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The Burlington School Committee has unanimously approved CommonLit 360 as the new English Language Arts curriculum for Marshall Simonds Middle School, following a comprehensive two-year review process that involved extensive teacher input and parent feedback.

The decision comes after middle school English teachers piloted both CommonLit 360 and EL Education, with 97% of educators ultimately favoring CommonLit 360 in survey responses. The program will serve students in grades six through eight beginning in the 2026-27 school year.

Both curricula meet the requirements for highly qualified instructional materials (HQIM), said Lisa Chen, Assistant Superintendent, at the March 24 School Committee meeting, where the Committee gave their official approval vote. However, CommonLit 360 seemed to represent the most seamless transition from the recently-adopted elementary curriculum, Amplify CKLA. "The teachers landed on CommonLit 360 because it fit more with what they were already doing," said Chen. It also appears to meet the priorities – educational rigor, strong skill building, and critical thinking – uncovered in the district's analysis of caregiver and educator feedback.

The selection process included surveys of both parents/caregivers and educators. Every educator who works with students around any aspect of reading was asked for input, including special education teachers, social studies and science teachers, and directors. Forty-six caregivers responded, as well. The majority of parent respondents also favored CommonLit 360, according to Chen.

Teachers cited several key factors in their preference for the program, said Chair Melissa Massardo and Member Jeremy Brooks, who attended the curriculum adoption night hosted by the district earlier this year. These include strong professional development support, flexibility in implementation, and the program's emphasis on reading complete novels rather than excerpts.

"One of the pieces of feedback was that the students are reading the whole book," said Massardo. "So not just excerpts from books, but the whole novels" – the key to what Massardo called "reading endurance." She also said the programming aligns instructional focus across all three middle school grades, so all students are working on the same aspect of literacy (research, poetry, etc.) at the same time through different texts and work products.

CommonLit 360 also happens to be the less expensive option between the two finalists, said Chen, though she emphasized that educators were unaware of pricing during the evaluation process. "That just happened to be a bonus."

"I have access to Common Lit professionally," said Committee Member Meghan Nawoichik. "I think that has a lot of great articles that kids are interested in reading. And if you can really get kids interested in a certain topic, like Tony Hawk and the Poetry of Failure, connecting them to things that they're already interested in, you're going to increase engagement."

The district presented the new curriculum resources at the incoming sixth grade parent night on March 31. Over the summer, staff will purchase student and teacher print materials, manuals, and workbooks in preparation for implementation.

Chen expressed her appreciation to the middle school administration and educators for their dedication to the selection process, noting they incorporated materials from both pilot programs into their curriculum maps during the evaluation period.

CommonLit 360 materials and details about the curriculum review process are available on the Burlington Public Schools website.

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