Empowerment schools to switch literacy texts
by Paul Socolar on May 10 2010 Posted in Latest news
Six years after standardizing the textbooks and instructional programs for all of its schools, the District is now planning a switch in its literacy texts for grades K-8, but only in its Empowerment Schools - the schools that have repeatedly failed to meet performance targets.
The District's 2010-11 budget, presented to City Council on Monday, includes a $10 million budget line for new textbooks, and the District plans to purchase theImagine It! series by SRA for grades K-6 and literacy materials by Glencoefor grades 7-8, according to a District spokesperson
SRA is also the publisher of the Corrective Reading and Corrective Math remedial programs now used in Empowerment Schools. Both Glencoe and SRA are now subsidiaries of textbook giant McGraw-Hill.
Superintendent Arlene Ackerman said that the Empowerment Schools need to make a change and focus more on skill development. "The young people in our Empowerment Schools at every grade level lack strong basic skills. We've found that to go to a curriculum that's much more structured - much more teacher-directed - has been successful."
In speaking to City Council, Ackerman referred to the proposed new curriculum materials by the name "Open Court," which is actually another literacy series produced by SRA. Some describe Imagine It!, released in 2008, as a successor to