I’m a retired educator from the NY area and thought I would chime in with what I know about the Lucy Calkins reading program. It came under fire in NY because we found that just independent reading, to foster a love of reading, and the lack of explicit instruction was not effective. Data showed that White and Asian students were proficient, but fewer than 37% of Black and Latino students were proficient. By the way, it is now called Mossflower. Unless Middle Township is mostly high income, it might not be a good choice.