Evergreen Park ESD 124 presents CKLA curriculum focused on the "science of reading"

Megan Franco, assistant principal for the Northeast and Northwest schools in Evergreen Park ESD 124, presented the district’s newly adopted Core Knowledge Language Arts curriculum (CKLA) and described how it aligns with what she called the "science of reading," a research-informed approach that combines phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary and background knowledge.

Franco opened the presentation with national literacy figures she said explain the urgency behind curriculum changes: "63 percent of all fourth graders read below grade level, 64 percent of all eighth graders read below grade level, 21 percent of adults in The United States are illiterate, and 54 percent of adults have literacy level below the sixth grade reading proficiency," noting these statistics during the talk but not citing an external source in the session. She used the numbers to frame CKLA's emphasis on both decoding skills and knowledge-building.

Franco traced a history of reading instruction debates — the so-called "reading wars" — and said the field has moved toward evidence that effective reading instruction must include multiple strands. "We need phonemic awareness. We need phonics. We need fluency, vocabulary, comprehension, background knowledge," she said. To illustrate why background knowledge matters for comprehension, Franco read a passage and quoted a line summarizing the idea: "the more knowledge a child starts with, the more likely she is to acquire yet more knowledge." She summarized a research example in which students familiar with baseball outperformed others on a baseball-themed passage regardless of baseline decoding ability.

Franco described CKLA’s structure for District 124. The curriculum separates ELA into a skills strand (phonological and phonemic awareness, phonics, print concepts, grammar, writing mechanics, comprehension and spelling) and a knowledge strand (background knowledge and vocabulary). In K–2, she said teachers deliver one skills lesson and one knowledge lesson per day; in grades 3–5, lessons blend skills and knowledge with more complex texts, close reading and increased writing instruction.

She listed CKLA materials and assessments provided to teachers and students: knowledge-strand activity books, skill-strand readers and activity books, and assessments including mid- and end-of-unit checks plus spelling, grammar/morphology, reading comprehension and writing assessments. Franco also emphasized classroom practices such as modeled reading and repeated oral readings to build fluency.

On content, Franco noted CKLA covers a range of cultures, historical events and beliefs to expand students’ background knowledge and said the curriculum does not "promote one culture over another or encourage students to practice these different beliefs." She recommended family-facing resources to support learning at home, naming the website "The Kids Should See This" for short topical videos, and provided concrete at-home activities (picture prompts, asking prior-knowledge questions, rhyming games, clapping syllables, and phoneme games) parents can use to build phonemic awareness and vocabulary.

Franco closed by thanking participants, encouraging parents to contact teachers or district staff with questions, and saying the district intends to continue producing parent education videos about the curriculum. The presentation did not include a formal vote or next procedural step; it served as an informational briefing about the district’s CKLA adoption and classroom expectations.