Educators tasked with finding instructional materials for their districts and classrooms face a dizzying array of options these days.
Classroom resources are available in print, digital textbook formats, and online. They can be paid for, subscribed to, or downloaded for free. They鈥檙e available as comprehensive, yearlong curricula; individual thematic units; and single activities and games.
Several forces have collided to bring the market to this confusing, yet ultimately academically promising point: The majority of states are now using the Common Core State Standards, meaning there are more opportunities to share materials across state lines. States are increasingly letting districts choose their own instructional materials, rather than forcing them to select from an approved list. There鈥檚 been a recent push, including , to make online instructional materials free and open to the public鈥攌nown as open educational resources.
And advances in digital technology have made it easier to personalize learning materials for individual students鈥� needs.
The trick is choosing well. In selecting instructional materials, teachers and administrators have to ask: Do the resources I鈥檓 considering align with my state鈥檚 standards? Do they have enough supports for English-learners? Can they be modified to fit a classroom鈥檚 unique needs? And, perhaps most importantly, will they really lead to student learning?
As it turns out, that last question is an incredibly thorny one鈥攖here鈥檚 as little agreement on what makes a curriculum 鈥済ood鈥� as there is on what makes a teacher so.
And yet, with the varied influx of curricular materials, districts are scrambling to deduce what will work in classrooms.
鈥淭eachers across the country are trying to figure out how to find materials that are standards-aligned for increasingly diverse populations, that are culturally relevant and responsive,鈥� said Brian Kingsley, the assistant superintendent for academics of the . 鈥淭here鈥檚 a lot of sorting through the forest鈥� for the right materials.
Nationwide Curriculum Review
Certain states have long had curriculum-review panels鈥攂ut some of the most influential ones, including California, have in recent years ceded their power over materials to the districts.
Now, a growing number of national efforts are underway to help teachers and administrators wade through the curricular muck.
Teachers often turn to the internet to find classroom materials aligned to the Common Core State Standards, according to a survey by the 91制片厂视频 Week Research Center. Of the 328 teachers who responded to a survey question last October, one-quarter said they used Teachers Pay Teachers, an online marketplace for teachers peddling their lessons. State-curated websites were also popular.
The nonprofit , launched two years ago, reviews K-12 math and English/language arts curricula for alignment to the common core, which sets expectations for those subjects and, , is being used in nearly 40 states. EdReports.org has come under some criticism from publishers and a math teachers鈥� group for its methodology.
Even so, the ongoing reviews may be proving influential: In Palo Alto, Calif., the school board initially rejected a pilot for one of three educator-recommended math curricula because that particular curriculum hadn鈥檛 yet been reviewed by EdReports.org. (It subsequently was deemed to 鈥減artially鈥� meet academic standards, and approved in February for a trial run.)
鈥淚f we鈥檙e not explicit about what we鈥檙e looking for in terms of curriculum alignment, what we鈥檙e left with is trusting people鈥檚 gut feeling about whether or not they like something,鈥� said Daniel Gohl, the chief academic officer of the . 鈥淭hat 鈥榣ike鈥� needs to be defined and articulated.鈥�
Learning List, a for-profit company based in Austin, Texas, analyzes digital and print educational resources for alignment with states鈥� standards as well, though it is a paid-subscription service.
The has become a resource for state officials with a web-based 鈥減rint to digital鈥� guide to high-quality instructional materials. And Johns Hopkins University researchers have created a website for school administrators that rates instructional programs for K-12 reading and math based on the criteria for judging their effectiveness that is laid out in the Every Student Succeeds Act, the new federal education law.
Individual researchers are taking on curriculum effectiveness as well, though on a smaller scale: A by Corey Koedel, an associate professor of economics and public policy at the University of Missouri, and Morgan Polikoff, an assistant education professor at the University of Southern California, looked at the impact that textbooks have on student achievement鈥攕omething very few studies have attempted to do.
Kodel and Polikoff found that one of the four most popular math textbooks used in California from 2008 to 2013 consistently outperformed the other three and led to 鈥渘ontrivial鈥� gains in student performance at a very low cost.
Some districts have tried to assess curriculum effectiveness on their own. The Wake County district used a 鈥渂ackwards mapping鈥� approach to determine what instructional resources have led to the best student outcomes.
Starting with students鈥� work products in a particular classroom, and comparing them to available resources, the question was asked: 鈥淒id these resources naturally lead to teaching to the mastery of our standards?鈥�
How are teachers assessing whether classroom materials are aligned with the Common Core State Standards? The 91制片厂视频 Week Research Center survey suggests that teachers are turning to a variety of sources, including colleagues and materials archives, and they are using evaluation tools developed by experts.
鈥淭his helped us build some systemwide priorities of areas we need to enhance our curriculum 鈥� and in some cases, procure new curriculum,鈥� said Kingsley of the Wake County district.
Now in the market for English/language arts and math curricula, Wake County also held 鈥減rint and digital playground鈥� sessions for educators, students, and parents so they could give feedback about their impressions of the instructional-material finalists in each category. 鈥淭hese are the people who are going to be using them every day,鈥� Kingsley said.
Creating Lessons In-House
In light of the bewildering number of resources available and few agreed-on measures of quality, some districts have, in a sense, gone off the grid.
In Louisiana, the state education department decided to have teachers craft a curriculum of their own. The resulting program, which is voluntary, was released across the state last year, and about 80 percent of districts there are using it so far.
Recent state test results show signs it may be helping improve student outcomes, though some teachers say they need more help differentiating the units for students of all needs. The curriculum, hosted on the LearnZillion cloud-based platform, is free and open for any school across the country to use.
The District of Columbia public schools are doing something similar.
In the , educator-created open educational resources are being organized in a scope and sequence onto a Learning Path platform that Superintendent Ken Eastwood plans to make available to districts nationwide as well.
On the other end of the curricular spectrum, some schools have turned to curriculum 鈥減laylists,鈥� some of which use computer-based algorithms, rather than teachers, to gather online lessons tailored to individual students鈥� learning gaps.
Role of Digital Curriculum
Despite the proliferation of digital and online materials, print curricular resources continue to be in demand in schools.
鈥淲e鈥檝e coined a phrase internally: 鈥榩urposeful technology鈥� and 鈥榩urposeful print,鈥� 鈥� said Christine Willig, the president of McGraw-Hill 91制片厂视频鈥檚 K-12 Group, which is focusing on why educators prefer their materials in one format versus another.
But having material in digital format offers the advantage of using the program鈥檚 embedded assessments and obtaining instant results, said Linda Ruiz Davenport, the Boston district鈥檚 director of K-12 mathematics. She also likes how digital formats provide 鈥渢ext-to-speech鈥� options that help the districts鈥� English-language learners.
For many educators, a key ingredient sought in an instructional program is flexibility.
鈥淲e鈥檙e telling vendors we do not want a basal textbook,鈥� said Gohl, the Broward chief academic officer. His school system is working on a social studies adoption now. 鈥淲hat we want is the opportunity to procure materials that are aligned with standards that, in traditional language, would be called supplementary materials,鈥� he said.
Gohl is looking for modularity, the ability to easily manipulate components of the curriculum in a digital environment.
Publishers say they鈥檙e hearing this kind of request more and more.
The evolving needs and demands of the print-to-digital transition have 鈥減roven to be more complex and expensive鈥� than first envisioned, said Jay Diskey, the executive director of the Association of American Publishers PreK-12 Learning Group.
鈥淢oving to digital personalized learning is something quite different from what schools had been doing,鈥� he said. 鈥淚t really is a sea change in learning.鈥�
