Upper Dublin committee backs Amplify CKLA for K–5 and CommonLit for middle school; high school to pilot CommonLit

The Upper Dublin education committee on May 6 heard administration and teachers recommend new English-language-arts materials after a multiyear curriculum-renewal pilot.

Administrators said the K–5 pilot showed the Amplify CKLA product provided systematic, explicit foundational skills with decodable readers and spiraled practice, and recommended a six-year purchase that includes materials and professional development. "The program itself — phonics, phonemic awareness, the vocab, the comprehension — it's all built in," kindergarten teacher Samara Chaffetz said of the Amplify implementation, adding that students were reading longer decodables and showing confidence in class.

At middle school, the district recommended CommonLit after pilots of Amplify and CommonLit; for high school the administration proposed a year-long 10th-grade CommonLit pilot with units in other grades to test vertical alignment. Ms. Couste (ELA lead) told the committee that the Amplify CKLA elementary package is primarily print-based ("almost 95%" print) and that the larger upfront cost reflects extensive elementary materials — decodables, workbooks, tactile resources and integrated PD.

Board members pressed on assessment alignment. A committee member asked how CKLA's writing tasks would connect to Pennsylvania's PSSA text-dependent analysis. Administration said staff will embed and expand existing CKLA response tasks so they align better with PSSA-style extended writing while preserving CKLA's structured-literacy strengths.

The committee signaled support for moving ELA adoption items to the May legislative meeting; administrators said final contract and budget details would be presented during the director's briefing and at legislative for formal action.

Implementation steps described by staff include summer PD to align scope and sequence, use of built-in assessments to drive instruction and targeted professional development for coaches and administrators to support year-two rollouts. The district emphasized monitoring via existing benchmark calendars (including DIBELS at early elementary levels) and using assessment data to refine instruction and supports.