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Compass Learning provides supplemental, online middle school science courses that support instruction in remediation, self-paced, and supplemental programs. The Nature of Science addresses life science and the scientific method and process skills. Physical Science covers topics in chemistry and physics, including physical and chemical changes, atoms and elements, mixtures and solutions, the periodic table, states of matter, motion, gravity, the properties of waves, and light. Earth and Space Science addresses Earth’s history, atmosphere, and structure; weather and climate; the solar system, stars, and galaxies; and how the motions of the Sun, Moon, and Earth affect seasons and tides. In each course, content is presented in lessons that provide direct instruction through video lectures, slide shows, and interactive explorations. Direct instruction videos are presented by entertaining teachers with accompanying animations of key concepts. Instruction includes multiple visual examples and opportunities for guided and independent practice. Practice problems provide “critical mistakes” feedback that demonstrates why an answer is or is not correct and individualizes remediation and re-teaching. Each activity concludes with a page of summary notes, questions that check for understanding, and a brief multiple-choice quiz. Instruction includes opportunities for students to write about science and to discuss science topics with other students using an online discussion board. Students may repeat activities if they need additional instruction. Some lessons include “Authentic Tasks” that link to external resources such as PBS’s NOVA website and the University of Colorado Boulder’s PhET™ interactive simulations and games. PhET™ resources include statements of learning goals, guidance for teachers, and links to related resources. Teachers may use the Authentic Task tool to add their own links and course content.

Triumph Learning supports instruction of Texas students in grades 3-8 with its TEKS-focused supplemental products in mathematics and English language arts and reading (ELAR). Beyond the TEKS English Language Arts and Reading provides genre-specific instruction focused on developing students’ reading and writing skills, and Texas Coach TEKS Edition supports preparations for STAAR math tests. Instruction in both products is student-centered and focuses on developing students’ ownership of their learning processes. Instruction in Beyond the TEKS is structured in three parts: (1) Listen and Learn, (2) Share and Learn, and (3) Read on Your Own. During Listen and Learn , teachers introduce and model new skills in whole group instruction. In Share and Learn activities, students work in small groups to practice new skills, and in Read on Your Own , students independently read and analyze a leveled reading passage. Leveled passages are available for students reading below, at, and above grade level. Passages include the same comprehension questions so that students have the same opportunity to develop higher order thinking skills irrespective of their reading level. Texas Coach TEKS Edition provides content in four chapters. Each chapter addresses one of the four STAAR Reporting Categories: (1) Numerical Representations and Relationships, (2) Computations and Algebraic Relationships, (3) Geometry and Measurement, (4) Data Analysis and Personal Financial Literacy. Similar to Beyond the TEKS , Texas Coach structures lessons in three parts (1) Getting the Idea, (2) Coached Example, and (3) Lesson Practice. Student editions are written in simple language with an uncluttered page layout that allows students to follow the step-by-step guidance and easily identify solutions. Each chapter ends with a set of review questions that reflect the types of questions students will see on STAAR exams.

EMC Publishing’s Economics: New Ways of Thinking (Second Edition) is a comprehensive, semester-long high school economics course available in print and eBook formats. Instruction introduces students to concepts in economics in the context of globalization and relevant current events. Content is organized in five units: (1) introduction to economics, including the free enterprise system, (2) the concepts of supply and demand, (3) microeconomics, (4) macroeconomics, and (5) trade and investment. Each unit includes an overarching project and ends with an activity in which students debate economic issues. The course includes features that make connections between economics and students’ lives. The Why it Matters? feature establishes the relevance of content to students’ lives and Economics Around the Clock demonstrates the day-to-day applications of concepts. Resources also support student understanding and engagement. The “A Student Asks” feature anticipates many of the questions students may have as they read and provides answers. “Economics in the Real World” poses questions that link economics to culturally relevant topics and events (e.g., Can Big Macs Predict Exchange Rates?). “Your Personal Economics” demonstrates how economics connects to individual students (e.g., the power of saving), “Economic Facts and Fallacies” clarifies common misconceptions, and “Thinking Like an Economist” asks students to examine problems from an economist’s point of view. The course culminates in a multi-day, multimedia group research project in which students examine the effects of a financial crisis. Teacher Editions include comprehensive resources to support instruction, including a pacing guide for 50-minute and block schedule courses and a correlation to the Voluntary National Content Standards in Economics. Teacher materials include suggestions for cross-curricular activities, Internet research projects, and collaborative learning experiences.

American Legacy Publishing’s Studies Weekly Texas K-5 Social Studies Series provides resources to support elementary social studies instruction in print and online formats. Content is presented in weekly student magazines that focus on developing reading skills, with a particular focus on informational texts. Student magazines are available in Spanish. Studies Weekly Magazines are delivered to schools in four quarterly installments. Each installment includes six to seven weekly units of instruction. Magazines present short blocks of age-appropriate text, vivid illustrations of historical content, writing prompts, and related games and activities. At grades K-2, Studies Weekly introduces students to important historical events and figures, social studies concepts (e.g., rules, responsibility, patriotism), and tools (e.g., timelines, maps, globes). Instruction at grade 3 focuses on the role of community and the importance of citizenship. Students learn about Texas history at grade 4 and U.S. history at grade 5. Studies Weekly also provides online resources that are compatible with iPads and interactive whiteboards. Online content includes additional “bonus” primary source materials, including paintings, illustrations, newspaper articles, and audio and video clips of important speeches and events. Bonus materials also include audio reenactments of events that present illustrations accompanied by audio dramatizations of events (e.g., the Boston Tea Party). Bonus content includes questions at easy, medium, and hard levels of difficulty. Students earn “virtual reward points” for each bonus article they read or listen to online and for each correct response to a bonus question. Students use points to purchase items for the program’s online classroom pet—Revere the Rat. Audio readers are provided and support fluency development by highlighting words in the text as they are read aloud. At K-2, audio readers also provide pronunciation support.

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 .

USHistory.org provides free open-educational resources (OERs) to support social studies instruction in high school and home schooling environments. USHistory.org is owned by the Independence Hall Association , whose mission in providing OERs is to provide a forum for learning and discussing American history and values. The website provides comprehensive online textbooks for courses in American History , Ancient Civilizations , and American Government . Course authors are not identified. Each course’s informational text is written at a level that most high school students will understand and includes relevant visual elements, including political cartoons, images of key documents and figures, and illustrations that clarify written content. Content is designed to engage adolescent readers; however, Learning List’s reviewers found explanations sometimes oversimplified the complexity and significance of historical events. For example, an opening paragraph to a section titled “The Colonial Experience” in American Government reads: They created and nurtured them. Like children, the American colonies grew and flourished under British supervision. Like many adolescents, the colonies rebelled against their parent country by declaring independence. But the American democratic experiment did not begin in 1776. The COLONIES had been practicing limited forms of self-government since the early 1600s. Each course includes unique features, such as “Share Your Thoughts,” which allows students to share their thinking on topics discussed in the text and read the thoughts of others—content is monitored by the site’s webmaster. The “Cite This Page” tool provides reference information for students using content as source material for a project or research paper. Sidebar resources include reader-suggested links to external resources that contain primary source documents, biographies of key figures, background information, and related activities (e.g., build a guillotine). Sidebar content also contains advertising targeted to individual users. Courses do not include many features of a traditional textbook. For example, learning objectives, new vocabulary and terms, and essential questions are not clarified prior to instruction. There are no teacher resources or embedded opportunities to practice social studies skills (e.g., using maps, analyzing primary source documents). There are few checks for understanding, and no digital learning experiences, such as interactive timelines, video segments, and audio files. Further, there are no resources for students with special learning needs, such as English language learners and struggling readers. Although USHistory.org’s courses are comprehensive, Learning List’s reviewers indicated that they would be more effective when used as supplemental instructional resources.

Has your district ever purchased instructional materials that failed to live up to their claims? If so, you’re not alone.  Learning List  has reviewed over 500 instructional materials, and only half (54%) of those that  claim  to be aligned to 100% of the state standards, actually are.  Ever wondered why that happens? This brief whitepaper,  Why Alignment Matters ,  explains: How Do Educators Define “Alignment”? How do Publishers Define “Alignment”? What Causes the Discrepancy Between Those Definitions? Alignment Is Critical To Students’ Success. Before your district starts selecting new materials,  download  your free copy of  Why Alignment Matters .

Savvas Education’s Texas High School Math Series provides comprehensive Algebra 1 , Geometry , and Algebra II courses for Texas high schools. Each course features “3-Act Math” problems that develop students’ ability to use mathematics to understand and solve real-world problems. Courses are designed for use in blended learning environments and deliver most content digitally. Resources will be most effective in classrooms in which all students have Internet-enabled devices and teachers are comfortable teaching with technology. Although content is delivered primarily online, each course includes two printed student resources: the “Student Companion” and the “Student Text and Homework Helper.” The Student Companion is a journal to accompany digital classroom instruction and is available as an interactive, electronic workbook and as a printed consumable. The Student Text and Homework Helper is a reference resource available in print and eBook formats. It includes an “Unpacking the TEKS ” feature that presents each of the TEKS student expectations, underscoring key terms (e.g., justify); an explanation of the expectation in student-friendly language; and a completed example problem demonstrating mastery of the expectation. Although Learning List’s reviewers did not have access to digital content, the publisher’s materials indicate that online resources include interactive explorations, animations, math tools; a glossary with audio capabilities in English and Spanish; and “Virtual Nerd” video tutorials. Teacher editions are provided in two volumes and include comprehensive overviews of all teaching resources and assessments and detailed guidance in implementing each instructional activity with students. Teacher resources include background in math content, explanations of why students need to understand this content, and “Unpacking the TEKS” features that clarify what students need to know in order to master the TEKS content and process standards as well as the ELPS and College and Career Readiness standards. Each topic includes a pacing and differentiation guide. Guides provide strategies for English language learners, pre-Advanced Placement students, and each RtI tier. Point-of use resources include teaching notes, questioning guides, checks for student understanding, and answer keys. Click here to register for a demo for any one of these resources.

Earlier this year, we published a blog post that described how the funds for instructional materials in Texas flow from their source to local school districts. In that post, we explained that the instructional materials allotment (IMA) begins at the Permanent School Fund ( PSF )—a $30 billion endowment created expressly for the benefit of the public schools of Texas—and flows through the State Board of Education , the state legislature, and the Texas Education Agency before making its way to the local education agencies. Shortly before the beginning of each biennial legislative session, the State Board of Education (SBOE) determines the annual distribution rate (commonly referred to as the payout) from the PSF for each of the subsequent two budget years. The SBOE sets aside half of this distribution for instructional materials. This is the first step in the process that determines the amount of the IMA that each school district will receive for the purchase of instructional materials. On September 19, 2014, the SBOE voted to set the distribution rate at 3.5%. As a result, the annual payout from the PSF for the IMA for the 2015–2016 and 2016–2017 school years could be as high as $500 million per year. To divide the total payout among all school districts, the commissioner of education has, in previous years, determined each district’s IMA allocation based on the percentage of the total student population served by the district. If the same rationale is used in the coming school years, a district that serves 1% of the total student population of Texas could receive $5 million (1% of $500 million) each year. Knowing the amount of its IMA allocation for upcoming years can help a district begin planning for its instructional materials purchases. However, in doing so, districts should be aware that the possible amount of the IMA for the 2015–2016 and 2016–2017 school years suggested in this post is, at this point, only a projection . There are still several steps yet to be taken in the process that determines the actual amount of the IMA: the SBOE can decide to change the distribution rate at its November 2014 meeting; from (but not limited to) the payout set aside by the SBOE, the state legislature must appropriate the money for the IMA; and, from the amount appropriated, the commissioner of education must determine the per-student allotment for each district. The total amount of the IMA available to the commissioner and each district’s individual IMA allocation should be known shortly after the end of the legislative session in 2015.

Discovery Education’s Social Studies Techbooks are comprehensive, web-based social studies courses for middle school and high school students. Courses include World Geography and Cultures and United States History (Prehistory to Reconstruction) at the middle school level and United States History (Civil War to Present) at the high school level . Each course includes high-quality and engaging content provided by the Discovery Channel and MacNeil/Lehrer Productions. Course resources support instruction in flipped classrooms and blended learning environments. Each course is inquiry-based and emphasizes the development of critical thinking and literacy skills, particularly skills in reading informational texts. Lessons focus on answering “essential questions” and are organized using the 5E Instructional Model (i.e., Engage, Explore, Explain, Elaborate, Evaluate). Core content is presented in Core Interactive Text (CIT) that includes photographs, illustrations, and multimedia features, such as interactive maps and embedded videos. Each CIT ends with discussion questions and checks for understanding. CITs, which may be printed, are available in Spanish and in two Lexile-based reading levels for students at or below grade-level. A brief video overview is available here . Elaborate activities require that students use social studies and critical thinking skills to develop products, such an argument for a debate, a presentation to Congress, or an analysis of a primary source document. Some Elaborate activities are presented in slide shows in which students investigate concepts using interactive tools (e.g., maps, timelines). Activities include printable guides for both teachers and students. Discovery Education’s “Board Builder” tool encourages students to take ownership of learning through the process of creating and sharing their own content. Using the Board Builder platform, students can create personalized “boards” that incorporate their own text, videos, and photos, as well as editable video and audio files from Discovery Education. Once approved by teachers, student boards may be shared with classmates or the larger community of Discovery Education users. Other resources include “Global Wrap” video summaries of the week’s most important new stories and an interactive atlas that displays a variety of data (e.g., population density, landforms) at the regional or global levels. Teacher resources for each lesson include links to relevant standards, learning objectives, and “Model Lessons.” Model lessons map a multi-day, 5E lesson cycle with suggested pacing and provide step-by-step guidance in implementing each activity. A companion teacher guide for the course is available in print format. Discovery Education’s Teacher Center provides additional resources, including interactive investigations, graphic organizers, outline maps, and additional video clips to support instruction. About Discovery Education : "Discovery Education offers a breadth and depth of digital media content that is immersive, engaging and brings the world into the classroom to give every student a chance to experience fascinating people, places, and events. All content is aligned to state standards, can be aligned to custom curriculum, and supports classroom instruction regardless of the technology platform."

Savvas Education’s Texas Social Studies Series provides comprehensive middle school and high school social studies courses in print and digital formats.  Courses support instruction in blended learning and flipped classroom environments and include U.S. History , World History , Economics , and U.S. Government at the high school level and Contemporary World Cultures , Texas History , and U.S. History at the middle school level.  Instruction in each course uses storytelling and project-based learning to engage students in social studies and to make content relevant. Click here for a video overview. Content is structured using a four-part model: (1) Connect, (2) Investigate, (3) Synthesize and (4) Demonstrate. “Connect” is a start-up activity focused on engaging students in learning. Core instruction is provide in “Investigate” activities that include narrative text, videos, and interactive maps and learning tools. “Synthesize” activities allow students to apply what they have learned. “Demonstrate” includes tests that provide customized remediation or enrichment and performance-based assessments. Courses include “My Story” videos provided by NBC Learn . My Story videos focus on the lives and experiences of individuals who lived in a particular historical period or geographic region.  Other course resources include “Flipped Videos,” “Interactive Reading Notepads” and “Interactive Primary Source Documents.” Flipped Videos may be used to flip instruction, provide remediation, or to support students who have been absent. The Interactive Reading Notepad identifies new vocabulary, clarifies learning objectives and provides comprehension questions to support the close reading of informational texts. The Primary Source Document resource includes interactive tools and prompts to help all students understand and analyze primary source materials. Teacher resources include comprehensive lesson plans with overviews of all print and online instructional materials. Lesson plans provide step-by-step guidance in implementing activities with students and point-of-use TEKS and ELPS, differentiation strategies, and professional development videos. Click here for a Savvas demo.

CORD Communications’ “Learning in Context” program for high school math instruction provides courses for Algebra I, Geometry, and Algebra II in print and digital formats. Across courses, instruction focuses on providing the real-world context for learning mathematics and supporting students’ retention of content. Each course relies on the “Contextual Learning” instructional model which is built around five strategies abbreviated in the acronym REACT: Relating . Connect content to what students have previously learned Experiencing . Teacher-led instruction and hands-on learning experiences Applying . Solve real-world problems Cooperating . Collaborative learning activities Transferring . Application of skills to new situations and contexts Courses highlight the application of mathematics in STEM-based careers and include a feature titled “Why should I learn this?” that explains how math is used the workplace (e.g., Opticians use real numbers to classify the curvature of optical lenses).  Instruction includes “Math Application” activities that present multi-step, workplace-related problems. Courses also include lab activities in which students solve hands-on problems using graphing calculators and critical thinking skills. Teacher editions include pacing guides for blocks of 50-minute periods, strategies for implementing the REACT model, and guidance for in-class assignments and homework. Point-of-use resources include teaching notes, answer keys, and references to related content in ancillary materials. About CORD : CORD Communications serves the educational market by providing quality products and services designed to improve student achievement by integrating active learning into academic and career and technology classrooms.  CORD Communications strives to empower educators to implement contextual learning in the classroom. CORD Communications is affiliated with  CORD , the leading educational change agency, and accomplishes its purpose by marketing and disseminating programs developed by CORD and others .