The state has approved Glen Cove’s elementary literacy curriculum for adhering to new standards, district officials announced at the Wednesday, Sept. 17, board of education meeting.
Kristen Schaefer, the district’s English language arts coordinator, said the state’s new standards aim to ensure students’ written and oral vocabulary and comprehension. The state has also emphasized the importance of phonics, which teaches students the correlation between sounds and letters.
The state Department of Education required that each school district submit an attestation outlining how teaching practices align with the state’s priorities. The attestation was mandated in a 2024 law and was due by Sept. 1, Shaefer said.
Schaefer said the law is “grounded” in the state’s Next Generation ELA standards, which were released in 2017. She said the state prioritizes six skills, including vocabulary, oral language, phonemic awareness, fluency, phonics, and comprehension.
Schaefer said the state released a “best practices guide” for kindergarten through third-grade curriculum in January, which outlines how districts can enhance each skill.
Schaefer said student learning is completed through curriculum, instruction and assessment, all of which are fit to students’ needs.
“The key here is also the reflect, inform, and adjust practices that we hold true,” she said.
Schaefer said she and Superintendent Alexa Doeschner attended two state conferences outlining the literacy standards, as well as a BOCES think tank to deepen their understanding on the new standards.
Schafer said the district’s curriculum was reviewed to ensure it corresponded with each of the outlined skills and standards, and that the district’s literacy coaches and ELA alignment team assisted in creating the attestation.
“This was a strategic and thorough way… for us to ensure our curriculum and instruction were aligned to the expectations and best practices,” she said.
She said the attestation was submitted to the state and approved in August.
The board reviewed student performance in light of the attestation. Schaefer said that 2024-2025 kindergarten students’ sound recognition has improved compared to the 2023-2024 class, with students identifying 24 of 25 sounds on average. Letter recognition has remained the same, identifying 50 of 52 letters on average, she said.
Schaefer said kindergartners’ phonemic awareness and phonic decoding skills increased as well. The district saw similar improvements in first and second grades, she said. She also noted that students in grades three, four, and five have seen continued improvement on the state ELA tests over the last three years.
Schaefer said videos titled “Literacy in our Schools” will be updated on the school website and social media platforms throughout the month. These videos showcase “insight on how we are ensuring all students become skilled readers and writers.”
