Harford County Board of Education approves decision to expand middle school writing curriculum

May 9—The Harford County Board of Education approved a proposal to expand the Units of Study middle school writing curriculum to seventh- and eighth-grade classes during its Monday night meeting.

Adoption of a new version of the Units of Study in Reading curriculum met resistance at prior board meetings from parents, who were concerned about the effectiveness of a previous version of the curriculum.

On April 26, after the objections, the board tabled the expansion of the The Units of Study in Writing, the writing portion of the controversial reading curriculum, for five middle schools after board members requested more information and the cost of the expansion.

During the 2021-22 school year, the program was expanded to include seventh-grade classes at Bel Air Middle, North Harford Middle and Magnolia Middle, and eighth grade at Edgewood Middle School. This school year, the Units of Study in Writing expanded to all middle schools in sixth-grade language arts, to Magnolia Middle School in eighth grade, and to seventh grade at Patterson Mill Middle School.

"We know what's essential for teachers and students is a comprehensive writing curriculum; one that is more than an add-on or a supplement from a reading anthology," said Annmarie Steltzer, the school system's assistant supervisor of English and Language Arts. "The writing Units of Study is a comprehensive curriculum that includes explicit, standard-aligned daily lessons focused on skills, strategies and the convention writers utilize."

The school system first adopted the Lucy Calkins Units of Study program including reading and writing in 2017. Harford County Public Schools slowly began to implement an updated version of the writing Units of Study middle school curriculum in 2019, according to Supervisor of English and Language Arts Kristine Scarry.

In the 2019-20 school year, Bel Air and Edgewood Middle schools were the only middle schools to adopt the Units of Study in Writing program for sixth grade. The following school year, North Harford Middle School adopted the program for sixth grade and Edgewood Middle expanded the program to seventh grade.

Classrooms have writing centers that enables students to plan, revise and edit their work. Anchor charts, which remind students and teachers of prior lessons and ideas, are posted on wall boards to reinforce lessons on how to create ledes or transition from a claim to providing evidence when practicing argumentative writing, according to literary specialist Janet Oldewurtel.

"These tools are tools we create together with our students, and we use them for reference when they are writing their pieces," Oldewurtel said.

Parents have expressed concerns in previous meetings, including the most recent, when the curriculum was first brought to a vote, about the need for cursive writing to be taught to the students.

"While we do recognize that there has been some community comments and feedback about cursive or handwriting, cursive and those skills are not included in the Maryland College and Career Readiness standards for middle schools," Steltzer said. "So Harford County Public Schools is intentionally infusing more opportunities for cursive and handwriting practice into the financial literacy portion of our social sciences curriculum at both elementary and secondary levels."

In the 2022-23 school year, Harford County Public Schools conducted an open-ended prompt, called the On Demand Assessment, used by teachers to score students based on standards that align with the curriculum's scoring guide as well as collect data. Students fared significantly better on post assessments after learning the curriculum than they did on the pre-assessments.

In the pre-assessment on narrative writing, which is part of the middle school curricula, 2.4% of 245 sixth grade students attending North Harford Middle, Bel Air Middle and Edgewood Middle Schools met or exceeded expectations. After teaching students narrative writing using the writing Units of Study, 53% of 244 students met or exceeded expectations.

Another pre-assessment was conducted by Harford County Public Schools on argumentative writing. Out of 207 sixth-grade students attending North Harford Middle, Bel Air Middle and Edgewood Middle Schools, 19.8% met or exceeded expectations; out of 211 students, 59.7% met or exceeded expectations on the post assessment.

Executive Director of Curriculum, Instruction and Assessment Heather Kutcher said at the April 26 board meeting that the Houghton Mifflin Harcourt writing instruction for middle school anthology is integrated in Harford County Public Schools but is not a comprehensive program. Students not currently engaged in the writing Units of Study Program only experience one 45-minute time block for reading and writing.

"The challenge that our teachers are facing is that they are working to address all of our reading and writing standards in one time block," said Director of Curriculum, Instruction and Assessment Andrew Renzulli. "Through middle school innovation, there is a dedicated time reading block for 45 minutes, and a dedicated writing block for 45 minutes. It is in the 45-minute time block for writing that the writing Units of Study will be taught."

The expansion of the Units of Study writing curriculum costs $7,941, including $1,956 for Aberdeen Middle, Fallston Middle and Southampton Middle Schools; $1,343 for Havre de Grace Middle School; and $729 for Swan Creek School.

Harford County Public Schools Board of Education member Carol Bruce had concerns about the program's impact on educators.

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"My concern that I still have in reference to the use of this is how it impacts our teachers in terms of having enough time to process all of this," Bruce said. "One question I have is when you do the evaluations, is it done by this group [Kutcher, Renzulli, Scarry, and Steltzer] or by another [Harford County Public Schools] group?"

Harford County Public Schools have multiple offices involved with the expansion and overall operation of the program, including the Office of Accountability, and the individual offices of Kutcher, Renzulli, Scarry, and Steltzer.

School board member Melissa Hahn asked about supports in place for teachers who have expressed the challenge of having a disruptive student in a small group who may take away attention from other students. The Units of Study writing curriculum is structured to teach a mini lesson to the entire class, but it is also structured to send students off to to write by themselves, Scarry said.

"Small-group instruction is not unique to just reading and language arts," Scarry said. "There is a belief that when you are teaching to a whole class of students, that you are going to have students with a variety of need in a variety of places. We get better at learning by doing. So if we kept the students in a whole group lesson the entire time, they wouldn't have enough time to do the application of writing. While they are writing, it gives teachers the time to look at what the students wrote the day before, and say, 'I still have these four students who are struggling with these things' and work with those students specifically to target their needs."

Eight out of 10 board members voted to approve the expansion while Bruce abstained. Board member Patrice Ricciardi was not present at Monday's meeting.

For more information about the expansion of the Units of Study writing curriculum, and the assessment and rubric used, visit the Harford County Public Schools website at www.hcps.org/boe/BoeAgendaExhibits.aspxMeetingID=3128.

The next Board of Education meeting is scheduled for May 22 at 6:30 p.m.