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Who We Are
Building Better Reading Experiences Through Independent Comprehension Designâ„¢
We Write Curriculum develops assessment-ready reading passages and educational materials using Independent Comprehension Designâ„¢ (ICDâ„¢), our proprietary framework for creating texts that promote independent comprehension while maintaining academic rigor.
What We Do
Our Services:
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- Assessment-ready literary and informational passages
- Standards-aligned instructional texts
- Passage catalogs for licensing
- Custom passage development
- Curriculum and assessment consulting
- Independent Comprehension Designâ„¢ implementation support
- Passage quality review and analysis
- Professional resources for publishers, assessment companies, and educational organizations
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Every passage we create is developed with one guiding question:
If the teacher disappeared right now, could the student still build enough understanding from the text itself to demonstrate comprehension?
That question guides every decision we make—from vocabulary and background knowledge to coherence, text complexity, and instructional accessibility.
Assessment-Ready Passage Development
Independent Comprehension Designâ„¢ in Practice
High-quality assessment passages require more than grade-level readability. They require intentional design.
Every passage developed through Independent Comprehension Designâ„¢ is written with careful attention to the factors that influence student comprehension before assessment begins.
Our passages are designed to:
- Support independent meaning-making
- Balance rigor with accessibility
- Align to assessment constructs and academic standards
- Maintain clarity, coherence, and neutrality
- Reduce unnecessary comprehension barriers
- Support valid measurement of reading comprehension
Independent Comprehension Designâ„¢ helps ensure that assessments measure students’ understanding of the text rather than their ability to overcome avoidable design obstacles.
Passage Catalog and Custom Development
Assessment-Ready Passages Built with Independent Comprehension Designâ„¢
Every passage developed by We Write Curriculum is created using Independent Comprehension Design™ (ICD™)—our proprietary reading comprehension framework designed to help students build understanding directly from the text.
Our assessment-ready passage catalog is available for licensing by curriculum publishers, assessment companies, educational organizations, and state education agencies. In addition to our existing catalog, we develop custom passages that align with client specifications while incorporating the principles of Independent Comprehension Designâ„¢ to support accessibility, rigor, and independent comprehension.
Our custom development services include:
- Original literary and informational passages
- Grade-level and standards alignment
- Assessment-specific text development
- Passage development based on client frameworks and specifications
- Passage development using the Independent Comprehension Designâ„¢ Framework
- Collaboration with curriculum, assessment, and editorial teams throughout development
Whether developing passages for classroom instruction or large-scale assessments, our goal remains the same: create texts that allow students to demonstrate what they truly understand.
Instructional and Assessment Alignment
Designed for Independent Comprehension
Independent Comprehension Designâ„¢ recognizes that reading comprehension begins long before students answer questions. It begins with the design of the passage itself.
Every passage is intentionally developed to balance academic rigor with accessibility by carefully considering text complexity, vocabulary accessibility, coherence, knowledge demands, and opportunities for students to construct meaning independently.
Our passages are designed to support:
- Classroom instruction
- Benchmark and formative assessments
- Interim assessments
- State assessments
- Curriculum resources
- Independent student reading
Rather than relying on teacher explanation to fill gaps in understanding, Independent Comprehension Designâ„¢ focuses on reducing unnecessary barriers so students can demonstrate genuine comprehension.
Our Mission
Our mission is to provide educators and assessment partners with clear, research-aligned, and assessment-ready literacy resources that support instruction, measure student understanding, and maintain high standards of quality and rigor.
Who We Serve
- Assessment companies
- Curriculum publishers
- State education agencies
- School districts
- Educational technology companies
- Content development companies
Independent Comprehension Designâ„¢ was created to support organizations that believe better passage design leads to better measures of student understanding.
About the Founder
Dr. LaChandra Fitzgerald, Ph.D.
Dr. LaChandra Fitzgerald is an educator, curriculum developer, assessment specialist, and the creator of Independent Comprehension Designâ„¢ (ICDâ„¢), a proprietary framework for designing reading passages that support independent student comprehension while maintaining academic rigor.
With more than 20 years of experience across K–12 and postsecondary education, her work spans classroom instruction, instructional design, curriculum development, and large-scale assessment. Throughout her career, she observed a recurring challenge: many students struggled not because they lacked ability, but because the passages themselves created unnecessary barriers to comprehension.
Dr. Fitzgerald’s observations became the foundation for Independent Comprehension Designâ„¢, a framework that examines how vocabulary accessibility, knowledge demands, coherence, text organization, and purposeful rigor work together to support genuine reading comprehension.
Her work continues to advance one central belief:
Students cannot demonstrate comprehension if they cannot first access meaning.
Looking Ahead
We Write Curriculum continues to expand its catalog of assessment-ready passages and instructional resources. GED and adult education materials are currently in development and coming soon.Â
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Our Commitment
We Write Curriculum is committed to:
We are committed to creating assessment-ready reading passages through Independent Comprehension Design™ (ICD™)—our proprietary framework for designing texts that help students build understanding independently.
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✓ Meaningful comprehension ✓ Intentional passage design
✓ Academic rigor with accessibility ✓ Research-informed development ✓ High-quality educational partnerships
Because better passages lead to better measures of student understanding.