GREENFIELD — The Greenfield School Department will not move forward with plans to hire a consultant to conduct a literacy audit after the School Committee received “promising data” from the assistant superintendent of teaching and learning.
The committee voted 3-2, with one abstention, last week to reject the bids that the superintendent’s office had solicited at the committee’s request. Member Jeffrey Diteman, who had originally been in favor of an audit when it was proposed a few months ago, motioned to rescind the vote requiring an audit and said he was encouraged by student growth data from this past school year.
“My mind was changed by the data, basically,” Diteman said. “I was very encouraged by what I saw, and I have a feeling that much of the data that we would be receiving from such an audit would overlap with data we are already receiving from the assistant superintendent.”
According to data presented by Assistant Superintendent of Teaching & Learning Stephen Sullivan, 216 students (41%) fell well below benchmark expectations for literacy at the beginning of the school year across kindergarten through fourth grade. However, by the end of the school year, only 153 students (29%) were well below benchmark expectations.
“In terms of the amount of improvement we saw this year, where we had 216 students, the largest single category was well below benchmark at the beginning of the year. That number moved to only 153. So moving from 41% to 29% [of students below benchmark literacy levels],” Diteman said. “These are very impressive improvements, I think.”
There were 126 students (24%) at the benchmark expectation at the start of the academic year and 111 students (21%) at the benchmark at the end, according to the data presented by Sullivan. While students who fell well below the benchmark represented the largest percentage of students at the start of the school year, by the end of the academic year, the students above the benchmark expectation represented the largest group (35%).
The data slides also noted that 81 students crossed from below grade level expectation at the beginning of the year to at or above grade level expectation.
Multilingual learners and Hispanic students saw high levels of growth. Thirty-eight percent of below-grade multilingual students reached the benchmark by June, higher than any other subgroup, and 28% of below-grade-level Hispanic students reached or exceeded their benchmark by the end of the year.
Students with Individualized Education Programs (IEP) saw slower growth, with only 8% of below-grade-level students reaching the benchmark by the end of the year.
Sullivan wrote in a memo to the School Committee that the district is prioritizing early literacy, and while continued work is needed, data has indicated that students are improving their literacy skills.
“They (the data) reflect meaningful progress, growing coherence across our schools and several accomplishments worth celebrating. At the same time, they also reinforce that this work is ongoing. Improving literacy outcomes requires continuous reflection, refinement and collaboration,” Sullivan wrote. “As we move into the 2026-27 school year, we remain committed to strengthening our systems by examining what is working, identifying areas for improvement and refining our practices so that we can better meet the diverse needs of every student who walks through our doors.”
The School Committee had been discussing a literacy audit since the spring, when member Melodie Goodwin suggested an audit could help the district navigate a nationwide literacy crisis. The committee voted to conduct an audit and solicited bids, which members had been prepared to vote on during last week’s meeting.
Goodwin proposed that the committee accept a bid from Keys to Literacy, which provided the school district with three different audit options ranging from $5,037 to $9,962. She said she believed having an outside perspective would be a benefit to the district.
“Their quote includes visits to elementary schools, conversations with children and with teachers and with principals to really get a sense of what is happening in the schools, and it’s an outside perspective,” Goodwin said.
Diteman said that while he was originally in favor of conducting an audit, the data from Sullivan indicating student improvement has made him wonder whether it would be better to wait and see how things progress. He added that as the district just welcomed a new superintendent, it may be beneficial to let her review the literacy rates and consider what changes she would suggest before conducting an audit.
Superintendent Carol Kruser said she has been watching School Committee meetings and learning as much as she can about the district, and would be willing to move forward with an audit if the committee wished to do so. She added that she thinks the data is promising, and the district is planning to begin the next phase of a PRISM II grant this upcoming school year that will focus on literacy in preschool.
“I haven’t even been in the classrooms yet. However, I completely agree with you that the data looks extremely promising,” Kruser said. “Also, we have the PRISM grant at the preschool that’s going to be happening for early literacy.”
Member Elizabeth DeNeeve said she was pleased to hear Diteman’s assessment, as she believed the data over the past few years has indicated that literacy rates have been improving and she worried the audit would not provide useful information.
“I had my original fear that having an audit like this would be the same as our transportation audit, which we paid for and didn’t really teach us anything that we didn’t already know,” DeNeeve said. “So, I’m not inclined to spend taxpayer money this way.”
After discussion, three committee members voted to reject Goodwin’s motion to contract with Keys to Literacy, with Goodwin and Mayor Ginny Desorgher — who also serves on the School Committee — voting “no” and member Ann Childs abstaining. Three members then voted to rescind the earlier vote to pursue a literacy audit, with Goodwin voting “no” and Desorgher and Childs abstaining.
While the vote means the School Committee will not be moving forward with a literacy audit at this time, Chair Stacey Sexton said it does not mean an audit is fully off the table.
“We have rescinded the vote to do a literacy audit,” Sexton said. “We are reserving the right to bring that back in the future if future data suggests that we should do so.”
