ABINGTON - May 26, 2026 - The Abington School Committee was dealt a major setback on Tuesday evening when Assistant Superintendent Dr. Chris Basta announced that the state’s Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) abruptly disqualified one of the district’s primary elementary English Language Arts (ELA) pilot programs. The surprise ruling forces Abington to halt its implementation timeline, carry over nearly $300,000 in state grant funds into fiscal year 2027, and return to the drawing board for the upcoming school year.
The Full Story
Assistant Superintendent Dr. Chris Basta explained that the district had been actively participating in the state’s PRISM 2 “Literacy Launch” program, receiving a $293,000 grant to review, pilot, and adopt a high-quality K-5 literacy curriculum. The district had already completed a four-and-a-half-week pilot of Amplify CKLA in seven classrooms and was in the first week of piloting its second candidate, HMH’s Into Reading.
However, mid-pilot, DESE issued an updated Curate report declaring that the HMH program failed to meet the state’s rigorous criteria for high-quality instructional materials. Because state and grant funds can only be used on fully approved programs, Abington was forced to terminate the pilot immediately.
“The timing was unfortunate for our teachers and for us as a district... It’s unfortunate that districts weren’t told ahead of time that these are the programs that are being evaluated this year and we don’t know how they’re going to do.” — Assistant Superintendent Chris Basta, 01:19:02
While school committee members expressed deep frustration on behalf of the teachers who spent months training on the disqualified software, the district secured permission from DESE to carry over the unspent grant funding into FY27. The ELA committee will reconvene in the fall of 2026 to pilot alternative programs, with a revised goal of purchasing a curriculum by June 30, 2027, for full implementation in the 2027–2028 school year.
