EVANSTON — Most of the schools will see some curriculum changes this fall, on top of schedule changes at both middle schools. 

The UCSD No. 1 board heard from five committees on Tuesday, May 2. The committees have been studying K-5 math and reading, 6-12 social studies and math and the middle school schedule.

The math and social studies curricula will be implemented this fall (although the K-5 math curriculum change will be minimal), and the K-5 reading curricula will go through piloting. 

All of the committees, made up of teachers, have been reviewing research and curricula for about six months and have also provided information to parents. 

Davis Middle School social studies teacher Cheryl Lowham said her committee looked at three curricula for grades 6-12, and the committee has chosen McGraw-Hill. 

She said some pluses for the program are modifiable assessments, online videos, section introductions explaining why the material matters in real life, good training and foreign-language and read-aloud options. 

Secondary math teacher Jennifer White said the 6-12 math committee has chosen Eureka for middle school math and CPM for high school. Eureka, which will cost $28,100 annually, uses Engage New York and offers other resources. 

With the “free” Engage New York program (which the school district already uses for grades K-5), the school district has had to spend thousands of dollars in printing costs for materials that Eureka now will provide with updates. 

The high school curriculum, CPM, is an integrated program that will tie together algebra and geometry as Integrated I, II and III. White said CPM has a five-year professional development offering and is a one-time cost of $100,298 for an eight-year license. It will also allow UCSD No. 1 to offer AP Statistics. 

White said the curriculum will take effect next year with some modifications especially for eighth and 10th grade. 

Since the middle schools already use CPM, the eighth graders will finish middle school with CPM (instead of switching to Eureka for one year and then back to CPM). In high school, although the ninth and 11th graders will mostly be ready for Integrated I and III, the 10th graders will need extra geometry supplements to get caught up, although some of the algebra will be review. White said the committee has worked with CPM to identify the holes. 

Assistant superintendent Joe Ingalls said Eureka, next year’s K-5 math program, should provide better resources to support what UCSD No. 1 has already been using. 

Finally, K-5 reading committee facilitator Eric Stemle said teachers will pilot at least two reading programs during the 2017-2018 school year. 

Board trustee Tammy Walker, after looking at the information Stemle had given out, asked what a basal reading program is. Ingalls said a basal program is founded on the core reading skills (he later told the Herald the five components are phonemic awareness, phonics, vocabulary, comprehension and fluency). 

Community member Heather Stubenvoll expressed concern that a basal program may not allow enough flexibility for students at different levels. Ingalls said, since the program focuses on providing core skills, all students get the “base” and there is some flexibility. 

Thomas said most people in the room probably learned to read with a basal program, referencing programs like “Dick and Jane.” 

Ingalls said he believes most resistance to these programs is because people don’t like change (Ingalls told the Herald that UCSD No. 1 has been using a different approach since before Ingalls came). 

Davis Middle School math teacher David Jensen then presented the middle school schedule for next year. After several months of work and negotiations, both Evanston Middle School and Davis Middle School will switch to a modified block schedule in the fall. 

The schools will keep the eight-period days but periodically will have two consecutive days where each class will take two normal class periods. The blocking would allow some classes to occasionally have longer activities. 

Board clerk Jami Brackin wondered how the schools can figure out whether the schedule or curricula switch is more successful if there is a change in learning. Jensen said DMS did the schedule switch a year and a half ago, and PAWS scores went up. 

Evanston Middle School teacher Crystal Peterson said everyone had to compromise. 

Because both middle schools will be on the same schedule, teachers will be able to collaborate more and use common planning time. They will also have intervention time.

Jensen said DMS currently uses homeroom time for mentoring, while EMS has some specialty homerooms like the newspaper, student council, yearbook and Challenge Spanish. EMS will need to find different times for those activities, perhaps replacing Challenge Spanish with Spanish I in eighth grade for high school credit. AVID will also be a 30-minute enrichment block, meaning kids won’t have to choose between AVID and a related art. 

Overall, Jensen said English and language arts came out as the big winner in the scheduling change, ending up with 88 minutes per day. 

Thomas said he had wanted to see a big change, such as a six- to seven-period day instead of an eight-period day (and trustee David Bennett agreed), but the two schools worked together to find a compromise.