Case Study: Cabell County Schools creates a custom ELA resource with Newsela

How one district created a bespoke ELA resource for new state standards with Newsela

Cabell County Schools, a district in West Virginia, faced the challenge of creating a new Career Literacy course after state legislation passed in 2015. They struggled to find accessible, engaging content that aligned with their new curriculum and made the complex industry texts suitable for middle school students. The district partnered with Newsela to help solve this problem.

Newsela worked as a partner to design and implement a custom ELA resource, sourcing and curating content specifically aligned to Cabell's career clusters for each grade level. This transformed the course from a simple career exploration class into a true ELA program. The solution included professional learning from Newsela to train teachers. While no specific metrics are given, the outcome was a successfully implemented curriculum that educators found inspiring and innovative, removing the burden of finding materials and bringing the content to life for students.

Cabell County Schools

Kristin Sobotka

Academic Specialist