Past research suggests that it is common for teachers to draw on multiple instructional materials even when their school or district recommends, requires, or provides them with a specific curriculum. While teachers likely draw on a variety of resources to address changing and diverse student needs, studies show that teacher-selected materials can…

Policymakers and practitioners alike have increasingly positioned instructional materials as essential for achieving high-quality, standards-aligned instruction. State education agencies, school districts, and schools have looked to instructional materials to signal what to teach and to what depth for students to be on track to meet college- and…

The "twin pandemics" of racial injustice and COVID-19 have underscored the importance of promoting civic knowledge, skills, dispositions, and engagement among the nation's young people. Although some evidence has demonstrated that civic-learning opportunities are inequitably distributed across U.S. schools and communities, we currently…

U.S. public school students have lost out on considerable mathematics learning since the beginning of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic in 2020. Public schools can take many steps to improve mathematics achievement, but to help students who are most at risk, those steps will need to keep equity front and center by focusing…

School principals are facing greater challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic than they have ever faced, which has implications for whether they can conduct their work productively and remain in their jobs over the long term. This article draws on a unique, nationally representative, longitudinal panel of K-12 public school principals across the…

This technical report provides detailed information about the sample, survey instruments, and resultant data for the 2022 American Instructional Resources Surveys (AIRS) that were administered to principals and teachers in spring 2022 via the RAND Corporation's American Educator Panels (AEP). The 2022 AIRS focused on the usage of, perceptions of,…

The authors of this report build on past studies by using survey data from a nationally representative sample to examine how middle and high school English language arts (ELA) and mathematics teachers use and perceive their instructional materials in terms of engagement, challenge, and usability. In addition, the authors use interview data to…

Just as teachers' perceptions of instructional materials influence what they do with those materials, school leaders' perceptions of instructional materials influence their decisions about how and how strongly to support teachers' material use. The authors address a gap in existing literature by identifying what school leaders regard as key…

Since March 2020, the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has placed unprecedented stresses on the public education system in the United States. At every level, from the U.S. Department of Education down through local districts and individual schools, the pandemic has presented formidable challenges. Many of these challenges have been…

The 2020-2021 school year has been like no other. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, most kindergarten through grade 12 (K-12) schools across the United States have reduced in-person learning for students to a few days per week or have been physically closed for most of the school year. In this Data Note, researchers use surveys of teachers and…

This technical report provides information about the sample, survey instrument, and resultant data for the American Instructional Resources Surveys (AIRS) that were administered to principals and teachers in Spring 2021 via RAND's American Educator Panels. The AIRS focused on instructional resources used and supported in English language arts,…