New curriculum benefits Young learners starting this school year

Teachers Can Guide Students In Real Time

The theme for the 2022-23 school year at Hazel Park Schools is “Literacy for All”.

And this summer the Board of Education voted unanimously to implement the American Reading Company’s ARC Core for kids in kindergarten through eighth grades.

The ARC Core is a comprehensive curriculum that includes knowledge-building units that integrates reading, writing, science, and social studies content in a student-centered learning environment.

“This came out from the work of building administrators, teachers and instructional coaches looking for a new resource that would positively impact student learning and student growth as well as aligning with some of the principles of the science of reading,” said Dr. Stephanie Dulmage, the Executive Director of Teaching, Learning and Assessment at Hazel Park Schools. “Through an extensive of process of research and analysis the district determined that the ARC Core aligned with the goals of HPS as well as the needs for our students learning foundational skills.”

This new curriculum earned the highest rating as a Level 1 program demonstrating “Strong Evidence” of efficacy under Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA).

It was found to have a profound impact on a students’ reading comprehension, letter-naming fluency, and motivation to read.

“The science of reading really speaks to explicit and direct instruction in those areas,” Dulmage said. “The ARC Core has that as well as opportunities for students to routinely engage in volumes of reading high quality text.

“The materials are also dedicated to speaking to equity and inclusion,” Dulmage added. “That was a main drive in our analysis. We feel this will have a significant impact on our students’ foundational skills. We know that’s an area we’ve need to show an increase and help our students grow in and we’re also very excited for our students to have text that really speaks to equity and inclusion.”

Texts with which students engage are appropriately rigorous and rich and are accompanied by cohesive writing and speaking questions and tasks. The materials provide practice and production opportunities for students to grow their foundational literacy skills in multiple areas as they build knowledge as well.

There are multiple opportunities for students to synthesize information by working with varied tasks and in growing research and critical thinking abilities. Materials are organized to support vocabulary development, writing instruction in multiple modes, and independent reading of complex texts over the course of the year.

The materials also include support for educators to plan, implement, and differentiate the standards-based materials.

“The ARC Core is really focused on student engagement, the ownership and joy of reading,” Dulmage said. “There is such great structure to it and a more interactive type of reading.

“It’s a very strong student driven piece,” Dulmage added. “The kids are doing research all the time. When you get to different