5 Tips for Using Materials Strategically to Close Learning Gaps

Selecting materials for closing learning gaps: image of woman with too many choices

Selecting materials to remediate students’ learning gaps can be a daunting task. If you have access to multiple materials, and you are feeling overwhelmed by the choices, here are five tips to help you identify which of your current materials to use and how to use them effectively to address your students’ learning gaps.  (1) Use available assessment data to identify your students’ …

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Creating An Effective High-Dose Tutoring Program

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.

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

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. 

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

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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Are Teachers’ Doubts About The Alignment of Their K-12 Materials Correct?

Standards alignment percentage of supplemental materials

According to the 2021 Survey Results of the RAND Corporation’s American Instructional Resources Surveys, over 90% of the teachers surveyed consider standards alignment an important characteristic in their district-provided instructional materials (question 34). Yet, only between 36-41% of the surveyed teachers (depending on the content area) perceive that their district-purchased materials help their students master their state’s math, English language …

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Are Your Materials A Safety Net or a Sieve?

The mass resignation of teachers and resulting nationwide teacher shortages highlight the importance of having high-quality instructional materials. Prior to the pandemic, Arizona, Nevada, Oklahoma, and Washington[i] were among the states experiencing severe shortages of fully-prepared, credentialed teachers. During the 2020-21 school year, nearly 20 percent of California’s K-12 classrooms were taught by underprepared teachers.[ii] And, according to the National …

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Teaching a New Course This year? If So, Some Advice…

Teaching from a textbook and sitting on a stack of texbooks

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 a long time to wade through what I had, and I am quite sure that I was missing components of the material that came with the original purchase.

If you are in a similar position, consider these suggestions to help you plan instruction efficiently with materials you have inherited.

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Invest ESSER Funds for Lasting Impact

ESSER Investment with Lasting Impact: Wise owl sitting on a stack of text books

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.

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Fuel Student Achievement By Building a Culture of Standards Alignment

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.

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