MENDON — Superintendent Dr. Maureen Cohen and Assistant Superintendent Dr. Cheryl Kirkpatrick are pleased to announce that the Mendon-Upton Regional School District has received a $221,804 state grant to support the implementation of new literacy curriculum materials.
The district received funding through the second cohort of the Partnership for Reading Success—Massachusetts (PRISM) II grant program. The program helps school districts evaluate, purchase and implement high-quality instructional materials for students in pre-K through Grade 3. Mendon-Upton will use the funding to support the launch of Amplify Core Knowledge Language Arts (CKLA) for English language arts instruction and Amplify Caminos for Spanish language arts instruction.
The new materials will provide a more consistent approach to literacy instruction across grade levels and between the district’s English and Spanish immersion programs.
The grant will help the district purchase curriculum materials and provide professional learning and implementation support for educators. “This grant allows us to make a significant investment in literacy instruction while easing the financial burden on our local budget,” Superintendent Cohen said. “More importantly, it will give our educators strong, connected resources to help students build the reading and writing skills they need. We are grateful to the Healey-Driscoll Administration and the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education for supporting this work.”
The district began reviewing its literacy curriculum during the 2024-25 school year through DESE’s IMplement MA network. More than two dozen educators participated in the process, including classroom teachers from each grade level, Spanish language arts teachers, special education teachers, English learner educators, reading specialists, instructional leaders and administrators.
The group first developed a districtwide vision for literacy and established priorities for evaluating new materials. Those priorities included strong foundational reading instruction, alignment between grade levels, support for students with disabilities and multilingual learners, culturally responsive content and connections between reading and writing. Educators reviewed six curriculum programs before selecting two for eight-week field tests during fall 2025. Following the field tests, the district’s curriculum teams unanimously selected Amplify CKLA and Caminos for elementary instruction. Amplify ELA was also selected for Grades 6-8, giving the district connected literacy resources from the elementary grades through middle school
.“Our teachers and school leaders played a central role in every part of this process, from identifying what our students need to testing the materials at every grade level,” Assistant Superintendent Dr. Kirkpatrick said. “That work gave us a clear direction and strong support from staff. This funding will help us give educators the training, time and resources they need to bring the new curriculum into their classrooms successfully.”
The district expects the new curriculum to strengthen early reading skills, better connect reading and writing instruction and improve the use of assessment data to identify students who need additional support. Embedded assessments will also help educators plan targeted interventions before students fall further behind.
The curriculum includes materials designed to support a range of learners and provide students with multiple ways to engage with and demonstrate their learning. The Caminos program will allow teachers in the district’s Spanish immersion program to plan alongside their English language arts colleagues while delivering aligned instruction in Spanish.
Both elementary schools’ Instructional Leadership Teams began introducing educators to the new programs last spring so that educators could start to get to know the programs before school starts this fall. Throughout the 2026-27 school year additional professional learning and coaching will be provided to teachers through PRISM grant funding to support teachers’ use of the resources and access to student data.
Mendon-Upton was one of 36 new recipients selected for approximately $5.9 million in PRISM II funding. The Healey-Driscoll Administration awarded nearly $24.7 million through four PRISM grant programs to 71 school districts and one educational collaborative across Massachusetts.