Board approves renewal of i-Ready contract and discusses digital learning guardrails
July 16, 2026 | Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools, School Districts, North Carolina
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The Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools board voted to approve a 2026-27 contract with Curriculum Associates to continue using i-Ready as a district diagnostic and teacher toolbox. District presenters described i-Ready's use as a diagnostic administered roughly three times per year and as a teacher-facing toolbox to support differentiation.
"It really does help our teachers, you know, diagnose... our teachers are really great at identifying the grade level that they're teaching," Dr. Bales said while describing how i-Ready provides individualized pathways and supports intervention and progress monitoring. District staff said typical K-1 use would be about 30 minutes a week and grades 2-5 about 40 minutes a week.
Board members asked whether paper-pencil alternatives could meet state K-2 assessment requirements, how much the renewal cost after negotiations, and whether school-level "cabins" (temporary classrooms) were included in capacity calculations presented earlier in the meeting. Presenters said the requested contract represented a negotiated reduction and that the district had removed some other digital tools as part of the procurement package.
Later in the meeting, district staff returned to the board with a digital learning plan follow-up, reiterating goals for purposeful tool use, teacher professional development, and ideas to reduce unnecessary screen time. Proposed strategies included tech-free advisories, expanded lunch programming, low/no-tech homework days, and an upcoming district push to promote reading (a state-supported 10 million-book challenge the district plans to join). Board members pressed for faster implementation in some areas and asked the administration to present usage data and suggested pilots for tech-free days.
The board approved the contract by voice vote; the meeting record did not include a roll-call vote with names for the contract item.
Next steps: administration will provide usage analytics and implementation timing for digital-learning guardrails and report back to the board (student success or a future meeting was suggested as the venue for updates).
"It really does help our teachers, you know, diagnose... our teachers are really great at identifying the grade level that they're teaching," Dr. Bales said while describing how i-Ready provides individualized pathways and supports intervention and progress monitoring. District staff said typical K-1 use would be about 30 minutes a week and grades 2-5 about 40 minutes a week.
Board members asked whether paper-pencil alternatives could meet state K-2 assessment requirements, how much the renewal cost after negotiations, and whether school-level "cabins" (temporary classrooms) were included in capacity calculations presented earlier in the meeting. Presenters said the requested contract represented a negotiated reduction and that the district had removed some other digital tools as part of the procurement package.
Later in the meeting, district staff returned to the board with a digital learning plan follow-up, reiterating goals for purposeful tool use, teacher professional development, and ideas to reduce unnecessary screen time. Proposed strategies included tech-free advisories, expanded lunch programming, low/no-tech homework days, and an upcoming district push to promote reading (a state-supported 10 million-book challenge the district plans to join). Board members pressed for faster implementation in some areas and asked the administration to present usage data and suggested pilots for tech-free days.
The board approved the contract by voice vote; the meeting record did not include a roll-call vote with names for the contract item.
Next steps: administration will provide usage analytics and implementation timing for digital-learning guardrails and report back to the board (student success or a future meeting was suggested as the venue for updates).
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