The Board of Education of Anne Arundel County today approved a six-year, $19.5 million contract that will shift the way elementary students receive literacy instruction and will fully embrace the Science of Reading tenets beginning in the 2024-2025 school year.
The contract with Amplify Education, Inc., brings on board the Core Knowledge Language Arts (CKLA) curriculum, which was recommended by AACPS’ school system’s K-5 literacy curriculum review committee. That group included classroom teachers, special educators, literacy teachers, school psychologists, administrators, central office personnel, and community partners.
“Amplify is a partner with Maryland State Department of Education’s Maryland Leads program and the length of the contract will bring stability to this investment in our youngest learners,’ Superintendent of Schools Dr. Mark Bedell wrote in a letter to families and employees today. “Put simply, being literate is – and should be – a right for all students. Literacy is the gateway to knowledge in all other areas for our students. It creates the sense of belonging, allows our students to grow, and helps us to help them succeed. Illiteracy doesn’t just close off opportunities for our students, it all but eliminates them.”
By combining knowledge-building and research-based foundational skills, CKLA guides educators in developing strong readers, writers, and thinkers. It covers all five of the key Science of Reading pillars: phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension.
“We are fully investing in and embracing the Science of Reading,” Dr. Bedell said in a video message announcing the contract approval. “We will fully support our educators and our families in the this new curriculum as we put it in place I am excited about what this will mean to our earlier learners.”
School-based personnel will participate in extensive professional learning in the Science of Reading integrated with the new curriculum in the coming months and will continue throughout the 2024-2025 school year.