Start Here: On-ramps for identifying and using high-quality curriculum

No education leader I know is out there trying to make a bad decision about curriculum – but making an informed one can be easier said than done.

In a recent Gallup survey, just a quarter of educator leaders report that their school or district has a clear definition of high-quality curriculum, and more than a third are unfamiliar with the concept themselves. It’s understandable – as our map highlights, states vary widely in the degree and type of support they offer regarding high-quality materials, and we now know 83% of education leaders most often rely on state guidance to identify which programs are high-quality.

Research on curriculum selection and implementation – not to mention efficacy – is complicated. Several states are doing admirable work with surveys and case studies and organizations like the Center for Education Market Dynamics, EdReports, and Rivet Education are doing their part by sharing resources and technical assistance, but it can still be hard to grasp the lay of the land.

To help people access the information they need about curriculum policies and practices, CurriculumHQ has launched a new tool. In partnership with the leaders of the RAND American Instructional Resources Survey (AIRS), the platform now includes a resource to illuminate different “on-ramps” to high-quality curriculum selection and implementation. We’ve woven the rich content from RAND’s research results and state case studies into a guide that describes the ins and outs of curriculum decisions and offers entry points for anyone who wants to engage in this work.

Some of the highlights include RAND’s “Teacher Profiles,” which describe the different ways teachers approach instruction with high-quality curriculum, and descriptions of the unique (and ideally, complementary) roles of the school, district, and state in supporting instruction. This should be particularly helpful to education leaders looking to make sure professional development is applicable and valuable to teachers – once again according to the Gallup survey, almost half of leaders say their school’s math PD is not aligned to their curriculum.

Making smart decisions about curriculum and aligned PD shouldn’t be hard. Fortunately, CurriculumHQ has lots of examples and strategies to remedy that situation, and now it’s easier than ever to find them.

Jocelyn Pickford is an education policy and communications specialist focusing on understanding and promoting practitioner-informed public policy across the private, public and non-profit sectors as a Partner with Waypoint Education Partners. She began her career in education as a high school English teacher in a regular and special education inclusion classroom and is now a public school parent and recent member of her local district school board. Previously, Jocelyn led the design, launch and implementation of the Teaching Ambassador Fellowship at the U.S. Department of Education to integrate teachers into the national education policy dialogue.

Jocelyn’s passion for her work was seeded during her own public school education and took root during her classroom teaching experience in Fairfax County, Virginia, where she led action research and presented instructional materials to a variety of audiences. Jocelyn earned her bachelor’s degree from Trinity College (CT), working as a professional writer and editor prior to becoming a teacher, and obtained her master’s in secondary education from George Washington University. Jocelyn lives outside Philadelphia with her husband and two children.