Savannah-Chatham schools approves $20m for literacy curriculum, names literacy officer

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (HMH) is the last publisher standing.

Wednesday’s Savannah-Chatham County Public School System (SCCPSS) Board Meeting included the announcement of the district’s selection for its new Reading and English Language Arts (ELA) curriculum.

Assistant Chief Financial Officer Rosalind Nathaniel presented the district’s request for a “six-year adoption of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt’s Into Reading (K-5) and Into Literature (6-12) as the districtwide Tier I Reading/English Language Arts (ELA) textbook, as well as Waggle (K-8) and Writeable (3-12).”

The board approved the textbook adoption with eight votes. District 7 Representative Michael Johnson was not present at time of the vote.

Literacy comes at a cost

During the school board’s September 2023 meeting, members approved the $2.7 million purchase of the  Language Essentials for Teachers of Reading (LETRS) training suite. More than 1,100 educators now are engaged in LETRS training. The program entails about 18 months of professional development on the science of reading, which adheres to five pillars that build literacy competency at various grade levels and stages of development. Those pillars are Phonemic Awareness, Phonics, Fluency, Vocabulary and Comprehension.

The HMH textbooks will be the tools that teachers use to apply the science of reading framework to student instruction. The cost of the six-year deal with HMH totals $20,387,665. The first-year cost will be $6,850,730 with an estimated $2,707,387 designated annually for years two through six of the contract.

The board-approved money comes from the district’s General Fund balance, which has been at about $40 million. District 2 Representative Dionne Hoskins-Brown noted ahead of Wednesday’s vote that there has been much discussion lately regarding the fund balance. “It does make me itch to vote on a part of the [fund balance] plan and not know the whole grocery list.” Her comment was in response to Superintendent Denise Watts’s assertion that the full fund balance plan will be forthcoming at the next Financial Advisory Committee meeting at 9 a.m. on Feb. 21.

The new literacy adoption comes well-ahead of a December 2024 deadline required by the Georgia Early Literacy Act (House Bill 538). The act demands that each Georgia school district “approve high-quality instructional materials for students kindergarten through third grade.”

More on literacy initiatives: Schools leadership promote Attendance Awareness Month and provide literacy updates

How was HMH chosen?

SCCPSS’s Academic Affairs team, led by Andrea Burkiett, the district's director of curriculum and implementation, spent over a year vetting the curriculum options.

After the district had initially put out a Request for Proposals (RFP) from academic textbook publishers, 12 were submitted by:

• Just Right Reader, Inc. (San Frisco, California)

• Scholastic, Inc. (New York, New York)

• Wilson Language Training Corporation (Oxford, Massachusetts)

• Savvas Learning Company, LLC (Paramus, New Jersey)

• Carnegie Curriculum, LLC (Peachtree City, Georgia)

• McGraw Hill, LLC (Columbus, Ohio)

• Bedford Freeman and Worth Publishing Group, LLC (New York, New York)

• Curriculum & Associates, LLC (North Billerica, Massachusetts)

• Benchmark Education Company, LLC (New Rochelle, New York)

• Open Up Resources (Minlo Park, California)

• Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company (Geneva, Illinois)

Burkiett said that HMH’s materials have “generally everything, from books for the classroom to consumables for the students, to digital resources, even down to secondary schools, we're going to get to select the novels.”

She explained that the curriculum does not have a prescriptive list of novels for the grade levels. “We'll be able to actually look at our student population and pick which novels go in our middle schools, which go in our high schools,” she said.

According to her, aside from meeting the Tier 1 standards, the curriculum provides support resources for English learner (EL) students and students with disabilities. “It's also very much aligned with the science of reading,” she said. She explained that implementing the new curriculum would require professional learning and training for teachers. “But the feedback we got, especially from our pilot teachers, was that it felt like this [HMH] was the most comprehensive.”

Assistant CFO Nathaniel shared that reviewing curriculum is actually part of the district’s regular duties. Such a review typically takes place once every seven years. With regard to literacy curriculum, the district had to adhere to the requirements for curriculum as dictated by Georgia state House Bill 538.

Other members of the district’s evaluation team (or those in the room where it happens) were:

• Ruth Weeks, academic coach

• Allison Glover, instructional coach

• Candace Purdom, district MTSS/RTI teacher specialist

• Rachel Rabun, assistant principal

• Bynikini Frazier, gifted elementary

• Edward Reid, high school English teacher

• Sabrina L. Scales, senior director of purchasing

• Dwayne Bailey, purchasing contract administrator

• Joan Carter, purchasing manager serving as selection managers

The request detailed that “the selection process included a multi-phase approach to include identification of a short-list of qualified vendors, and a sequence of evaluation steps as stipulated by Board Policy IFAA, Instructional Materials Selection and Adoption. Evaluation steps occurred during Phase II of the Materials Selection Process and included an Educator Review, Materials Pilot Implementation, and Community/Parent Review.” The community/parent review took place in November.

More on textbook selection: Savannah public schools are asking parents to help select textbooks. How to participate

Literacy Effectiveness Officer named

During the district’s College and Career Ready Performance Index (CCRPI) presentation, Bernadette Ball-Oliver, deputy superintendent of teaching and learning, made a big announcement.

She introduced long-time SCCPSS educator and 2022 Georgia Teacher of the Year Cherie Bonder Goldman as the district’s Literacy Effectiveness Officer. Goldman has served in many capacities throughout her roughly 14 years with the district. She earned her Education Specialist degree in Teacher Leadership from Mercer University. She has endorsements in specializations such as the gifted program, English speakers of other languages (ESOL), and academic coaching. Goldman has served on the leadership Team and chaired the school-wide Writing Team at Herman W. Hesse K-8 School, 9116 Whitefield Ave., Savannah.

Goldman took the podium for a moment to spotlight the district’s ongoing literacy improvement efforts. Key components of those efforts were that the district has hired three of six literacy specialists, three specialized instruction program managers and an unspecific number of bi-lingual liaisons.

With LETRs training management, the new literacy curriculum implementation, and three literacy specialists yet to be hired, Goldman has no shortage of tasks as she begins her tenure.

Joseph Schwartzburt is the education and workforce development reporter for the Savannah Morning News. You can reach him at JSchwartzburt@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Savannah Morning News: savannah chatham county ga schools selects literacy curriculum