Common Core State Standards

Learning List and EdReports: Differing Reviews of CCSS-Aligned Mathematics Materials

May 9, 2016

EdReports recently released their reviews of four publishers’ instructional materials aligned to the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) for mathematics: Math Learning Center’s Bridges in Mathematics (K-5), McGraw Hill’s Everyday Math (K-6), Kendall Hunt’s Math Innovations (6-8), and Origo’s Stepping Stones (K-5). Reviewing the materials for alignment to the instructional shifts of the CCSS, EdReports found only one material, Bridges in Mathematics, to be fully aligned and sufficiently easy to use. …[read more]

Trust But Let Learning List Verify

February 24, 2014

A recent post on EdWeek’s Digital Education blog underscores the value of Learning List’s service verifying publisher-provided alignments to the Common Core State Standards. In the post, Benjamin Herold reports on current research indicating that many instructional materials that claim to be aligned to the CCSS are only “modestly” aligned. His post cites research results indicating that many CCSS-aligned instructional …

Required Listening: NPR’s “The Long Game”

December 16, 2013

Yesterday afternoon, KERA broadcast Trey Kay’s radio documentary about the culture wars surrounding Texas’ public school curriculum. The Long Game: Texas’ Ongoing Battle for the Direction of the Classroom provides a rigorous and balanced exploration of the controversies surrounding what is taught in Texas public schools. As Kay reports: For more than a half a century, citizens of the Lone …

We’re In the News

September 9, 2013

Kate Alexander’s piece in last week’s Austin American Statesman carefully examines how the marketplace for instructional materials in Texas has changed in recent years. Alexander explains that implementation of the Common Core State Standards in 14,000 districts nationwide means that even large states, such as Texas and California, with more than 1,000 districts each, now hold less sway in the …