Ambitious federal goals for preparing students for careers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields require coordinated efforts and supports for the country's science instructors. Increased attention to the needs of science instructors and the provision of supports to address those needs are particularly important in…

There are 1.1 million English learner (EL) students in California, representing 18 percent of the statewide student population (California Department of Education [CDE], 2021b). Following some background on California's standards-aligned instructional materials and on the state's EL student population, this brief summarizes California findings…

Inquiry-based active learning in science is helpful to all students but especially to those who have a hearing loss. For many deaf or hard of hearing students, the English language may be their second language, with American Sign Language (ASL) being their primary language. Therefore, many of the accommodations for the deaf are similar to those…

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the program initiated by EdReports.org for analysing instructional materials, improving local decision making for selecting materials, and providing professional learning to support implementation of high-quality materials in schools. The Context Input Process Product model was used to evaluate…

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,…

In Problem-Based Learning (PBL), a problem is posed before students have learned how to solve it. Language and PBL pair well for effective learning environments. Informed by language-based theories of learning and strategically adding methods for working with English Language Learners (ELLs), we developed an approach called Problem-Based…

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 2020 via RAND's American Educator Panels. The AIRS focused on instructional resources used and supported in English language arts,…

This report uses data from the RAND Corporation's American Educator Panels to understand the state of infrastructure to support elementary social studies instruction during the 2021-2022 school year. The report is focused at the elementary (specifically, kindergarten through grade 5 [K-5]) level because the authors hypothesized that infrastructure…

To support reading comprehension and content acquisition among middle school students with reading disabilities and difficulties, content area teachers must employ evidence-based literacy instruction. This type of instruction is especially crucial in the content areas because the majority of students with disabilities--those who typically struggle…

In recent decades, digital technologies have facilitated new opportunities for educators to share and co-construct teaching and learning ideas and resources. One largely unresearched example of this phenomena is HyperDocs, which are interactive, digital teaching and learning materials created, disseminated, and remixed by educators. Despite…

The Common Core State Standards for English language arts expect that teachers will use narrative and informational texts to teach content area material across the curriculum. However, many teachers at all grade levels struggle to incorporate both kinds of text, especially given the vast amount of specialized content they are required to teach.…

The purpose of this study was to analyze the findings of research studies investigating the role of instructional materials, review issues and recommendations referring to instructional materials in policy papers, and evaluate the decision-making process in relation to the development, diffusion and adoption of EdReports program. Content analysis…

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 objective of this study is to better understand the process by which K-12 school districts select curricula materials in four critical subject areas: Mathematics, English Language Arts, Science, and History and Social Studies. This research has two primary goals: (1) to understand the process by which K-12 school districts select and adopt…

In this paper, we report on teachers' use of curricula and other instructional resources to address Common Core State Standards (CCSS), as well as how use of instructional materials is related to instructional practice. We draw on data from the American Teacher Panel, a nationally representative sample of teachers who periodically provide…