students that felt like readers were now looking at the same picture book all day and instead of reading it and then going on to the next text they're annotating and looking for language within the text um so we felt a little less like readers and we were looking at a lot of art so students were again using the vocabulary that they've acquired um but the engagement had shown a decrease just a quick question sure when you were comparing the two I was just curious in terms of subject matter was it a a
049similar book in as far as topics did you find that some topics were probably more well-received than others sure um so when you mean in between the two programs or if we were doing book worms in the ELA and the shared reading between the two programs so so I can speak when we did bookworms so the ELA and the shared reading are supposed to kind of go together right so for example um we were doing information we were reading information text in both Ela and the shared reading they were reading about rocks and then then they're going into that Ela and they're learning about how to form informational text of their own they're going back they're revisiting that text they're finding the details to form their own writing so the ELA in third grade looks
050a lot about like learning how to be a writer um as far as when we did try Whit and wisdom um because we tried the um they called it the mini pilot and it was the arc zero it was kind of um setting up classroom expectations and routines for this new program so it was a lot of thinking about who you are as a reader um if anybody else has anything to say um I know in second grade um the topics for wit and wisdom and we looked because before we even piloted we looked so deeply at both programs that we kind of had an overview there were certain topics in both that we were like I don't know how that's going to go in my grade level right is it is it too lofty
051is it not lofty enough so we kind of um explored the book lists in general for all of the programs that we looked at but especially these two because we were finalizing them I think these two were definitely the Front Runners in terms of topics that um could be engaging I do think you know we read about frogs in um for a informational piece in uh bookworms and we read about weather in wit and wisdom I the topics that we ended up doing during the pilot bookworms was the clear winner in terms of like you know how engaging the topic was um but I think there would be highs and lows as we went through either program I I don't want to be rude but it's it's time to move on um Sean you have
052not had an opportunity to ask any questions do you have any that you want to ask no not this time you guys are an excellent job I very thorough I do have pages of notes but you guys have any question that pops up in my head you already answered and I really appreciate the indepth explanation so I'm good Jackie do you have any no uh no I think I've asked as as I going along um I think the only question I have is you had mentioned that there were only four teachers on the Whitten wisdom how many were on the book wordss all the teach so everybody K3 16 I have some real questions and concerns about process here um I don't know if any of you know this but I was a teacher I
053spent 20 years in school administration I spent five years managing curriculum in three different disciplines um in a much larger School District so I have experience with all this stuff I am not an elementary person per se and I do not claim that expertise at all um are we in agreement that time on task is an important part of Education okay so how authentic are we supposed to believe it is when you devote months and months and 16 teachers to piloting one program and a few weeks and four teachers to Pilot in the other especially when you already spent all your money on the one that you spent all the time on it really sounds to me like it wasn't authentic you you picked what you wanted before you ever got there explain somebody's got
054to explain I speak to that a little bit I don't want watch one to not be able to see me um so I will say that we had done site visits we' done extensive research into the programs we'd gotten a lot of feedback from other schools who had implemented it for years and years and um you know I do think as we implemented bookworms it was so um clear to a lot of the staff that it was going really well that it didn't make a lot of sense for the entire staff to switch gear years we definitely wanted to Pilot that you know wit and wisdom and have the experience and do our due diligence um but when you have that's my concern if if you only devote a fourth of the teachers and a
055third or a fourth of the time you haven't done your due diligence I I don't understand how you can how you can think that you did um and I don't mean to be rude I really don't I just the math does not add up yeah I understand that pardon can I speak yeah of course so I understand why you're um in that particular um opinion at this point because I think some of it at at least for me felt as we went through the process we get to um so last uh end of school year June we did a professional development those materials as we had said bookworms had sent us all of the manuals and we did a professional development at the last day of the school year so that teachers were ready to
056dive into their pilot of bookworms at the start of the year so the intention at that point was to just pilot module one of bookworms it wasn't until sometime within the summer that um I believe we were made aware that the funding was going to need to be spent by September 31st so then the alignment for me in my mind was difficult too because how can we be expected to spend all those funds but not know which program we want until the end of this school year and then how do we fully Implement both pilots in terms of spending that money so that was always difficult in our mind as well you made a choice you said we're going to spend it all on bot I didn't well I didn't say you who did who
057made that choice though we made the choice in collaboration this wasn't done in who's we so Teresa and I we talked about I support what you needed yes okay um and to be you know if there was a perfect resource everyone would be doing it right every every District in conne and so you sit you sit in an admin meeting with colleagues from other districts and everyone chose something different so there's no magic thing and there's there's growing pains and there's pros and cons to every any direction that we go we put a lot of effort and energy in on the front end in my opinion of on one prob no of visiting of researching if you look back to the beginning of our timeline we had a visit to the Middletown Consortium looking at
058all of the resources we dug into resources that Dr deito brought we brought back four different resources to our staff to dig into using some of those evaluative me measures to see which one was that good fit for for the curriculum that we have in place for science for social studies for some of the structures like Mike talked about and we made the decision to do bookworms first we felt like that was going to be a good fit and it was a great fit was there um roadblocks and barriers and and struggles to get through to to learn how to implement that absolutely and we engaged with professional learning folks to help us through figuring out how to make it work how to make it fit within our classrooms who made the decision to only
059have four teachers and a shortened pilot on book on uh wit and wisdom Teresa and I made that decision in collaboration the Min your team made that decision and you inform me that that's what you decided to do it's better for the leadership team to take it and I just supported what you decided I I was never a part of any of your meetings what were you folks told about who's going to choose what what do you mean I have heard rumors that you folks were told that you were going to pick and that was going to be the end of it is that true I think we were told that we would have a voice in it and I think we have had a voice in oh sorry I said I think we were
060told that we would have a voice I think that's all you know we really wanted was to have our voice heard and valued and I think we have had a voice in the process we've definitely um as a team worked together and really dug into this and been able to collaborate with you know um principal Peterson and Dr drio and um have our voices heard in terms of what actually works in the classroom and I think that was the only promise that was made to us was that we would be able to see how it worked for us and for our students and then to speak to um you guys about how it actually worked okay um would you agree that well first of all for the record um I think anybody doing this kind
061of work that doesn't give the teachers a strong voice is an idiot um to put it bluntly um you guys are on the front line is actually doing the work but that doesn't necessarily mean that that's what's going to come out in the end um and that doesn't that doesn't mean that anybody's being disrespected it means people at a different View and made a different decision do do you understand that I mean does that make sense to you folks I think it was clearly communicated to us that the board will be the final decision of what program is adopted um I think that in terms of the full implementation for for the entire school for wit and wisdom I'm assuming came down to Dollars and cents of how many how many materials we could get
062at our disposal for how many teachers and they agreed to give us the mini pilot for the four teachers free I don't know the dollars and cents amount of where you know money would have come from at that point but I'll just speak to that General and I think in engaging with districts who had were further along in the process most of the models had been Pilot One Pilot two some people piloted four I mean it again it's variable depending on how things shook out in different districts um and in talking to colleagues a lot of the staff feedback was was highly considered but let me ask you this um do you know what other surrounding schools have chosen yeah can you tell us um from recent conversations um I think Portland and Middletown are
063inter reading I think is the name of of that is it called yes inter reading um I think Clinton went with eel um H East wisdom was HK had a killing Awards yeah and then Marboro was bookworms um East Hampton I always get [Music] my my wife wants to talk to me even though I'm in a meeting and she knows that oh Hampton ended up doing uh Whitten wisdom um those the ones like right off the top of my head that I can think of that I've sort of been kind kind of keeping track of in conversations I think too for for me um it is what it is but we've also gone through this process over the course of a number of years from the first time when information was released under um the
064supervision of three different superintendents um one of whom was saying I think it's going to go away it's not going to happen um was here when she was when we were in the the um waiver process and guiding us through that piece um and then Dr deito has been great about giving us all of the resources to kind of look at as well as different evaluative tools you can see we started with one tool went into another one and um you know we're teachers by trade and that means that children are our most important asset and what we want most so it's deep in our heart that we do what's best for them that's where I think it would be important to add a couple of things so book fors and W wisdom were not
065on the list when I first engaged so all the materials that were here at central office neither one of those was on that table so then you got those materials and reviewed them um because it was so truncated I offered to meet with the publisher of Whitten and wisdom and we have a session tomorrow afternoon where I will dig with you based on their input so that's important for you all too to know does anyone have any questions I'd like to just just on a you know a couple comments um I just was as far as the money gets talked about I definitely you know think that as far as in our teachers and when we're piloting stuff money isn't even a priority I mean we talk about the dollars and cents but again your
066job is to really just be understanding what you know what's best for the knowledge and what what are get to get our kids you know our students to where they need to be so just not even worrying about that money portion while we're pil piloting these things uh secondly I'd like to just put out there on the record I think that a quarter of the teachers that were chosen to Pilot that second P I think that was appropriate um as opposed to using you know the whole entire understand that I mean giving you the B giving our team the benefit of the doubt that um the four teacher whoever the four teachers that were chosen that they have the best interests for our kids all of the all of your teachers you do and um
067you know we trust that as far as your colleagues and yourself we trust that you report back for what's for for the group with your honest opinion and there's no bias with that so I personally just think that that's uh you know an appropriate amount again just my personal business not necessarily kids are reading I've implemented a lot of programs to large groups of people and um I found that what works best you guys hit on a lot of those topics and what you know keeps people engaged and not necessarily the end result of the powerfulness because something could be very very powerful but if you don't have the the steps to get there to keep people engaged and user friendliness and whatnot then it really doesn't mean anything at the at the tip of
068the sphere so um that and then um it's just uh although it's nice to know what our surrounding towns do use it's ultimately and at the end results our teachers know what's best and for E Adam so it's nice to know what other surrounding towns use and that's okay to even if everybody else thing to what's best for East Adam and I trust that our teachers are going to tell us that that's that's my sh anybody else yes um just in hearing all the information was a lot of amazing information and thank you for the work that you have put into this one thing that is sticking out to me that is a bit of a concern is that timeline and I know there were reasons behind that that but being in marketing whenever we
069have to launch a new product or look at a potential strategy we always do what's called an AB test especially with social media and that sort of thing and it's comparing Apples to Apples and one thing that I did not hear that's a really a big concern to me is an Apples to Apples comparison and when you have an entire when every teacher implementing one program versus only four and you've got five months of a program versus a month and a half that to me is a concern because I don't see that AB test strategy being implemented so ultimately I agree with Sean you are on the front lines you know what's happening you were on you got boots on the ground my concern is I want to make sure that every every program that
070we're looking at actually has a fair shake and that's all I have to say yeah and and for what it's worth um I mentioned that I spent 20 years in administration I mentioned five with curriculum that would never have been tolerated someone would have gotten hung out to drive real fast for that it's it's just to me it's mindboggling I do not understand it are we able to go over the next next two slides before this comes to an end I think I would like to hear the takeaways in the evaluation of program slides yeah it's fine with me do you have time they have time go over the last two slides I thought we'd gone through them all the no there's still four more slides well in that case I'm glad you brought it
071up so some of our takeaways so our priority is we want and we need to Foster reading achievement and engagement uh the development of reading proficiency and a love of reading particularly by third grade are strong predictors of future achievement so that's why we have committed some of us for more than two years to this Monumental task um our teachers and our team have appreciated you Val valuing our voice in this process our teacher investment is key um without it you can see reduced student engagement lower instructional Effectiveness due to differing beliefs in the Merit of a resource or inconsistent engagement um we are aware no one program or resource has it all which is why we've chosen to use a compendium and to go along with that um again no one program has it
072all and teachers want to do everything we can to make sure that students have a love of reading and love enjoying books um and Ela the books were complex engaging high quality texts they were read alow multiple times for multiple purposes in the shared reading and engages all students and reading grade level appropriate texts boosting their confidence and decreasing behaviors um W and wisdom did have a focus related on artwork and the total number of books um read would be around 120 books in grades K to two teachers read allow most in wisdom text and they were intended for independent reading as compared to bookworms um they would study 283 full length text that expose them to a high volume of full length texts teachers and students engage in close reads and shared reading partner
073reading as well as independent reading and as a school we've authored numerous units of study and this resulted in the state acknow acknowledging us as a school of Distinction so as much research of the potential reading programs we're aware that any program will have its strengths and its weaknesses and as teachers we're ready to you know use this information we have in the science of reading and we're prepared to make any adaptations we need to help make it be the best fit for us but overall we just want to strive for high achievement and Foster our love of reading for our students okay I'm not GNA read that first bullet because you all know that um but I do want to just aside from this in terms of evaluation of programs we've all stated that
074both of these programs floored us you know when we found out that bookworms and Whitten wisdom were both going to be now on the um list of approved um programs and being able to fit with what we already had in place that was a match for us we loved the art and the music component of wit and wisdom I think that really Drew us into it and having said that um immediately we're like we have to also go with those geod that is going to allow kids to be able to read to have that knowledge build when they're reading a book that's accessible to them if you will that decodable text and also even when those geod have arrived I've had meetings with our essential Arts team so that they can think about ways to
075involve that particular text resource in um in their programs as well so I already went over that first one with Ed reports and that um partially met score and the reason why with the um complex text uh this slide is really just to let you know that um we feel like we did a lot of work we did our due diligence we looked at ahead of time a lot of different recognizable reports and programs they're linked to some other um I linked the Ed reports review tool down there too that can be clicked on and it will open the Ed reports for both documents um and I think I've already brought up about the creator of um bookworms Sharon Walpole saying that um to say that bookworms is not aligned with the common core is
076a similar or similar academic standards does not make sense because it has been associated with significant positive results on test aligned to those standards so um bookworms has been reviewed three times and gone back and made some adjustments because the initial reviews were back in um I think for wet and wisdom was 2016 using a different tool but um if you were to have this slideshow and click on those Ed reports it would give you that information that's I think my last slide those were the two you want us to right are we going on are We I know we we agreed to do two more slides I didn't know if you want me to I'm fine if anybody this is just a result of the IM met tool and it just is not um
077at all anything that's going to wow you or surprise you it's those non-negotiable um criteria that had to be there and in both programs it 110% exist as it should because the state approved both of these programs so um that's just kind of showing that um I don't remember which one of you said it one of you I think was talking at one point about trade books being a big part of bookworms is that correct or did I misunderstand it's a big part of both programs yeah and would you I'm not sure if other folks that are part of this meeting will know what it means can you just explain what a trade book is what that means in terms of those complex text that um just what is what does a tradebook mean so
078the slide that we showed the day in the life um that tradebook that's published that would be um those that are going to be complex enrich text and then we had the shared reading books the Biscuit books that were going to be less complex but those that students could access okay I'm I'm trying to get it something different so I'm just gonna say it myself go for it um trade books are not published by and for the person selling the program trade books exist outside of that and it is common I mean I was an English teacher when I started all I did was trade books right um it's not I just don't know if other people it's not going to be like if you buy hot and Mifflin you have the hot and Mifflin
079books these this is a wholey yeah this is a whole new sets of books just making sure folks understand okay um Sean did you have something you wanted to say oh no I was just saying thank you for that explanation I I wasn't positive okay thanks so on the imit tool there's sort of a cover sheet um and I will not um discount the fact that the IM met tool is thorough and lengthy and we did our very best in learning how to use it and doing what we could with it and this kind of just gives an overall view of bookworms BW what wisdom um ww up there and where people felt it rated on a on the cover sheet overall um so number two I'm going to skip a little bit um that
080part of the art um we loved but we also felt like it was a distraction to as you heard students having books in hand um and it with with number one in kindergarten I think that Sanders spoke to that that was the only team that rated that as a no um and that was just those clear directions and explanations and the girth of it for her kindergarten students um and then number three uh can they complete it in a reasonable amount of time I think overall we heard a resounding across the board on the people that we spoke with either on our site visits or on meetings that definitely in that pilot ear it's very difficult but that it continues to be difficult to get them all in with the compendium we worked as well
081with our um our consultant on how how do we get in the foundations and the hegr as well as all of this content language building um program because it's a lot and there's a lot there and there's a learning curve so that was something that we had great deal of conversation about and I think that that I can only speak to what I interpret um with only having four teachers pilot it took us a long time to to get into the groove with our bookworms and to have students get into that Groove and get it adjusted to that structure so then we had to once again students are first and foremost priority go back and think about the students do we now introduce an entire new structure and a new program to the entire school
082where all students are now shifting gear or do we do it to a portion and just one class per grade and can we get that same information so that was a I think a part of that lens um number four 100% careful reading and rereading the content is for sure and on five it was third grade um rating so do the materials contain clear statements and explanation of purpose goals expected outcomes this rating of a no was specifically linked to um rubrics that could be rated um following some writing uh we did get that feedback we said no program is perfect also from the school that we visited their goal was to go back to the rubrics in that writing piece and to look at those rubrics again to match their population because they didn't
083feel they were perfect as well and that's what we came to as well um I think that's it for that slide unless anybody wants to thank you very much um I don't want to be rude if I don't get to a bathroom soon I'm going to embarrass all of us I'll be right back that suppose we can take a five minute recess is that appropriate what time I might as well just say I'm gon have to cut off soon just because I am at work and I'm gonna have to get back to work thanks for your time give us a couple minutes Sean you got that other policy on there he did add one policy yeah I'm trry my phone is all 4 so we'll see what comes first okay gotcha than for your explanation
084and for your presentation very thorough everyone put in immense amount of work and uh whatever route is taken I just want to say thank you and uh doing a great job thank you appreciate the time and the opportunity what's the decision today waiver was good through July uh July 1 2025 the decision to on what we're going to be fully implementing has to be made by then this but all things are subject to change when you implemented book fors at the beginning did you collect like did you meet on it how's it going meeting do you have that information that's kind of reflected in the takeaways the I met like it kind of culminates into that in our PLC meetings too we took notes um the consultant that met with us I don't know if
085it was every three or four weeks um that was a part of of it so have those do you happen to recall what the feeling was after a month in so um absolutely there's been a lot of discussion around timeline between the two in what did bookworm's timeline look like after a month and a half so that it could be compared to W wisdom in the same time frame did you have that information apples and apples she definitely guided teams of um you know all the components that are there and you need to just focus on one at this point in time so dive into that dialogic reading is what they called it everybody has their terms that's basically the interactive reading dive into that and get comfortable with that first I think that would
086be with whatever program you would do you have to go into that one portion where you can get really good at it and move into the next and I won't discount that you know we had only that module one with the mini pilot the zero um um for wit and wisdom so we got so far but we had only so many materials too and I do think for me it was eye opening to get bookworms off the ground with the entirety of the staff and like how much that entailed because we had been to all these master classes we were the ones kind of re doing all the research and then communicating it to the rest of the staff it kind of makes made sense to me for us to do the apples and apples
087compar comparison between bookworms and wit wisdom um rather than try and switch gears for the whole staff provide that professional development to everyone it was a little more condensed if we were just doing it between our group and we because we had done the first pilot were also doing the second I know we talked to some schools where they had like two teachers at a grade level pilot one and another two teachers pilot another and then they had to try and so I I really liked that the this group of us had both programs to look at kind of one right after the other um I think that worked well for me does anyone have any more questions or comments good not for me do you folks have anything else you want to tell us
088thank you for your time thank you for your time go teach some kids thank you everybody to be done thank you and thank you for all your hard work too that does not go unnoticed great job guys thank you thank you rest I will okay Sean says he has a few minutes so sor I'm gonna um transition he's got a few minutes transition to I don't know where you want to go um I would like to talk about the pilot some more but before we do that I want to do the policy stuff um you folks had asked me to check about the word handicapped versus differently abled that kind of stuff handicapped is what's in the statute and that's what we have to go with that's pretty much I mean when I talked to
089Jody about it about whether we could just change that word he got sort of squirly and said well I'm not an attorney you'd have to talk to your lawyer and um so I think if it's okay with you guys I'm just going to stick with the language that's in there originally everybody's okay yeah I mean we can't I don't like it but yes we can't change stat policy much earlier this year or even last year where there was a a similar word that I felt needed to be changed but because in it had been updated in laws we couldn't change it all right um so you're gonna move this forward is that what you're saying uh yeah I I think that's what we have agreement on so Jim can I ask a question around the
090the CES thing for 5114 yeah sure you turn to pach I don't have numbers gotta add numbers now um it blue ink is Black Ink Cave's version starts here at the bottom section d section D actions leading to I'm just monitoring okay I got it in number 32 it defines the word bullying but this definition is not consistent with our other definition of bullying in 5114 911 or 5131 91 um the I changed it because how do I explain this Jody goler you know he does policy for CES he had put in there that it was repeated okay go ahead it's not what's in the statute right it just says bullying it doesn't say repeated I took I I'm took it out because I and you'll and there's language in the beginning that sort of
091stresses the idea that we're we're looking whenever possible for um that's not what he's asking I think the whole section doesn't Define the word bullying that's what I'm saying so if you were to go to 5131 911 when was that last updated this policy 5131 yeah this is our school climate policy which was updated By Us in June of 2024 and it's consistent with the Connecticut Law so you're saying there's a disconnect this one and that one corre so the in 5131 911 definition of bullying means unwanted and aggressive behavior among children in grades kindergarten 12 inclusive and involves a real or perceived power IM balance that's the only definition that's provided in 51 319 my concern was if you say the words Define I totally appreciate what you've done well I just wanted to
092make sure you guys had your options that's fair when I read the word defined bullying defined as that is like this is right and that's what this is but it doesn't say that in the other policy or the Connecticut state I'm going to have to call Jody to find out what's going on with that it I I won't lie to you Chris it never occurred to me that I should check the alignment of policies from cave I figured they' kind of totally done that already that right right the only reason I knew that is because in our or to check in our previous policy we actually reference back to 5131 911 when we Define suspension explosion like reasons for it we refer back to that policy and so I looked for it here and it
093doesn't reference back in the key but the definition is different sorry I will have to look into that I I appreciate you're bringing it to my attention like I said it didn't really occur to me that I had to double I wish they did that for all of them that that happens a lot of times it's it's one policy that actually impacts another policy and potentially two it does I wish it was a cross reference so that we would be tight as opposed to having to find each one and dig through ourselves well good catch Chris thank you definitely um just curious I love that too all right thank you I'll have to figure out what what I can about that um I don't know how you guys are feeling um I do feel like
094I just don't think this was an authentic test and I don't know what to do about that at this stage it's pretty late I mean tomorrow I am spending we're back to the reading right we've transitioned okay um uh an afternoon with them to just dig into understanding by Design and working backwards on the wit and wisdom they did not know that the reason that it starts at Ground Zero with images and artwork is so that every child can access that because it's not about readability it's about speaking and listening how do we ask questions about a medium we're looking at to really develop a comfort for the kids to speak and listen to each other they did not know that that's how the program was designed um you have to do a study like
095you have to really read and there's a lot there to digest as a teacher in order to implement the program and so yes they invested a lot of time in bookworms they had a consultant that was meeting with them every three to four weeks it started in June so it went from June to January so I did allow them as they navigated based on their expertise and understanding to continue as they saw was best did not know that there was such a difference between the amount of time and never was asked gee in order for us to get the materials to do the full scope of Wht and wisdom we need 5,6 whatever it is I didn't know that piece they went and asked for free materials I thought they got free materials they did
096get free materials but it was a little leg of a full experience so in order to help um with the Gap I said would you like me to reach out I can offer to reach out to the publishing company and then we together with me will work through what some of those areas are in Whitten and wisdom and give them an opportunity to really look thoroughly at the design of the program to help facilitate that now when they look at fit for the students there is a lot of explicit instruction that's required to teach the kids but that's what it's about yes yes but that's what it's about because we're always going to have kids who some are going to struggle more than others but that doesn't mean they can't think and to limit the
097level of rigor because they might have some struggles and you're potentially are holding them back and that's why they achieve the core and the common core standards really push standard 10 which has to do with complex texts so that you're building kids knowledge through language because if they haven't heard terminology and you're just putting words in front of them as they learning to read if they can't associate a word they they won't know how to read it so you have to enrich their vocabulary early on that's what the research is showing they there was this massive study and they took struggling readers and strong readers and the topic was baseball the struggling readers had a lot of knowledge about baseball and they picked strong readers who didn't have knowledge about baseball and boy those struggling
098readers did just as well and the strong readers did not do better because it's about building knowledge that's why Common Core shifted the percent of texts for young kids that are literature based as opposed to information text um so the informational builds their capacity to understand the world around them so that when they are Avid readers they can actually make sense of what they're reading so very very different um the experience was night and day as you heard completely different uh and so but they're the ones delivering it right so you have to have a belief and understanding that I can do this for the kids the kids are relying on the adult to have the enthusiasm and get them going and it's very challenging to start a routine and then all of a sudden
099flip it very very challenging for a child we see that all the time a substitute comes in they'd be like that's not how Mrs Millie does it they're like you know it really matters we need structure we need routine so there needed to be a bridge to transition between that and um the kids will feed off of the adults they always do and they've reflected on that and and then when I explain some of the Stark differences between the programs they didn't realize it they just they just didn't know because they didn't have from June where they could have spent summer sort of preparing for what was happening at the beginning of school year so um I didn't have experience with either of them I'm just doing the research alongside them and so that's where
100we're at is there oh go ahead go ahead is there an issue with bookworms is there a reason why we're literally jumping through hoops to get like because we heard from the reading group that came in that up until the point of imple implementing it into the classes it was all the same research all the same time went into learning about it all the same time went into schools to learn about I think they started out with what three and then they narrowed it down to the two yeah four so up until the point of implementation it was all it was just focused on the different curriculums so I'm I'm trying to understand where the issue is um because again I don't do pr I don't have experience um in education I'm not done okay
101um BR but I do I don't help me understand what the issue is like yes the decisions that were made have been made can't change what has happened so say we just start off today with the information we have today Y what is the problem with what the reading staff have presented and implemented is it because they didn't do is it is it just because they did not do I know it's not right but say six months say they did six months with um footw worms is it because they did not do six months as a full school with wit wisdom and if that's the case why are we not giving credit the fact that they are in the school with these students day after day after day that yes they could take the stud
102and and the academics and the people who have done all the research why is their experience with the students in the school not equally as important for our district as what everybody else has done and to Des Sean's Point who's not on there it doesn't matter what our neighboring towns have chosen it's what it works for our kids and if we take the joy like joy and the love of reading and um I forgot what you just said it was the something with like complex language like there has to be a joy and a want to read too it's not just rigorous education right and so if the staff in the school sees that the students are more reacting they're more in it they're responding they're having it's joyful to read and they're getting the
103information what why does it have to it's not just rigorous it's all inclusive and what I heard from this presentation which I heard the same time as everybody else did is that it's rigorous that the teachers worked hard to get to where they were at and they found that their students responded to it that to me is all encompassing of what's important and one last point and then I'll be done I'm sorry it was mentioned Sean mentioned that um the Sean mentioned that the cost should not have been on their minds and I agree but we live in a district where 95% of funding comes from from personal taxes we have to keep funding and money and and in all of our decisions because it runs out we don't have the budget to do the
104needs and and the playground equipment and the H and everything else so that they have to they're smart to take the money into it because if they didn't and they're like you know what let's just pilot this like we really think this other one's going to work but let's just say let's spend five grand to get the next cohart for the great wisdom and then they realized they could realize oh this is great or they could realize oh BMS is still good but that was a conscientious choice because we have to keep money in every decision we make because we are not a wealthy School District thank you um I'll just speak for myself um and it's going to be repetitive because I've already said it in I have never heard of a situation in
105which staff were piloting different programs in order to select one where the pilot wasn't matched and time and teachers and when they spent all the money they could have gone out and bought stuff for Whitten wisdom they chose not to they correct right so they made their decision before they knew that is a problem for me I still don't know what the hell to do about it okay but okay so we can sit here we can argue and discuss about like what should or should not have happened that is not productive we are not going to get where we need to go for the students of this district and the staff that needs to teach them by arguing over who should have done what when this is where we're at now yes they should have
106I mean I'm believing you because I don't know have made these steps and I also know and feel that they did the best that they could with the timeline and what was best for the students that they were in that school in those classroom with every single day it was not nefarious it wasn't I that for sure absolutely I completely understand I walked into this meeting today thinking that it was just a policy pres or a curriculum presentation because we were learning about curriculum I didn't realize that it was going to be a how did you get here how did you get there why didn't you do this I thought we were just learning about what's being implemented in the classes we have to make a decision to recommend a program to the board for
107the board to invest money in it correct we don't do that without doing our due diligence which means we ask a lot of questions sure um it you you may not have understood um that it would be appropriate and um quite frankly sort of essential to ask a bunch of questions like that and and I understand that but just as Dr deito said it's not nefarious what the teachers did it's also not nefarious that I'm asking questions about it correct I just feel like in general the questions being asked of the uh staff members here had very little to do with how the students were reading and how the students reacted and how you know I heard uh Miss Hill I say that say that the two yes one did six weeks one did six
108months the same core teachers did both so they have a little bit more information because they both they did both and she stated I don't want to I'm not quoting that she noticed that there was a joy and interest in Reading with one that wasn't there for the other that to me is also very important we we make the decision they're presenting it to us but they're in the school the kids every single day and with absolute all due respect there like myself and some other members on the board have children that are in these schools right now in these programs and we see the differences whereas it's been a little bit longer since you were an admin or your children in school a lot has changed in the last five or 10 years and
109I think we need to give more credit to the fact that yes we have to decide they can't just go do whatever they want we were given what from the state that we had to pick a program they worked with two state approved programs one of which actually right incorporates geod which is from Whitten and wisdom having I I know it's not called a hybrid but there was a name for do compendium compendium to me to bring in what works and have it work together as a PO is is meeting students where they are now and where they need to be if they don't have a joy for a love for reading they're just going to read to pass the tests and then that's it we want lifelong Learners lifelong readers they need to learn
110and like that they're reading and like what they're reading and I think that's a really important part of what they presented was that they're it's they're it's I went on yeah it's okay so I can't argue with anything you said and I don't think anyone here is going to argue with that but they potentially missed out because they never got to that point with wit and wisdom six months six weeks if I had just been six weeks to six weeks right we might have been having a different conversation so I'm just trying to bridge that to give them one last opportunity to really dig into wit and wisdom with everything they know up to this this point and see oh is there going to be any indication that if they looked beyond module one that
111they would see what they were experiencing after six months of the other that's all and are we going to do that for all the other programs too that they originally looked at because they started with four but they eliminated the others they only wanted to Pilot these two and then they piloted one that I feel like worked I I don't so here's the other thing when looking at raising the bar if you will and we have 50% of the kids able to read on grade level in third grade and knowing how we build capacity if a program is selected to fit our kids I want to make sure that we look at all aspects so that the enthusiasm the learning the explicit instruction will always come from the teacher it's not going to be just
112putting print and paper or a book in front of a kid is going to lead to that enthusiasm I think that there was a learning curve for book right but they didn't have a learning they couldn't even even the learning curve was steep for wit and wisdom and they couldn't even really get to it so I just want to give that full due diligence I I I don't know either I'm just studying both of those because that those were not on there they were an add-on after the fact so and I you know I did give them all the support that they needed and requested um but I did not know that the free materials were so limited that they were debilitating like I thought wow this is great you get free materials that's all
113I knew so here we are yeah I definitely the boardhead directive we're raising the bar for our students in East hatam I got to make sure that everyone believes our kids can achieve at a high level and that they've got the materials to do that that's it that's it so I know you want to pass on a program well we're going to have to soon yeah soon but we're gonna meet again before the board meeting so let me at least have the opportunity to work with the teachers and give them what I have learned from the publisher I mean it did not help that they didn't have a a consultant they were meeting with every few weeks I mean they really that heavy lift for bookworms was well well supported and they kind of ran
114with the other because the time I think shrunk but it is what it is and you know where there no one's hiding no one's hiding what the experience has been like you I have sat through this presentation and yes I have children that are also um have gone through the school district it's been a few years but I think that's completely irrelevant at this point with all due respect um and I still have one child that's being overseen by the district so curriculum is extremely important to me right now and what I heard and what I saw and a timeline that was given and I'm sitting here listening to both sides as of objectively as I can and the thing that sticks out the most to me is the timeline and I know it seems
115like there's a one program is being heavily favored over another and I agree that we need to make sure and that's what this is all about making sure that the one program that's being favored was and or I'm sorry the the program that's not being favored is really being given a fair shake that is all I want to see and when I find out that one program has been given five months worth of time and the other gets a month and a half or six weeks whatever it was and only four teachers have really implemented that whatever the reason is I'm looking at this with with an outside lens and if I'm not mistaken the timeline of that six weeks for wit and wisdom came directly immediately after the other program ceased that's what no
116it's still continuing isn't it no they're done January to February yeah it was right after yeah January to to make that jump from and I'm just looking at my own notes here to make the jump from the timeline of January to jump into Whit and wisdom in February be done by February or be done by February in in if I'm a kid and I'm sitting in that classroom I'm just trying to put myself in their shoes you just got done with five months of doing it one way and then you're being asked to shift gears as a student and think of an entirely different think of it from a different aspect you're being taught from a different aspect I might have a little bit of an issue with that if I'm sitting in that classroom
117I'm just trying to put myself in the students CHS it's going to be a transition and believe me when I say I live with a student who has transition issues every day of the year and so I feel like if this had been done in a different time frame um to allow those students time to process it might have been received differently so to me that seems like it's you know that's a huge factor for me because I'm looking at it from a different lens than maybe everybody else in this room so I just wanted to make that very clear that I think we need to go back and and allow Dr deito to do what she needs to do and hopefully we will have more information that's all I'm looking for is more information
118and speaking for myself um I don't know if they're choosing their best program only because the other program never got a fair shape um I don't have a horse in this race I am not going to be teaching reading to kindergarten first second and third students um and I don't have any particular expertise in that either I do know that it just would never have phun I mean it just wouldn't have happened it wouldn't have been tolerated I I don't understand how this happened um they may be able to do a great job of performance and they certainly are dedicated to it they want it and that does count for something counts for a lot um I'm worried about what they could be missing because in the back of my head what you were just
119saying about money and stuff is very true um when we pick this program we're going to end up investing a fair amount of money in it and it's unlikely that we're going to be able to change courses Midstream because we decide that it's not as good as we problem um this is going to be a long-term commitment and we have to be careful about that and my process concerns are not anything other than I'm trying to be careful that's all it boils down to but I don't think there was ever any intent that we were going to make a decision today um so I think you know Dr deito has already said she's got work that she needs wants to do um and I think we pulled off for now um I I am probably
120there's a reasonably good chance that I'm going to ask for another special meeting um to Hash this out because I don't know that I want to wait until our next meeting in April which is just a few few days before the board meeting in case anything comes up I want to be able to leave us enough time to address that are we scheduled to make a decision in the April board meeting we have to I thought we had until July could you review that again doc we do we do have until July to make a decision but um I think well the law gives us that but I I think the sooner the better they would want to know sooner the better right but we're not deadlined I thought we were I was apparently wrong
121no I I was just asking for clarification I didn't know either well it would have to be by June because we don't have a July meeting of course well we did last year July one I think he L it's got to be before July 1 that was a joke um I mean Wht and wisdom is very rigorous it's known for being rigorous for elevating knowledge which when they don't have it it catches up to them when they're older um but it did receive some challenges like when I look across because I did some research about um some people perceived CRT in wit and wisdom um I can critical race Theory yeah critical race Theory Texs are we can I have no issue with that whatsoever because I I don't think so there were some challenges
122that were within wit and wisdom that I don't foresee having an issue me defending at all um because I think it's just perceived like when you do like a search out there just so that you're aware of some con concerns from other places because they do dig into different perspectives and highlight different things from this but it it definitely is a deeper text and it's also a K8 whereas book room is only K5 um because we've got like our elementary sort of separated we've got a few grades in one school and we've got four or five through eight in another school and so as a district typically we're looking at a scope that doesn't you don't just start something that has a routine and then all of a sudden just drop it just because they're
123going to a new building if we can have some continuity so wit and wisdom does offer some continuity but I want you know there was some criticism when I did some research on it yeah I mean they were very open and I yeah there was pros and cons to yeah both programs and well they're right no one program is going to do it all just we're all understand that like CRT is like a college level course well yeah the theory for sure is um but that's probably not worth opening right now it's just it's out there is all I'm saying so it's it's definitely out there um but that's not something that the board would appr Pro no it's part of a unit it's just a part of a right it's in there um you
124know there were other things like um Westward Expansion and impact on indigenous people which is part of our history so I don't have a problem that it's in the text that's all there were some things that jumped out but the overall it is definitely very very much focused with tiar of building student capacity that's why it started with the visuals for the younger ages and they they just didn't know that I mean they told me they just didn't know that yeah um so I appreciate the time I think that's the best thing to offer is let's really just dig into the materials because they have the opportunities to do that alongside a consultant can um can we agree that during if not before our May policy meeting we will make a decision I do think
125we need to give some kind of I think we need to yeah I mean I think May is a good deadline fine with May okay because I think that gives us gives us time gives them speaking for myself giving myself you know if April I still have more questions at the April meeting or somebody brings up a point that I never thought of and I'm like whoa I didn't think of it that way I didn't look at it that way then we have time to kind of maybe have another Well I'll have insight for you at our next meeting because if we're ready in April like let's just put their minds at ease and and have it happen so is there is there opportunity for additional resources from wh wisdom between now and there is
126but I'm not sure there like now it'd be probably um let's just look through the materials tomorrow if it comes from them or they're like wow we're really missing out we really like I would like it to come from them that's all I mean because we're going to be like they're already bridging their normal curriculum that they've had to elevated it now that they've gone like they said to those master classes that I had signed them up for at the state to build their own capacity and we're heading into spring and so they were already bridging that at this point so let me just give them an opportunity and then I'll have more insight um but yes that could certainly be an option because there was a lot of resources I mean I receiv received
127they would send you know she would send me everything that they sent and it was like they were very excited about it and then you know things happen happens well um anybody want to make a motion to close the meeting so second any discussion take a vote I I all right um thank you so am I going to