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.
New Curriculum Alignment and Review: IXL Learning for Algebra
Do your students need personalized support for Algebra? Take a look at Learning List’s review of IXL Learning’s Algebra.
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.
Tips for Mapping Materials to Your District Curriculum (Part 2)
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.
Tips for Mapping Materials to Your District Curriculum (Part 1)
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.
How Changes to State Assessments May Impact the Efficacy of Your Instructional Materials
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 include 14 new types of questions, cross-curricular passages, and evidence-based writing.
New Curriculum Review: Holt McDougal Biology Review
Does your district own Holt McDougal Biology? If so, take a look at Learning List’s reviews, which include a review of alignment to the streamlined science TEKS.
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.
New Product: Newsela ELA
Do your teachers need texts and resources to supplement ELA instruction? Take a look at Learning List’s review of Newsela ELA.
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.
Research on Effective Tutoring Techniques
Late last month, U.S. Secretary of Education Cardona set out his Vision for Education in America. He discussed the importance of keeping schools open and strategies for helping students catch up and succeed, including targeted, intensive (high-dose) tutoring.
Much attention and many resources have been focused on providing tutoring to help close students’ learning gaps. What are the ingredients of a successful tutoring program? Several studies provide guidance:
New Curriculum Review: Edgenuity’s English I-IV
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.
Supporting an Equitable Learning Experience With Digital Materials
Do your digital materials support an equitable learning experience for students participating in remote instruction? You may consider adding this question to your selection rubric as you consider which materials to continue using or purchase next year.