June 8, 2026
Dear Superintendent McGuire,
We are writing to express our support for an exemption for The Clinton School from the mandated implementation of the Wit and Wisdom ELA curriculum for grades 6 through 8. This request for exemption is unanimously supported by our Parents’ Association and our teachers. While we appreciate the district’s effort to provide high quality instructional materials, our status as an International Baccalaureate (IB) World School presents unique pedagogical requirements that are not easily reconciled with the structure of this specific program.
Key points:
- The existing ELA curriculum has been intentionally and meticulously developed to enable the success of our students in the Middle Years Programme (MYP) and later, the Diploma Programme (DP).
- Middle school students at Clinton have a track record of meeting and exceeding academic standards in ELA and reading as evidenced in iReady data, NYS tests and Regents Exams.
- Transitioning to a new ELA curriculum poses a disruptive risk to students’ MYP experience and dilutes the assessment processes aligned with IB standards.
A primary concern is the difficulty of integrating Wit and Wisdom into the interdisciplinary framework required by the Middle Years Programme (MYP). As an IB school, we are committed to designing units that bridge multiple subject areas, allowing students to see the connections between their ELA studies and other disciplines. We have existing high quality, interdisciplinary units in each grade which uniquely prepare students to be successful in the IB program. The highly structured and prescriptive nature of the Wit and Wisdom modules makes it challenging for our educators to maintain the flexibility needed to build these critical cross curricular links.
Furthermore, we already have a robust and established curriculum for each grade level that is fully aligned with New York State standards and yields exceptional results. Our success is evidenced by the fact that we consistently retain a minimum of 80% of our students scoring a 3 or 4 on the NYS Exam for grades 6 through 8, a 95% or higher pass rate on the ELA Regents, and high scores on the IB Language and Literature summative assessment in May of senior year.
This academic strength is further supported by our 2025- 2026 iReady data, which demonstrated significant growth this year across all grade levels, including within our various subgroups. These metrics confirm that our existing approach is meeting the diverse needs of our student population effectively, and preparing students to be successful regardless of the high-school program they select.
Our current program has proven successful in providing students with a sophisticated foundation in literacy, critical thinking, and analysis, effectively preparing them for the rigors of the IB Middle Years Programme in grades 9 and 10, and the IB Diploma Programme in grades 11 and 12.
Our instructional model is deeply rooted in the use of MYP rubrics and assessment criteria. These tools allow us to measure student growth through universal categories on a rubric, focusing on inquiry and communication in ways that our current curriculum was specifically built to support. Forcing a transition to a different curricular product and set of assessments would disrupt the continuity of this practice and potentially dilute the specific skills we aim to cultivate in our middle schoolers.
We believe that maintaining our current ELA curriculum is the best way to honor our commitment to the IB framework while ensuring our students continue to meet and exceed state expectations.
We look forward to discussing how we can continue to align our school mission with the goals of the district.
Best regards,
The Clinton Community