Needham Schools Confront Controversial Literacy Program

January 13, 2025
• Needham Public Schools currently use a literacy curriculum that has been heavily criticized. School officials say the program and its revised edition are misrepresented and misunderstood.

Around 10 years ago, the Needham Public Schools decided to pilot Units of Study, one of the most popular early literacy programs in Massachusetts. In that curriculum, children are encouraged to decode words through cueing, wherein teachers draw students’ attention to context clues, such as visuals, syntax and the words and letters.

However, in recent years, Units of Study has faced intense scrutiny, as highlighted by a podcast series by American Public Media. Research indicates that cueing can lead children to rely more on context and images than the words and sounds themselves. In contrast, phonics — sounding out parts of words to decode their meaning — is shown to be highly effective in teaching children to read.

While Needham Public Schools reviews its literacy curriculum, instructors have continued to use “very outdated” teaching materials, including a “much older version” of Units of Study, Director of Literacy Lisa Messina said to the School Committee on Jan. 7.

A review by EdReports, an independent nonprofit, found Units of Study’s 2018 edition fails to meet expectations. At least 17 states have banned or prohibited cueing methods in some form. The revised edition Units of Study — which was published in 2022 — no longer instructs teachers to use cueing strategies.

The district is piloting that newer version in grades K-5. Three other curricula are also in the pilot stage this school year.

Messina said she and a steering committee composed of reading specialists eliminated programs with “poor reviews,” and later garnered teacher feedback before piloting them. They’ll be studying the programs over the school year to determine which “meet the needs of all learners,” Messina said.

“It’s time for us to replace and really look at our core curriculum,” Messina said to the committee, “and obviously this is an opportunity for us to really engage in a rigorous reflection, in the debates, and make sure that the program we select is the best program we can have for our students.”

Needham mother and speech-language pathologist Melissa Rotman, who has also taught in elementary schools, opposed Units of Study during public comment. Rotman said the curriculum is a “disproven method” with “faulty” instruction, and raised concern about the effectiveness of the revised edition.

Carolyn Kenline, another Needham parent, also urged the committee not to move forward with Units of Study, which she said she feels is “contrary to decades of research.” Kenline pointed to Needham’s 2024 MCAS scores — about 63% of students in grades 3-5 met or exceeded expectations on the English Language Arts assessment, according to the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.

“I encourage you to go to the Needham Public Library after school between 3 and 5 [p.m.] to see the number of tutors working with elementary-aged children,” she said. “There are even more students I know who have tutors in their homes or parents who work with their children on phonics nightly, like I do.”

Carmen Williams, assistant superintendent of instruction and innovation, reassured the committee that children are still receiving critical reading fundamentals but said school leaders “are not satisfied with our outcomes.”

Two Massachusetts parents recently filed a class-action lawsuit against Units of Study author Lisa Calkins and authors of other literacy programs for products they consider “defective.”

DESE does not list Units of Study in its reports on high-quality literacy curricula, but two other NPS pilot programs are included on that list: Benchmark Advance and American Reading Company. NPS is using DESE’s own rubric to determine program quality, Messina said.

Units of Study is supported by a corresponding phonics program which together create more of a comprehensive curriculum, Messina said. Needham uses FUNdations for phonics, though that program is also not included in DESE’s reports.

Messina emphasized the district’s focus on the “science of reading,” an emerging movement that critics say is antithetical to previous editions of Units of Study, which is considered a “balanced literacy” program.

Both Messina and School Committee member Matthew Spengler referenced news coverage on Units of Study — Spengler called the Globe’s literacy investigation “not a good article for Units of Study and Lucy Calkins,” while Messina said she feels “it’s unfortunate the way it’s been handled in the media.”

Other factors, including cost, play into the process, Spengler said, and those complexities might be lost or misunderstood. NPS is currently facing a budget shortfall.

“These are some of the things we have to wrestle with as a committee and a public,” Spengler said.

ARC, another pilot program, would be twice as expensive as Units of Study and FUNdations. ARC would cost $1.44 million to $1.7 million, while Units of Study and FUNdations together cost $525,000. The two other programs — Benchmark Advance and Collaborative Classroom — cost $727,000 and $600,000, respectively. Those totals don’t account for professional development costs, which could be up to $72,000.

Discussing literacy “brings about big feelings,” Williams said, but they’ll be assessing these programs critically.

“I think it’s important to recognize that the way education is organized, there are three tiers of governance: federal, state and local,” Williams said. “And so, while the state has done their job, that doesn’t exclude us from doing our job of being diligent in our search for appropriate materials for this community.”

Units of Study has worked to correct its shortcomings with phonics, Messina said, but there is still misinformation about the program. While a more integrated literacy program, such as ARC, might be ideal, Messina said she is concerned about giving up the FUNdations curriculum.

Given the public’s critiques of Units of Study, Messina said she fears that the benefits of its revised edition will be overlooked.

“I’m not sure if the world, the community, will ever get past the current vision of Units of Study, even though it has been completely revised in tandem with the Child Mind Institute in New York… I don’t know if we can sort of get past that,” Messina said, “but there are many things these programs have to teach, and it has other wonderful qualities.”

School Committee member Michael Greis offered a different perspective to the issue.

“Programs don’t teach reading, teachers do,” Greis said.

Needham will hold a forum on the pilot programs and the process on Tuesday, Jan. 28 at 6:30 p.m. at Broadmeadow Elementary School. The district plans to expand the pilot programs or begin a multi-year rollout next school year.