School Board Approves New Reading Literacy Curriculum

Late yesterday afternoon, the Stephens County School District issued a press release regarding a new reading literacy curriculum approved by the Stephens County Board of Education at the Tuesday, June 18 meeting. 

According to the press release, “In response to House Bill 538 passed this year by the Georgia Legislature, the Stephens County BOE voted at its June 2024 meeting to purchase and adopt the Wonders reading curriculum published by McGraw Hill.

Also known as the “Georgia Early Literacy Act,” the Bill seeks to improve early reading literacy instruction based on the Science of Reading. Beginning August 1, 2024, Georgia school systems will be required to implement an approved core program from their published list of 12 options, administer universal reading screening to all kindergarten through third-grade students three times during each school year, and require all elementary school teachers (to) receive professional learning based on the Science of Reading.”

Brent Tuck, Assistant Superintendent of Curriculum and Instruction for the Stephens County School System said that a review of the options available to meet the new Literacy Act, the school district feels the McGraw Hill’s Wonders reading curriculum is the “most comprehensive of all the 12 vendor options released by the State of Georgia.”

Tuck said that The Georgia Literacy Council and The Reading League, an independent curricular research agency, also highly recommend this curriculum, adding that teachers and administrators feel that Wonder has the most comprehensive reading approach and a variety of writing opportunities, has embedded vocabulary studies, and robust assessment tools. 

The Wonder program also includes a section on handwriting, which Tuck says will be returning to the new Georgia standards starting in the 2025-2026 school year.

Superintendent Dr. Connie Franklin stated, “Our commitment to advancing literacy education has never been stronger. We are excited to adopt a new core resource to support our literacy efforts in K-5. This core adoption, Wonders, by McGraw Hill publishing, will provide teachers with the needed resources for a comprehensive

reading, writing, vocabulary, and assessment program. In addition to this new core implementation, we will be adding Literacy Leads at each elementary school K-5 to aid in the familiarization of this core resource as they collaborate directly with teachers who will be implementing this new instructional core.” 

According to the press release, the Stephens County School System will also lead comprehensive training initiatives aimed at equipping all teachers K-5 with the latest and most effective strategies in Dyslexia and the Science of Reading. Teachers in K-5 will complete the Georgia Literacy Academy during the 2024-25 school year or have opted to seek their Reading Endorsement or the completion of Language Essentials for Teachers of Reading and Spelling (LETRS) training through Pioneer RESA. 

Franklin stated that district leadership has plans to fully implement the new resource at the start of the 2025-26 school year, with teacher training for Wonders implementation scheduled for the Spring of 2025. 

In presenting the curriculum purchase recommendation as part of the new state mandate or “Georgia Early Literacy Act” to the Stephens County BOE, Tuck stated: “This is a six-year adoption with a cost of $604,214.19 to be paid over two school years with $302,107.10 coming from the 2023-2024 budget and $302,107.09 coming from the 2022 SPLOST budget.” 

As yesterday was a holiday, WNEG News was unable to speak with school system officials regarding the announcement. WNEG News will be researching the Wonder system and speaking with Stephens County School officials to learn more about the decision, and will continue to update this story in the coming weeks.