Solana Beach School District Announces Broad Adoption of McGraw-Hill's California Treasures Program

SOLANA BEACH, Calif., Dec. 7, 2010 /PRNewswire/ -- Following a two semester-long pilot of several English Language Arts (ELA) programs in winter 2009, K-6 teachers of the Solana Beach School District in San Diego County, Calif., overwhelmingly agreed that McGraw-Hill's California Treasures offered the most thorough curriculum and most support to instructors, prompting a district-wide adoption at the start of the 2010 school year.

California Treasures, a research-based K-6 comprehensive reading language arts program, couples high-quality literature with guided instruction, ample practice, writing support and classroom management resources. The program was developed to meet California state standards, and reflects extensive input from California teachers.

Solana Beach Schools, a high-performing district located in north coastal San Diego County serving approximately 2,700 students at six different elementary schools, was looking to create a common, consistent and congruent curriculum for K-6 literacy instruction.

"We've never seen a program like California Treasures that provides teachers with so many choices on how to best support their kids, regardless of their ELA proficiency level," said Candy Singh, director of instructional services for the Solana School District. "Teachers across our district have already seen tremendous growth and interest from their students since implementing California Treasures at the beginning of the 2010 school year, and the feedback we've received has been extremely positive. We also appreciate McGraw-Hill's support through their high quality professional development."    

Solana Beach teachers who were involved in the pilot valued both California Treasures' content and the breadth of teaching support that McGraw-Hill Education offers. In addition, teachers valued the way in which California Treasures aligns with the school's English Language Development curriculum with speaking, reading, writing, and listening skills to support English Learner redesignation. Other positive features they cited include: the emphasis on non-fiction text; the opportunity to leverage supplemental, small group instruction materials along with the core program; skills-based, differentiated practice readers that are aligned to the scope and sequence of the program; differentiated practice materials that have been prepared in advance for teacher use, and the opportunity for ample practice throughout the year on the California Standards Test.

"We are very pleased that the Solana Beach School District chose California Treasures, a program that aligns with the Common Core State Standards," said Tom DeWitt, regional vice president of McGraw- Hill's School Education Group. "Our goal is to help prepare students for future reading and academic success, and California Treasures provides a rigorous and comprehensive curriculum to support both student achievement and teaching excellence."

About McGraw-Hill School Education Group

The McGraw-Hill School Education Group, a unit of McGraw-Hill Education, is a leading innovator in the development of 21st century teaching and learning solutions for K-12 education markets, offering traditional and digital instructional, assessment, and reference content and tools for teachers and students. The School Education Group addresses critical areas in primary and secondary education through Learning Solutions Centers focused on improving student learning outcomes and promoting digital innovation in literacy, STEM, college and career readiness, and intervention and special needs education. All of McGraw-Hill's content for elementary schools and secondary schools is available in digital form. McGraw-Hill Education, a division of The McGraw-Hill Companies (NYSE: MHP), has offices in 33 countries and publishes in more than 65 languages. Additional information is available at http://www.mheducation.com.

SOURCE McGraw-Hill Education