At the February 3, 2026 School Committee Meeting, Dr. Carmen Williams, Assistant Superintendent of Instruction and Innovation, and Lisa Messina, Literacy Director, presented a review of the multiyear process of choosing a new literacy program and announced the program that will be implemented district wide in the 2026-2027 School Year.
More on the history and progress of this K-5 Literacy Pilot can be found in our previous spotlights and School Committee Summaries on this topic.
K-5 Literacy Pilot (November 2024)
K-5 Literacy Pilot Update (February 2025)
Literacy Update (October 7, 2025 School Committee meeting)
By Fall 2025, the pilot had been narrowed down to three programs (ARC, Collaborative Classroom, and Fishtank). After further review and data collection, Fishtank was eliminated from consideration in December 2025. Comparison of ARC and Collaborative Classroom, the two program finalists, is outlined in the SC packet from the February 2026 meeting (pages 63-93).
After an extensive pilot, discussion with teachers, gathering data, reviews of student work, and a site visit to Reading, MA which implemented ARC 4 years ago, ARC Core – American Reading Company has been chosen as the most promising program to meet the district goals:
- Equity, access, & high levels of literacy for ALL students
- Coherence & Streamlining for Effective Implementation
ARC is a knowledge based program with integrated phonics, so Needham will no longer need to use the separate Fundations phonics program.
Dr. Williams and Ms. Messina expressed their gratitude to the School Committee for supporting their pilot process and the necessary budget requests for this work, and to all the teachers and staff who worked to pilot many different programs over the last several years.
Work will continue in the upcoming months to ensure that all materials and teacher training are provided so the new K-5 Literacy Program can be rolled out in September 2026.
NPS Literacy information
ARC Core website