SREB report: How have state departments of education fostered local educators’ use of high-quality instructional resources that are aligned to their state’s new college- and career-readiness standards?

1. Aligned
Teaching Resources
January 2015
Findings across states from SREB’s
Benchmarking State Implementation of
College- and Career-Readiness
Standards, Aligned Assessments
and Related Reforms

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Contents
Aligned
Teaching Resources
How have state departments of education fostered local
educators’ use of high-quality instructional resources that
are aligned to their state’s new college- and career-
readiness standards?
Criteria
Colorado
Louisiana
Maryland
Types of tools
Who developed
them?
Vetting alignment
Empowering
educators
Aligned Teaching Resources | Benchmarking College- and Career-Readiness Standards
page 3 page 4 page15
Participating
states
Findings
across states
Highlights from
leading states Methodology
More about
these reports
page 11 page16

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Benchmarking
College- and
Career-Readiness
Standards
Participating states
Louisiana
Maryland
Mississippi
North Carolina
South Carolina
Tennessee
West Virginia
Other regions
Colorado
New York
Pennsylvania
Florida participated in preliminary (March 2014) but not final reports.
This SREB project supports
states in the monumental task of
implementing higher statewide
standards by tracking progress
and bringing states together to
learn from and collaborate with
one another.
SREB region
Alabama
Delaware
Georgia
Kentucky
Aligned Teaching Resources | Benchmarking College- and Career-Readiness Standards

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What tools has the
department made
available?
Guidance
Seven states — Delaware,
Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland,
Mississippi, New York and
Tennessee — provide extensive
resources for educators and
parents, such as:
• toolkits
• guidebooks
• curriculum frameworks
• communication tools
• information about the standards
• planning guidance
Sample instructional plans:
ELA and math, K-12
Five leading states  Colorado,
Georgia, Louisiana, Maryland and
New York  offer sample
instructional plans that address all
standards for an entire school year
for all grade levels.
• instructional strategies and
activities
• techniques for differentiating
instruction for diverse learners
• formative assessment tasks
• other classroom resources
Sample instructional plans:
Literacy in history/social studies,
science, technical subjects, 6-12
Colorado, Georgia, Maryland and
North Carolina offer extensive sets
of sample instructional plans and
resources for these subjects.
Aligned Teaching Resources | Benchmarking College- and Career-Readiness Standards
All 14 states provided these
types of tools, to varying
degrees.
• Guidance
• Sample instructional plans
• Resources for
differentiating instruction
• Formative assessment
• Models of teaching and
learning in action
Notable state efforts are
listed here.

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What tools has the
department made
available?
Resources to help differentiate
instruction for diverse learners
Maryland and New York have the
most robust set of resources for
helping teachers address the
particular strengths and needs of
bilingual students, English
learners, students with disabilities,
advanced learners and struggling
learners.
Formative assessment tools
In addition to model formative
assessment items, which most
states furnish, Georgia and North
Carolina each offer a series of
online professional learning
modules to help teachers learn to
use the state-provided resources
and to employ formative
assessment practices in their
classrooms.
Models of teaching and
learning in action
Four states offer extensive
libraries of videos showing
exemplary teaching and learning
in classrooms — Georgia,
Kentucky, Louisiana and New
York.
Three states offer sample student
work resulting from instruction on
the new standards — Kentucky,
Louisiana and New York.
Aligned Teaching Resources | Benchmarking College- and Career-Readiness Standards
All 14 states provided these
types of tools, to varying
degrees.
• Guidance
• Sample instructional plans
• Resources for
differentiating instruction
• Formative assessment
• Models of teaching and
learning in action
Notable state efforts are
listed here.

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Where can
educators access
tools?
All 14 states provide educators
with access to online, on-demand,
aligned instructional resources
and materials to support
classroom instruction aligned to
the new standards.
Each state has either a
dedicated website or pages on
the state department of
education’s website.
A few states also use wikis.
Aligned Teaching Resources | Benchmarking College- and Career-Readiness Standards
Resources are online
and on-demand.
See the full SREB report,
Aligned Teaching Resources,
for links to state websites.

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Who developed the
resources?
Partners and vendors
Most of the departments have
worked with partners and vendors
to develop or obtain some
resources.
Common partners: regional
education service agencies,
Literacy Design Collaborative,
Mathematics Design
Collaborative, higher education
representatives, PARCC,
Smarter Balanced, Achieve,
SEDL, Student Achievement
Partners, and public
broadcasting.
Common vendors: Among the
many vendors states have worked
with, the two most common are
Thinkfinity and Pearson.
Aligned Teaching Resources | Benchmarking College- and Career-Readiness Standards
Thirteen states in the study
developed their own
resources and materials,
often in conjunction with
local educators, partners
and vendors.
Educators
Four states have involved
educators heavily in their resource
development and vetting
processes — Colorado,
Louisiana, Maryland and
Tennessee.
Notable: In Colorado,
the state Department
of Education acted as
convener, providing
guidance, professional
learning and facilitation for
local educators to develop
resources and materials.
Materials from the process
are posted in the state
archive.

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How do states
ensure alignment
to standards?
Explicit alignment criteria
States took one of two
approaches to establish criteria to
gauge the extent of alignment of
materials.
1. Elected to use the EQuIP/Tri-
State Rubrics, developed by
Massachusetts, New York, Rhode
Island and Achieve: Alabama,
Colorado, Delaware, Georgia,
Maryland, New York, North
Carolina and West Virginia.
2.Developed their own criteria, or
adapted criteria from tools such
as the Instructional Materials
Evaluation Tool or Publishers’
Criteria for the Common Core
State Standards:
Kentucky, Louisiana,
Mississippi, Pennsylvania,
South Carolina and Tennessee.
Robust vetting processes
Kentucky, Louisiana, North
Carolina and Pennsylvania
established rigorous review
criteria and explicit guidance for
reviewers.
Aligned Teaching Resources | Benchmarking College- and Career-Readiness Standards
Example: Pennsylvania's
Quality Review Process
handbook
Examples: Kentucky and North
Carolina's multistage reviews
Louisiana's involvement of
teacher leaders across the state
These state departments of
education established a multistep
process involving reviewers from
the school to the state level.
Kentucky, North Carolina and
Pennsylvania conduct vetting
entirely through online
instructional improvement
systems.
All states in the study have
established a formal process
for vetting instructional
resources and materials.
(Mississippi’s is in
development.)

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How do states
ensure textbooks
are aligned?
Aligning textbooks
Delaware, Georgia, Louisiana,
Maryland, Mississippi, North
Carolina, South Carolina,
Tennessee and West Virginia
departments furnished state-level
review panels or district decision-
makers with tools to help them
gauge alignment of products to
the standards.
Tools included the Publishers’
Criteria for the Common Core
State Standards, the EQuIP/Tri-
State Rubrics and IMET.
Aligned Teaching Resources | Benchmarking College- and Career-Readiness Standards
Notable: The Louisiana State
Department of Education
developed an informal rolling
review process to broaden the
resources reviewed and provide
ongoing guidance as new
materials are submitted.
Ratings are three-tiered: full
alignment, partial alignment or
lack of any quality alignment.
More >
Most state departments of
education play modest
roles in review and
adoption of textbooks and
other instructional
materials selected at the
local level. In a few states,
the department has no
role.

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Empowering
Educators
All 14 states in the study offered
some training for teachers on how
to select and design high-quality
teaching tools aligned to the
state’s readiness standards.
Extensive training
Five states offered extensive
training and support, reaching
large numbers of educators
across their states: Alabama,
Georgia, Kentucky, North
Carolina and
Tennessee.
.
In most states, the state
department of education trained
district or school leadership
teams, who then worked directly
with teachers. Most states also
offered some training directly to
teachers, through summer
academies, for example.
Most states use the EQuIP/Tri-
State Rubrics as a basis for this
training. Six states — Colorado,
Delaware, Georgia, Kentucky,
Pennsylvania and West Virginia —
use the Literacy Design
Collaborative and Mathematics
Design Collaborative
frameworks.
Aligned Teaching Resources | Benchmarking College- and Career-Readiness Standards
How has the state
supported educators so
they can develop and
select their own high-
quality, aligned materials?

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Leading states
Aligned teaching resources
Aligned Teaching Resources | Benchmarking College- and Career-Readiness Standards
Leading states are noted
for the most compre-
hensive array of tools and
efforts to empower
educators.
Their work offers models
other states may find
useful.
All 14 states have made strides in aligning teaching resources to their
readiness standards. Leading states  with the most comprehensive
array of tools and most extensive efforts to empower educators to find
their own resources  are Colorado, Louisiana and Maryland. They
stood out based on the following criteria.
Extensive resources
The state department of education provides educators access to:
• an extensive set of instructional resources and materials for English
language arts and math, K-12, and for literacy in history/social
studies, science, and technical subjects, grades, 6-12
• comprehensive sample instructional plans for all standards for a
school year in English language arts and math K-12 and at least
some of the literacy standards in grades six through 12
Formal vetting process and criteria
The state department of education established rigorous criteria and an
explicit, systematic vetting process for determining the quality and
extent of alignment of resources it provides.
Empowered educators
The department provided extensive training and support for educators
to learn to design and select their own high-quality teaching tools that
are aligned to the state’s readiness standards.

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Highlights from
leading states
Colorado
The District Sample Curriculum Project
To generate a statewide resource bank of instructional resources
aligned to the Colorado Academic Standards, more than 500
educators participated in training on the new standards and how to
develop aligned instructional unit plans. They then developed more than
700 sample unit overviews for math, ELA and literacy in other content
areas. The following year, educators from 116 districts developed more
than 100 full instructional units based on the unit overviews.
Literacy Design Collaborative and
Mathematics Design Collaborative
Focusing at the district level, these frameworks support teachers as
they develop learning experiences that integrate literacy skills in all
disciplines and increase student understanding of math. The
department, the Colorado Education Initiative and the Bill & Melinda
Gates Foundation sponsored 13 districts initially and are developing
plans to scale statewide.
Content Collaboratives
The department convened volunteer K-12 educators, along with
assessment experts, to review assessments from vendors and districts
and ID those with high alignment to the standards. More than 300 have
been added to the state’s online assessment bank.
Aligned Teaching Resources | Benchmarking College- and Career-Readiness Standards
Colorado educators developed
sample instructional plans
with models for all of the
standards for an entire school
year  K-12 in English
language arts and math and
6-12 in content-area literacy.

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Highlights from
leading states
Louisiana
Sample instructional plans
The Louisiana Department of Education collaborates with a committee
of 60 Teacher Leader Advisors to create and vet materials for the
online Teacher Support Toolbox. Resources include model scope and
sequence documents for ELA and math that cover an entire year of
instruction for every grade pre-K through 12. The department provides
instructional guidebooks by grade level, with illustrations of effective
instruction and model unit plans. Guidebooks also include remediation
strategies for every standard to support teachers of diverse learners.
Additional resources
Louisiana also provides online formative assessment bank includes
items for grades 1 through 11, aligned samples of student work, and
videos of exemplary instruction, developed in partnership with the
Teaching Channel. To select materials from external sources, the
department uses rubrics adapted from the Instructional Materials
Evaluation Tool.
Teacher Leader Cadre
The department’s Teacher Leader Cadre initiative included one or two
teachers from every school in the state in 2013. By summer 2014 the
initiative expanded to offer more than 6,500 spaces. Teacher leaders
receive intensive professional learning on how to assess alignment of
materials and develop aligned lessons. Teacher leaders then work with
peers in their schools to build local capacity to design and select high-
quality curricular resources.
Aligned Teaching Resources | Benchmarking College- and Career-Readiness Standards
To foster local educators’ use
of teaching resources aligned
to standards, the state provides
extensive resources online in
its Teacher Support Toolbox.
Louisiana Department of
Education Academics website >

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Highlights from
leading states
Maryland
Collaboration
The department collaborated with educators across the state and
partners such content-area experts, higher education institutions,
Maryland Public Television and the Maryland Business Roundtable. The
department worked with district leaders to select teachers to write the
Maryland College and Career-Ready Curriculum Frameworks,
which identify essential skills and knowledge.
Instructional toolkit
The department is developing an extensive, online instructional toolkit
with model units, lesson plans and assessment resources for every
standard pre-K through 12 in math, English language arts, and literacy
in social studies, science, and technical subjects. All instructional plans
in the toolkits incorporate strategies for differentiating instruction for
diverse learners, and the the department offers 250 intervention
modules. The department provides videos of exemplary instruction and
is developing formative and interim assessment tools.
Educator Effectiveness Academies
Each summer, 2011 to 2013, leadership teams from every school in the
state received intensive professional learning on using rubrics to
develop aligned instructional plans, with follow-up during the year.
Participants then lead curriculum development and alignment work in
their schools. The department trained teachers on the EQuIP Student
Work Protocol for collaborative examination of student work.
Aligned Teaching Resources | Benchmarking College- and Career-Readiness Standards
The Maryland State Department
of Education provides extensive
materials aligned to its College
and Career-Ready Standards
through its Blackboard Learn and
School Improvement websites.
The department provides
extensive training to build
educator capacity to select and
design materials.

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Methodology SREB examined efforts of state
departments of education to
support implementation of college-
and career-readiness standards,
assessments and related reforms.
Researchers looked at how states
provided guidance, tools and
support for teachers and for
school and district leaders.
SREB worked with a point person
in each of the 14 state
departments of education.
Timeframe
The SREB reports reflect state
efforts and plans between 2010
and summer 2014.
These January 2015 final reports
replace preliminary ones
published in March 2014.
A team of SREB researchers
and consultants gathered
information from:
Reviews of publicly available
information: Researchers
reviewed state policy documents
and reports, state department of
education websites, and other
sources such as U.S. Department
of Education reports.
Interviews: Researchers
interviewed leaders from state
departments of education, state
boards of education, unions,
higher education, and business
and community organizations, as
well as legislators’ and governors’
staff, teachers, principals and
district superintendents.
Each state department reviewed
drafts to ensure accuracy.
Aligned Teaching Resources | Benchmarking College- and Career-Readiness Standards

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Full reports
More information
Kim Anderson, Director
Benchmarking College- and
Career-Readiness Standards
404-875-9211
Kim.Anderson@SREB.org
Aligned Teaching Resources | Benchmarking College- and Career-Readiness Standards
Find all reports at SREB.org/1600 >
Six detailed final reports were
published in January 2015. Slide
documents of report highlights,
like this one, are also available for
each report.
Cross-State Findings
Trends across the states, perspectives
from the field and suggestions for
moving forward
Details on each state's efforts in
five areas:
Timeline and Approach to
Standards and Assessments
Aligned Teaching Resources
Professional Development
Evaluation of Teachers
and Leaders
Accountability

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