Winchester Schools Pick Arts and Letters as District-Wide K-5 Literacy Curriculum

WINCHESTER -- March 31, 2026, Winchester Public Schools formally recommended Arts and Letters as the district's K-5 elementary literacy curriculum following a year-long pilot. The recommendation, presented to the School Committee on March 31, came after educators at Lincoln, Ambrose, and Morocco schools piloted both Arts and Letters and EL Education throughout the 2025-26 school year. Survey data showed 100 percent of Arts and Letters piloting teachers recommended adoption, 96 percent without reservation, while 74 percent of respondents who evaluated EL Education did not recommend it. Teachers across grade levels cited elevated student writing quality, cross-curricular connections, and universal design features that reduced the need to pull students out for separate instruction. Full district-wide implementation is expected for the 2026-27 school year, pending finalization of an assessment suite and a differentiated "literacy lab" block that the curriculum does not itself prescribe.