In the richly heterogeneous United States, teachers largely decide what students learn. Even in states where state boards adopt a long list of instructional materials, districts can get waivers to substitute their own choices. And even when districts do pick materials, teachers do not necessarily teach them in toto. This article presents how…

High-quality K-12 instructional materials can meaningfully improve teaching practice and student achievement, especially when paired with professional learning support. Yet state policymakers have usually left ultimate authority for textbook selection to school district leaders. Consequently, the quality of materials across U.S. classrooms and…

National curricula influence, and are influenced by, political agendas. Understanding political enmeshment (both overt and covert) in curriculum development is therefore vital for ensuring transparency and quality in curricula. This paper analyses how the Australian Curriculum is represented in the federal Education Ministers' media releases.…

The policy landscape around curriculum selection and implementation is thorny: the federal government cannot mandate any state or local curricula, state policy varies widely, and local schools and districts often lack the capacity to support and sustain detailed reviews of materials and ongoing teacher training in quality curricula. Cultural and…

This study examines implementation of college-and-career-ready (CCR) education standards across five school districts in Ohio, Texas, California, Pennsylvania, and Massachusetts. Drawing on the policy attributes theory, we found that the specificity of districts' approaches to two long-recognized policy levers, curriculum and professional…

The Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL) launched the Collaborating Districts Initiative (CDI) with the goal of supporting school districts to build their capacities to promote social and emotional learning (SEL) for all students. Twenty large, urban districts across the country participate in the CDI. Although many…

This qualitative case study explored instructional decisions exemplary primary teachers (kindergarten-third grade) made in order to engage students in mathematics. The phenomenon of teachers altering, supplementing, or utilizing district-given materials to support student engagement and understanding was studied. Specifically, this involved…

This paper presents the findings from the second case in a multiple-case study examining the implementation of federal and state policies by State Education Agencies (SEAs) and Local Education Agencies (LEAs) to provide Accessible Educational Materials (AEM) to disabled students in two Southern states, referred to as State 1 and State 2. The first…

The impact of the pandemic on student learning was significant and widened pre-existing achievement gaps for historically disadvantaged students. To provide insight on the most effective strategies that teachers and leaders can adopt, educators in three partner districts that have invested in improving classroom instruction as their primary lever…

Professional development is essential for teachers to grow in their profession. However, often professional development is a one size fits all approach, and it occurs outside of the teachers' classroom. This causes teachers to not fully implement new strategies when they return to their classroom. One way to overcome this is to utilize…

The contemporary school ethos is marked by an incursion of technological forces. In India, school systems have begun accepting internet technology and gadgets as enabling tools for learning. The technology-driven climate is dramatically transforming the methods of learning history. The adoption of digital technology in Indian school system has…

Increasingly school districts are attempting to align curricula, assessments and standards, in an effort to eliminate inequities. Some approaches like Prek-3 initiatives call for coordination of instruction between preschool and later elementary grades that would resemble a coherent instructional system with clear learning goals for students…

This guide addresses the challenge of inaccessible digital learning resources by providing K-12 education stakeholders with actionable information about EPUB, a digital file format. EPUB is a widely adopted format for many digital books and is specifically designed to display text, audio, images and, in some cases, video in a manner usable by all…

Students with disabilities who are identified to receive special education services have the right to a free and appropriate public education until they reach the age of 21 according to The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act [IDEA] (2004). This includes developmentally appropriate sex and reproductive health education for youth with…

In this paper, we report the findings of a case study that explored how one State Education Agency (SEA) and two Local Education Agencies (LEAs) in a southern state enacted federal and state policies to provide Accessible Educational Materials (AEM) to students with disabilities, work that is ongoing in the southern state as of this writing.…