The Byram Hills literacy curriculum is carefully designed and implemented to align with research-based strategies for student learning, and is continuously reviewed and revised to meet every student's learning needs. The curriculum is aligned to the NYS learning standards and to the Scarborough's reading rope as well as other literacy frameworks. 

Central to our literacy program is attention to the needs of each student. We recognize that young readers and writers have a wide range of skills, and therefore, teachers are responsive to where students are in their learning pathway as they monitor student progress. As a result, teachers may make modifications to the scope and sequence noted below to ensure students are advancing in their skill level and knowledge.

 

Overview: 

In 2008, the District adopted Fundations for our foundational reading and writing program. During our literacy study, started in 2022-2023, we explored the developmental stages of language learning. As a result, we recognized the need to update our core phonics curriculum.

During the 2025-2026 school year, the District will engage in a pilot implementation of UFLI Foundations (written by the University of Florida Literacy Institute) in all classrooms K-2.  

The UFLI Foundations program was developed in alignment with effective reading instruction and Linnea Ehri's phases of reading development. Furthermore, the program was released after two years of empirical research and a review of its impact on student learning. The scope-and-sequence is aligned to the core reading and writing curriculum to be certain students meet the grade level standards and advance appropriately. 

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UFLI Foundations targets the following foundational reading skills: 

• Phoneme blending and segmentation practice 
• Accuracy and automaticity of grapheme-phoneme correspondences
• Decoding automaticity of words with previously learned concepts
• Explicit introduction of new concepts
• Decoding and encoding practice 
• Reading and spelling irregular words 
• Reading and spelling connected text

Specifically, the scope & sequence for UFLI Foundatations (in grades K-2) include the following: 

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Note: The District is currently engaged in a K-5 literacy curriculum review, led by curriculum chairperson Ms. Megan McCauley, with a committee of teachers, administrators, and an expert consultant. We are planning to pilot a curriculum in the 2026-2027 school year. 

May 2026 Update
A note from Elementary Chairperson, Ms. Megan McCauley. 

The Literacy Search Team concluded its search and made a recommendation for next year’s language comprehension curriculum. All the programs we reviewed were aligned with the science of reading and closely aligned with the learning we have engaged in since 2022. We reviewed and studied two great programs in depth.

After careful review, the team has selected Arts & Letters for our 2026–2027 pilot.

This choice reflects several key strengths that align with our guiding principles and critical components:

• Knowledge Building: The curriculum intentionally builds students' background knowledge and academic vocabulary through cohesive, topic-based units rather than isolated skills.
• Structured Writing: It demonstrates a strong reading-writing connection, providing explicit instruction in structured writing, including sentence construction and paragraph development.
• Access for All Students: Lessons are scaffolded to provide multiple entry points for diverse learners through varied texts and media. Thoughtfully designed, optional prologue lessons help front-load information so that all students can access and engage with grade-level content. 
• Curriculum Materials: Students will engage with high-quality, complex trade book texts that build knowledge and expose them to diverse topics, genres, and perspectives.
• Ease of Implementation: Lessons are designed to fit within our established literacy block, requiring manageable preparation and providing educators with clearly organized materials. A consistent instructional model ensures that the routine remains clear and accessible for both teachers and students. 

Our next step in this process is to build the pilot plan, specifically determining which grades will participate. This plan will include professional development and ongoing training throughout 2026-2027.

This page will be updated with curriculum information this summer. 

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Literacy is the key to understanding and will help students recognize and embrace the role they play in the world they are creating. The Wonders literacy program builds student knowledge by exploring the world through literacy. Wonders is our literacy curriculum that sits alongside the Fundations (in grades K-3) multisensory approach to reading and writing and locally developed curriculum. Science and social studies informational texts are integrated throughout the Wonders program, and additional locally written literacy units are integrated throughout the program as well. 

Wonders is grounded in the science and research base for reading. Drawing upon decades of literacy research, Wonders was designed to deliver high-quality literacy instruction backed by the science of reading literature. The program is underpinned by the findings of preeminent reading researchers, and authors include Dr. Timothy Shanahan, Dr. Douglas Fisher, and Dr. Jan Hasbrouck.

The Wonders curriculum is organized through genre. Each unit engages students through a theme or big idea, and students read widely through connected texts that require listening, speaking, and writing in various genres across content areas. By mastering the structure of genres, students will read more broadly and deeply as they become independent readers and writers. Genres included throughout the K-5 program are realistic fiction, personal narrative, poetry, fables, folktales, nursery rhymes, informational text, biography, fantasy, fairytale, and drama. 

The Wonders program supports six student habits for learning that help students master thinking skills in reading, writing, speaking, and listening. These habits, integrated throughout the curriculum, teach students to:

1. Use a variety of strategies to understand. Examples include:
   - make predictions
   - take notes
   - think about the organization of the text
   - visualize

2. Think critically about what they read, such as:
   - ask questions
   - use text evidence
   - think across domains
   - make inferences

3. Write to communicate. Specifically, students:
   - think about the message
   - think about the audience
   - talk with peers
   - use rubrics

4. Be a problem-solver, by:
   - analyzing the problem
   - considering different approaches
   - testing ideas

5. Believe they can succeed, such as:
   - challenge themselves
   - stay on task

6. Be part of a community of learners. Examples include:
   - listen actively
   - build on other's thoughts
   - share what they know
   - use the right words
   - gather information before acting or speaking

Specific instructional approaches vary based on students’ developmental needs and readiness. 

Please note that teachers and grade-level teams may adjust the curriculum based on the needs of their class or individual students; teachers are certain that all curricular revisions align with the NYS standards to ensure students are meeting grade-level expectations. 

The District utilized Investigations 3, published by the Savvas Learning Company, as its core mathematics curriculum in grades K-5.

Investigations 3 is a focused, coherent, and rigorous K-5 mathematics curriculum that develops understanding and fluency in a student-centered approach. Fully aligned to the NYS content and practice standards, deep and careful attention is paid to mathematics content and to student thinking and understanding. Making sense of mathematics is the heart of the work for students.

The Structure of the Curriculum

Review and practice are built into the sequence and structure of the units within and across grades. The units in each strand build on work from previous grades and prepare students for subsequent grades.

Features of a Unit

Every unit includes practice of the content of that unit, as well as a review of content from previous units. This work takes place in the whole class setting, independently, and in pairs and small groups, in the following ways:

Mathematical Discussions
Talking about math is a central component of students building knowledge and understanding of mathematics. Discussions about the mathematical content, strategies, and skills occur throughout all parts of the math lessons.  

Games
Students engage in a variety of “games,” which take place in pairs or small groups. The games provide review, practice, and exploration of mathematical knowledge and ideas. 

Homework and Practice
Students will practice their math skills through homework assignments and practice within the classroom. These assignments reinforce the work done in class and will often prepare students for upcoming activities. 

Math Words and Ideas
This digital resource summarizes and illustrates important math words and concepts at each grade, and allows students to revisit and review the important mathematics they are working on throughout the year.

Mathematical Practices
The Standards for Mathematical Practice, embedded throughout the lessons, describe ways in which students increasingly engage with the subject matter as they grow in mathematical maturity and expertise throughout the elementary, middle, and high school years. The eight mathematical practices include:

1. Make sense of problems and persevere in solving them.

2. Reason abstractly and quantitatively. 

3. Construct viable arguments and critique the reasoning of others.

4. Model with mathematics. 

5. Use appropriate tools strategically.

6. Attend to precision.

7. Look for and make use of structure.

8. Look for and express regularity in repeated reasoning. 

Details about the mathematical practices can be viewed here. 

Meeting the Needs of All Learners

Engaging and supporting all learners in making sense of and understanding mathematics are two goals of the Investigations curriculum, supported by a guiding principle that all students have mathematical ideas and can be mathematical thinkers. The curriculum is explicitly designed to create a positive and inclusive learning environment that is responsive to the needs of each learner and it supports students in developing a strong mathematical identity. 

In addition to supporting all learners in the classroom, the District utilizes various assessment data and uses a multi-tiered system of support (called, MTSS) framework for evaluating student progress in meeting the grade-level standards. Students are provided academic intervention services based on their individual learning needs through the MTSS process. 

Furthermore, some students may need a modified curriculum based on the Committee on Special Education’s recommendations and outlined in a student’s individualized education plan. Students in a special class in mathematics may receive an adapted curriculum based on their learning needs.

Below are the content topics by grade level. Teachers respond to the needs of students, and some content may be taught at different times or be emphasized and modified in different ways. Certain topics spiral throughout the school year and more complex, multi-step problems are introduced. 

A scope and sequence of the content taught at each grade level includes:  

• Kindergarten:
  Counting; measurement; 2-dimensional geometry; 3-dimensional geometry; addition; subtraction; the number system; and modeling with data.

• Grade 1:
  Addition; subtraction; the number system; 2-dimensional geometry and measurement; fractions; modeling with data; and 3-dimensional geometry.

• Grade 2:  
  Addition; subtraction; the number system; geometry; fractions; modeling with data; linear measurement; and multiplication.

• Grade 3:
  Multiplication; division; modeling with data; addition; subtraction; the number system; 2-dimensional geometry and measurement; and fractions. 

• Grade 4:
  Multiplication; division; modeling with data; 2-dimensional geometry and measurement; addition; subtraction; the number system; fractions; decimals; and analyzing patterns and rules. 

• Grade 5:
  Multiplication; division; 2-dimensional and 3-dimensional geometry and measurement; addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division of rational numbers; and analyzing patterns and rules.

Teachers utilize various assessments to monitor student progress in order to meet students’ needs, including the daily observation of student engagement with the content. Each grade level follows an assessment framework that utilizes a variety of assessment types and teachers use this information to guide further whole class, small group, and individual instruction.

Additional digital resources for skill practice and assessments may be used to support students.

The Investigations 3 curriculum is aligned with the NYS Next Generation Learning Standards. Information about the NYS standards can be found on the nysed.gov website and this document provides the mathematics learning standards for Pre-K through grade 12.

The District is in the process of adopting a new science program. The steps in our process include:

1. In 2019, a K-5 science committee convened to study the new NYS science standards. Prior to this, the District had engaged an expert science consultant to study the NextGen science standards on which the NYS science standards were based. The pandemic interrupted the work. 
2. During the 2022-2023 school year, a science committee reviewed 13 science programs and conducted several visits to neighboring districts to observe science instruction. 
3. The committee selected three programs and teachers in grades 1-5 engaged in a pilot implementation during the 2023-2024, 2024-2025, and 2025-2026 school years.  
4. The committee selected one program to pilot during the 2026-2027 school year.
5. We plan to recommend a K-5 science program to the Board of Education at the end of the 2026-2027 school year.  

This page will continue to be updated as we make decisions. 

The District integrates social studies through the Wonders literacy curriculum. 

Additionally, teachers may supplement the social studies curriculum utilizing a regional curriculum developed through the Putnam Northern Westchester BOCES and use locally developed lessons. 

• You can see an overview of the Integrated Social Studies/ELA Curriculum on the BOCES website where teachers may select relevant units as appropriate. 
• The themes of the BOCES curriculum for each grade level include the following topics:
  • Kindergarten: Getting to know myself and others
  • Grade 1: My family and other families now and long ago
  • Grade 2: My community and other United States Communities
  • Grade 3: Communities around the world
  • Grade 4: NYS history and government
  • Grade 5: The western hemisphere

On September 17, 2024, the Board of Education adopted the program, PurposeFULL People, by Character Strong, as a K-5 character education curriculum. These slides provide a brief summary of the program. 

PurposeFULL People identifies nine character traits and includes direct skill instruction leading to three outcomes for students: be kind; be strong; and be well. Those nine traits include:

 

Instruction centers around a monthly character trait to develop students' social skills in addition to conflict resolution, executive functioning, and wellness strategies. The PurposeFULL People curriculum is implemented in grades 1 through 5. (We use a different curriculum in kindergarten.) The general outline of curriculum includes the following: 

 

Lessons are taught in the classroom, and additional support is provided in small groups or one-to-one by our support staff. The program is grounded in research and can be reviewed on the Character Strong website. 

For more information about the District's character education principles and their link to academic success, please visit the character education webpage.

OVERVIEW

During the 2024-2025 school year, the District is piloting a new universal screener assessment in grades K-5. Universal screening is a process to determine the degree to which students are meeting grade level standards and to identify areas in which students may need additional support.

During the 2025-2026 school year, we will evaluate the universal screener's accuracy in identifying students in need of interventions and alignment to the NYS tests in ELA and math.

The assessment, Renaissance Star, is administered in reading and math three times per year (fall, winter, and spring.) Teachers use the information to support students in the classroom, and additional support may be provided to students to target areas in need.

It’s important to note that the universal screener is just one of many data points used to understand a child’s learning journey.

PARENT REPORT

The District will provide parents with a score report after each administration to provide insight in their child's current performance in reading and math. Below is information to help parents understand the report.

Scaled Score: This number reflects a child’s performance on the screener and is based on the total points scored. The scaled score is calculated from the difficulty of the questions and the number of correct responses. It enables us to measure a child’s growth over time as we administer the screener three times per year.

Percentile Ranking: This percentage indicates how a student performed compared to a national sample of students in the same grade. The 25th to 75th percentile range includes the majority of students’ scaled scores nationally and is considered the “average” range.

Instructional Reading Level (IRL) (Star Reading only): The IRL indicates the level at which a child can read and comprehend texts with appropriate support. This level guides our selection of reading materials that will challenge and engage students without causing frustration. This is just one metric to understand reading abilities. The child’s teacher will share more detailed information about the specific skills and strategies based on additional assessments and classroom observations.

Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) (Star Reading only): This concept refers to the range of reading levels at which a child can work with some assistance. The ZPD helps us identify texts that are both challenging and achievable, promoting growth while keeping the students motivated. This range is approximate, as success at any reading level also depends on a child's interest and prior knowledge of the book's content.