As the parents and community members of the Madison New Jersey School District, we ask the Madison Board of Education to commit to continue to use Heggerty and Fundations AS LONG AS the Lucy Calkins Units of Study Curriculum remains the backbone of the Madison School District’s reading curriculum. 

The Lucy Calkins Units of Study curriculum is currently the backbone of the Madison school district’s literacy curriculum. While the Units of Study fosters a love of reading and writing, it lacks rigorous phonics instruction. Currently our district supplements the Units of Study with Heggerty and Fundations. These two programs provide systematic and explicit instruction in foundational reading skills. Heggerty focuses on explicit phonemic awareness instruction (hearing and manipulating sounds), crucial for early reading. Fundations focuses on systematic phonics instruction (letter-sound relationships), building decoding and spelling skills.

Heggerty and Fundations address Calkins’ Units of Study's gap in foundational skills, providing explicit instruction in phonics and phonemic awareness. The approach of combining the three programs supports all learners. 

Continuing the use of Fundations and Heggerty alongside the Units of Study curriculum is a matter of equity, particularly for English as a Second Language (ESL) students. This explicit instruction levels the playing field, giving all students the foundational tools they need to access grade-level texts and succeed in reading and writing. 

Numerous studies support the effectiveness of systematic and explicit phonics instruction for developing decoding skills. When we talk about Science of Reading, we are talking about a body of evidence-based research that unequivocally points towards the importance of building decoding skills in young readers.

This petition is an appeal to the Madison Board of Education to commit to the Science of Reading and affirm their commitment to Heggerty and Fundations and that these programs will be used as fundamental supplements across the Madison school district as long as Lucy Calkins' Units of Study curriculum serves as the backbone of our literacy program.