Learning List is a “resource review service by and for educators™.” We recognize that our reviews are only as good as the educators we hire to do the reviews. We are often asked, “Who are your reviewers?” The bios of our Leadership Team members and of our Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) are available on the Our Team page of our website.
Our Leadership team has deep and diverse experience in education law, policy, research and practice, as well as in the education publishing and high tech industry. We currently employ over 40 highly qualified SMEs to review materials for alignment and for the editorial reviews. Our reviewers:
- Must have at least five years of teaching experience, though on average, our SMEs have an average of 17 years of teaching experience;
- Must be certified in the grades and subjects of the products they review; 73 percent of them have either a master’s or Doctorate degree, and almost half of them (48%) are ESL certified; and
- To maintain the independence of our reviews, our SMEs cannot have worked for a publisher or online content developer within the prior two years of working with us or during their tenure with Learning List.
Verifying a product’s alignments is an inherently subjective process. To reduce the subjectivity, at least two and often three SMEs, as well as our Director of Alignment, sequentially contribute to Learning List’s alignment verifications. The same SMEs provide feedback for the product’s editorial review, so those reviews reflect the perspectives of multiple educators.
While each SME must have experience aligning materials to standards, Learning List provides rigorous initial training and individual feedback after each alignment is completed. Having reviewed over 500 materials in the four core subjects, our SMEs are experienced product reviewers.
To learn more about SMEs or to join the Learning List team, click here.