StudySync is a new language arts curriculum that started at the beginning of the year for MacArthur students.  Throughout the year, all MacArthur students will have some interaction with this curriculum in the form of reading stories, writing essays, and completing tests.  

StudySync is a curriculum that helps students on their literacy skills by challenging them with rigorous, common-core activities.  This program, which includes a website, allows students to figure out how to write, read, and improve in language arts. StudySync is for language arts teachers to show their students basic skills and see what they know, so the teachers can help them.

According to language arts department chair Mr. Gregory Celestino, “StudySync has both the consumable workbooks and online activities.”  

As a language arts curriculum, StudySync provides lessons and practice on literature for students.  Before StudySync was adopted, MacArthur students used Holt as a curriculum. Holt is a textbook similar to StudySync, except StudySync is more advanced with the newer standards addressed.

Each grade level has four units, around a theme.  For example, the first unit for eighth grade is titled “Suspense.”  Students will read an article by Alfred Hitchcock and stories by Edgar Alan Poe.  

Eighth-grader Leslie Bohorquez said, “I really like StudySync because it has many different suspense stories and stories that are interesting to read.”

StudySync was designed to make students successful on the CAASPP and SBAC exams at the end of the year.  Those exams test students ability to meet the Common Core Standards. They stand for the California Annual Assessment of Student Performance and Progress and the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium.  

StudySync uses older stories, though.  Many of the texts in the book are free from copyrights because they are on both the digital and print platforms.  

While not every student will use StudySync on a daily basis, many teachers implemented it from day one.  Others will use it as an assessment tool or individual practice later in the year.

Eighth-grader Broderick Frost said, “StudySync is ok because the teachers assign it to us for homework or classwork.”