Berkeley schools to consider new literacy curriculum in response to 2017 lawsuit

Berkeley Unified School District (BUSD) officials are reviewing a new literacy curriculum for its elementary schools that would revamp reading instruction in the district nearly eight years after it was sued for allegedly failing to provide an appropriate education for students with dyslexia. 

On March 19, the BUSD school board heard a recommendation from the Language Arts Pilot Committee to adopt a reading curriculum that combines the programs Fishtank and Functional Phonics and Morphology. The recommended curricula are being displayed in the superintendent’s conference room at 2020 Bonar St. through April 4, and officials said members of the BUSD community can give feedback about the curriculum using an online form.

Education advocates have worked for years to change how reading is taught in Berkeley Unified, which has one of the largest academic achievement gaps in the country. The reading curriculum that BUSD currently uses, which relies heavily on “cueing,” or using pictures and other context clues to identify words, was dropped in several states after families complained it didn’t adequately teach children how to read. Officials say a new K-5 literacy program backed by the science of reading, which emphasizes phonics or the sounding out of words, is expected to be approved this spring. 

Lindsay Nofelt, a BUSD parent and member of local advocacy group Reading for Berkeley, said moving to a systemic and evidence-based approach to teaching English is an “enormous undertaking,” but the school district has been making strides. 

“We’re very hopeful for the future of Berkeley students — a future where every child, no matter their background or struggle, is expected to succeed. That’s only possible with the support of a curriculum like what is being recommended,” she said. 

The recommendation will be on the consent agenda for the April 9 school board meeting following spring break. If approved, the reading curriculum will be implemented in the 2025-2026 school year. 

“We commit to providing a rigorous, research-aligned literacy instruction through the grades so that ALL of our students can build their own literacy skills to make positive contributions to the world,” the curriculum committee wrote in its presentation. 

About four years ago, the Berkeley school district settled a first-of-its-kind federal class action literacy lawsuit, requiring the district to overhaul how it teaches reading, especially for students with learning disorders. 

The settlement tasked BUSD with improving its intervention strategies and implementing universal screening tests. It also assigned an impartial court monitor to assess the district’s progress and make reports twice a year to the school board. 

BUSD officials said the recommended curriculum includes morphology instruction, which ensures repeated exposure to “meaningful” parts of words to build a strong linguistic foundation. 

According to the committee’s presentation, lesson plans include consistent routines, are designed to be more engaging to students and simple for teachers to use. The texts used in instruction are meant to be inclusive and reflect students’ experiences while encouraging “joy in learning through wordplay, storytelling, and discussion.”

The curriculum adoption process included a pilot period in BUSD classrooms. At last week’s school board meeting, some students spoke about their experiences.

“This program teaches us parts of words like prefixes and suffixes, and that makes the words make more sense,” Olivia, a student at Sylvia Mendez Elementary School, told the school board.

Elena, another student at Sylvia Mendez, said the curriculum teaches them about cultures from across the world. 

“It challenges my thinking and helps me understand more complex scenarios that I might read about,” she said.

If approved, initial implementation will focus on teacher training and support before the lesson plans fully launch in all K-5 classrooms. BUSD officials said the new curriculum is expected to cost nearly $1.2 million in its first year, which would cover materials and professional learning among other costs.