Jackie Lain » LearningList

COPPA Compliance: Learn from Edmodo’s Experience

May 25, 2023May 25, 2023

Image re: battle between FTC and EdModo re: COPPA Compliance:

On May 22, 2023, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) issued a proposed settlement order in a first-of-its-kind case against an education technology (ed tech) company for violating the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) Rule. The settlement order contains valuable guidance for ed tech companies and school districts that work with them. Congress enacted COPPA in 1998 with the goal …

Got K-12 Curriculum Chaos? Don’t Despair -Just Audit!

October 26, 2023May 17, 2023

Woman sitting at desk staring at stack of instructional materials stacked on her desk

The end of the school year and the impending ESSER cliff are two forces compelling districts to review their K-12 curriculum materials to determine which instructional resources to keep and which to discard. If you are involved in making those decisions in your district, the first question you are likely asking is, “Which materials are teachers using?” Several companies, including …

A Radical Rewrite of Texas’ Instructional Materials Laws Threatens to Dismantle the K-12 Market

April 19, 2023April 19, 2023

If you care about instructional materials, you need to know about legislation that is sailing through the Texas legislature: House Bill 1605 (Buckley) and its identical companion Senate Bill 2565 (Creighton). The legislation would implement significant changes in how instructional materials are selected and used in Texas classrooms. Why should you care? California, Texas, New York, and Florida have long been …

The Great Debate: Print vs Digital K-12 Materials

April 28, 2023March 31, 2023

Digital vs Print: Man reading a book in a computer screen

A recent EdWeek article titled, Why Printed Books Are Better Than Screens for Learning to Read addresses the debate over print vs digital materials for young learners in an interview with Maryann Wolf, the director of the Center for Dyslexia, Diverse Learners, and Social Justice at UCLA Graduate School of Education and Information Studies.

Wolf begins by saying that the answer is not binary. “There are advantages and disadvantages for each type of medium [e.g., paper books, audiobooks, computers, e-readers, and phones], depending on the purpose or intention.”

Creating An Effective High-Dose Tutoring Program

March 24, 2023March 6, 2023

Woman tutor and young boy student sitting at a table and high fiving.

While states and districts have engaged in numerous strategies to address Covid-related learning losses, the strategy getting the most attention and investment is high-dose tutoring. According to a February 2023 report published by the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO), states have spent $700 million of ESSER reserve funds to expand tutoring opportunities, including $470 million on large-scale, high-dose tutoring programs. This blog endeavors to provide tips, based on lessons learned from tutoring programs across the country, to help districts implement successful high-dose tutoring programs.

Curriculum Writing? 10 Timely Tips for Mapping Resources to the Curriculum

March 3, 2023February 24, 2023

Group of educators sitting around table and looking at a screen surrounded by post-it notes

Will you be participating in curriculum writing this year? If so, mapping resources to the district curriculum is a critical task in the process. Having materials mapped to the district curriculum saves teachers hours of work and helps facilitate standards-aligned instruction.

Paper with the word curriculum typed on it three times.

This two-part blog series contains stepped-out guidance and important tips to help you map your resources to the district’s curriculum.

Buying Instructional Materials? How to Avoid Making a (Multi-)Million Dollar Mistake

February 22, 2023February 22, 2023

Caveat Emptor … a Latin phrase meaning, “Buyer Beware.” For centuries buyers have been held to a standard of due diligence; do your homework before you buy or suffer the consequences. Purchasing instructional materials is the single largest annual purchase a school district typically makes. To put it in context: school districts spend more on instructional materials annually than you …

Will Districts Succumb to State Pressure Over the Adoption/Use of Instructional Materials?

April 17, 2023January 19, 2023

If you have perceived an increase in state control over the adoption of instructional materials, you are not alone. This blog explains the reason for the shift away from districts’ control over the selection and use of instructional materials. In a recent EdWeek article, education leaders who shaped the standards movement argue “that states should be doing more ‘quality control’ when it …

When Selecting K-12 Supplemental Materials, Does the Alignment % Matter?

February 22, 2023December 9, 2022

Image of a supplemental material for mathematics

When purchasing supplemental materials, how much weight should you give to the alignment percentage? In this blog, we explore the differences between comprehensive and supplemental materials when it comes to assessing alignment. Educators in every district are working hard this year to close students’ Covid-19-related learning gaps. Consequently, many campuses and districts are selecting supplemental materials. This blog discusses important differences between supplemental and …

K-12 Curriculum Reviews: What Sets Learning List Apart?

December 2, 2022

Learning List's Curriculum Review Service 10-Year Anniversary Image with gold baloons

Does the following scenario sound familiar? The state’s math standards recently changed, and your district purchased new instructional materials for mathematics. Teachers use the materials for a few months, but when students struggle to master the content, the teachers grow skeptical about the material’s quality. Increasingly, they turn to lesson resources they have developed themselves or borrowed from their colleagues. …

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