Board hears fellowship’s recommendation to adopt Foundations K–2 and blend Fish Tank with revised Units of Study in Grade 2

The New Castle Board of Education heard a two‑hour presentation on June 3 from a district literacy fellowship that evaluated 10 curricula, piloted programs and recommended curriculum and implementation changes.

Dr. Aman introduced the fellowship’s work and invited classroom teachers and specialists to summarize two years of pilots, data and recommendations. “Part of the responsibility of the fellowship was to take a look at all of these recommendations and think about how are we going to address them,” Dr. Aman said.

Presenters said their review used a three‑layer lens — the New York State Education Department literacy briefs, a state curriculum review guide and the district’s literacy philosophy — and that they narrowed ten options to four vendors and ultimately piloted revised Units of Study and Fish Tank in grade 2 and Foundations for phonics instruction.

Tracy Everett, a first‑grade teacher who piloted Foundations, described the program’s routine: “Every lesson that we teach in Foundations has phonemic awareness ... We use direct letter‑sound instruction. We use our sound cards daily,” she said, adding that the curriculum embeds handwriting, controlled decodable texts and cumulative review to build decoding and fluency.

Grade‑2 pilot teacher Kayla Castanada said Fish Tank produced high student engagement and stronger academic‑vocabulary use through daily read‑alouds and discussion. “The students were consistently working with these rich texts,” she said, and “they really dove into them and they loved them.” Presenters noted that Fish Tank’s strength is knowledge‑building and discourse while Units of Study offer small‑group skill instruction; data comparisons showed mixed results across measures (NWEA/MAP, ESGI phonics checks and writing rubrics).

Based on the pilots and faculty feedback, the fellowship recommended: a scaffolded shift to Foundations for K–2 phonics instruction aligned to the district MTSS tiers; continued use of the revised Units of Study with embedded phonics and stronger writing supports; and a blended approach in grade 2 that pulls high‑leverage Fish Tank units while using Units of Study resources for targeted small‑group instruction.

Presenters emphasized professional development and district supports. Carol Bartley said the district has reserved funds for summer hours and consultants and will provide multi‑day PD plus targeted coaching. “We have that at our disposal,” she said, adding the fellowship will transition to a standing committee structure to continue monitoring implementation.

Board members asked about teacher buy‑in, supports for students with IEPs and English‑language learners, and how the district would measure impact. Presenters said they will use multiple measures (state ELA, NWEA/MAP, ESGI decoding checks, reading levels and thin‑slice writing samples) and will track progress in grade‑level teams during the first year of rollout.

The presentation did not include a formal adoption vote; it laid out recommendations and an implementation plan for the coming year. The fellowship stressed phased implementation, ongoing teacher collaboration, and additional coaching to reduce classroom workload and coordinate pacing across schools.

Next steps: the district will pilot the blended grade‑2 model in September, provide the scheduled PD and report back to the board with early fidelity and outcome data during the next school year.