Madison Metropolitan School District (MMSD) Deploying Digital ELA Curriculum to 31 Schools

Originally published 6/29/22 on THE Journal by David Nagel

Wisconsin's second-largest school district, Madison Metropolitan School District, will deploy a an early literacy solution that combines EL Education's K-5 Education Language Arts CurriculumKiddom 's digital learning platform and tools from Open Up Resources. The combined solution is being rolled out to the district's 31 elementary schools.

The news was announced at the ISTELive 22 conference taking place this week in New Orleans.

Kiddom provides an all-in-one platform for digital curriculum designed for remote, blended or in-person instruction. It includes communications tools, curriculum management features, assessments and instructional tools. Open Up Resources is a nonprofit whose aim is to "increase equity in education by making the highest quality curriculum freely accessible to educators and providing implementation supports to the broadest number of teachers, empowering them to effectively and sustainably improve student outcomes in preK–12 English Language Arts and Mathematics." As part of the implementation, Open Up Resources will provide access to its digital learning community. EL Education is providing the curriculum, along with a multi-year agreement for professional development.

According to the companies, the implementation will allow Madison Metropolitan SD teachers to provide personalized feedback on assignments, share assignments digitally, communicate digitally, access the EL Education digital community and leverage a professional learning plan.

“MMSD is deeply committed to accelerating the achievement of all our scholars,” said Cynthia Green, MMSD associate superintendent for teaching and learning, in a prepared statement. “This rigorous curriculum integrates the experiences of our diverse communities in meaningful and innovative ways. We are excited about this unprecedented level of investment in curriculum for our school district - the largest commitment to literacy in over a decade - and for its potential to pay tremendous dividends for our future generations of scholars.”

Madison Metropolitan SD serves more than 27,000 students in 52 schools and spans 74 square miles.

About the Author

David Nagel is editorial director of 1105 Media's Education Technology Group and editor-in-chief of THE Journal and STEAM Universe. A 29-year publishing veteran, Nagel has led or contributed to dozens of technology, art and business publications. 

Follow him on Twitter at @THEDavidNagel (K-12) and @CampusTechDave (higher education).