Learning List Blog

Does your district need math materials to support critical thinking in math? Take a look at Learning List’s review of Accelerate Learning’s STEMscopes Math. Accelerate Learning’s STEMscopes Mathis a comprehensive mathematics program for grades K-Algebra I. Learning List recently reviewed the content for grades 6-Algebra I for Common Core State Standards. The materials are digital, with the option of printing PDF documents for most program components.

The Learning List is a free, public directory of more than 10,000 K-12 instructional materials (and counting!) for the courses districts offer. We aggregated titles from state and district adoption lists, our database of reviewed materials, and publishers' catalogs. The titles are organized by subject, course, and grade band. Within each grade band, the materials we have reviewed are listed first; the remaining materials are listed in alphabetical order.

Selecting instructional materials that align with campus or district goals for instruction support quality instruction and learning. Next time you are selecting instructional materials, consider reviewing the material’s questions adding as an indicator of quality.

What is the principal's role in selecting and implementing materials? The RAND Corporation's study titled, School Leader's Role in Selecting and Supporting Teachers' Use of Instructional Materials, answers that question. The study explored how the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted school leaders' perception of materials' quality, as well as their role in selecting and implementing instructional materials. The study was based on qualitative, semi-structured interviews with 39

Imagine Language and Literacy is an adaptive digital program designed to accelerate students’ reading and language proficiency. Learning List recently reviewed the content for grades K-5. The material intends to supplement core literacy instruction by providing lessons and practice in reading, writing, listening, and speaking.

Whether you are reviewing the alignment of a material before you purchase it or are planning instruction with a material you already own, the publisher's correlation can be an invaluable resource. The correlation identifies which standards the material has attempted to address and directs teachers to specific content in the material that addresses those standards.

Does your district need supplemental math materials to support students in K-8? Take a look at Learning List’s review of Imagine Learning’s Imagine Math. Imagine Learning’s Imagine Math is an adaptive digital program designed to supplement core mathematics instruction for grades PreK-Geometry. Learning List recently reviewed the content for grades PreK-8. The program for focuses on helping students understand how math functions in the real world and developing foundational

Teacher shortages often lead to merged classrooms and teacher reassignments. Teachers who are newly assigned to teach a grade level and course may lack expertise in the subject area, in the standards, and sometimes even in pedagogy. For such teachers, their instructional materials become a critical safety net for themselves and for their students. However, if the materials are not high quality, if they are not aligned to state standards, or if they are not easy to use, they m

Does your district need math instructional materials that develop critical thinking skills? Learning List has just reviewed the quality, alignment and technology compatibility of Accelerate Learning’s STEMscopes Math. This blog post shares a few highlights from our reviewer's review.

Are you teaching a new grade level or subject this year? If so, you likely do not feel like you have had enough time to plan.  Three years into my teaching career I moved between campuses and inherited a book cart full of textbooks and supplemental materials for my new assignment. I had no idea whether the materials were current or well-aligned to the current standards for the course! To make things more difficult, I was a singleton teacher and had no one to ask.  It took me

Have you ever purchased K-12 textbooks or online instructional materials that are not well-aligned to the standards? Where are those materials today – on a bookshelf, in a closet, in the district’s warehouse? Selecting new instructional materials or even deciding which existing materials to use in a lesson can be a daunting task. Learning List was founded 10 years ago to help teachers, instructional coaches, principals, and district curriculum leaders choose high-quality mat

In our high-stakes testing and accountability environment, academic success is rooted in students’ mastery of the state standards. State standards dictate what students must know and be able to do by the end of each grade level. Preparing all students with the content knowledge and skills contained in the standards requires campus and district leaders to be focused on aligning instruction with the state standards. Have you built a culture of standards alignment in your dist

IXL Learning is a supplemental online program providing content for grades PK-12 that includes language arts, math, social studies, and science. Learning List recently reviewed the content for Algebra, which provides math practice problems, explanations, and video- and text-based instruction. The program intends to offer a personalized learning experience to meet students’ individual learning needs. IXL Math is an adaptive program that uses continuous diagnostic assessment t

This is the second of two blog posts about mapping instructional materials to a district curriculum. The first blog discussed developing a common definition of alignment, becoming familiar with your materials, and important considerations when identifying citations (lessons, activities, quizzes) in your materials to map to the district curriculum. This blog contains five more tips.

As you may have experienced, curriculum mapping can feel like you are trying to fit a square peg in a round hole. In this blog, we shared five important tips for mapping instructional materials to your district curriculum. Since that blog was published, we have helped many more districts with various curriculum alignment tasks. In this two-part blog series, we share a few more tips from our experience.

State departments of education generally revise state assessments when the standards for the content area have been revised. In such circumstances, districts generally purchase new materials. However, as this blog post discusses, several forces may cause state education leaders to implement widespread changes to state assessments, as recently occurred in Texas. Starting with the spring 2023 administration, the Texas state assessments will be administered online and will inclu

Holt McDougal’s Biology is a comprehensive program designed to support Texas high school Biology. The content is available in print and digital formats, in both English and Spanish. While this material is no longer sold by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Learning List recently reviewed the digital version of the material to meet subscribers’ requests. The material focuses on providing resources to support students as they deepen their understanding of scientific concepts in prepar

Newsela is a digital platform that provides diverse content, lessons, and activities intended to supplement core curriculum in English Language Arts (ELA), social studies, or science. Learning List recently reviewed the content for ELA. The program intends to provide engaging content and lessons that offer relevance, choice, and skills practice to complement districts’ ELA instruction and core materials.  The platform provides an abundance of diverse texts across genres, inc

Daily or almost daily tutoring is one of the most effective interventions for struggling students. A 2016 study provides strong evidence that frequent tutoring is especially effective at increasing the achievement of low-performing students. Studies have shown tutoring produces big gains in student scores when it occurs daily or almost every day; less frequent tutoring showed lower gains and was not as helpful as other types of interventions. In the studies, successful "high

Is your district looking for materials to support credit recovery and independent learning in ELA? Take a look at Learning List’s review of Edgenuity’s English I-IV. Edgenuity’s English platform provides comprehensive, online courses intended to support students in developing the skills required for high school English. Courses can be used for original credit or credit recovery in a variety of blended learning and self-paced environments. Each course can be formatted as a c