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 materials do not fully address the CCSS’s grade-level content or approach the level of cognitive demand required by the standards. Quoting one researcher, Herold writes that “districts’ mantra should be ‘don’t trust and still verify’ any claims of common core alignment.”
Learning List won’t weigh in on the assertion that districts should not trust alignment claims, but verification of publisher-provided alignments is core to our mission as an instructional materials review service. To support this mission, Learning List has an established cadre of trained subject matter experts with substantial experience and expertise aligning instructional materials to the content, context, and cognitive demand of the CCSS.
We suggest a new mantra for districts: Trust but let Learning List verify alignment to the CCSS.