Today's high-quality curricula are focused on inquiry and making meaning from real-world phenomena and experiences. Many teachers didn't learn in this way when they were students or when they were teachers in training, so they need and deserve opportunities to dive into the curriculum and become experts at applying it. The implementation of this…

The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine's Forum for Children's Well-Being hosted an implementation summit on June 13, 2024, titled "Implementing a New Vision for High-Quality Preschool Curriculum." This event brought together a diverse group of thought leaders, researchers, policymakers, leaders from nonprofit and…

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…

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…

Curriculum-based professional learning is not just having teachers read curriculum materials, but rather includes carefully crafted experiences to support their sensemaking, deep understanding of the curriculum and its pedagogy, and ability to transfer that knowledge into practice. This instructional model requires that teachers be responsive to…

In the ongoing effort to improve standards-based instruction in the nation's urban public schools, the Council of the Great City Schools published a second edition of "Supporting Excellence: A Framework for Developing, Implementing, and Sustaining a High-Quality District Curriculum." This document is designed to help districts: (1)…

Research confirms what effective educators and policymakers know from practice: The implementation of a "high-quality" curriculum, aligned to rigorous state standards, leads to notable student learning gains. Yet less than half of teachers report they are using curricula that are "high-quality and well aligned to learning…

It's a story that is all too familiar. A school district has a majority of students reading below grade level. The district adopts a new English language arts curriculum anchored in complex texts and analytical writing tasks. As they began to teach with the new curriculum, teachers adapted materials in an effort to meet their students at their…

Improving the quality of teaching and instruction takes time and planning and may be costly and require intensive work. This is particularly true when trying to make improvements among multiple preschool sites, because preschool systems often lack a cohesive infrastructure for supporting high-quality implementation of curricula and teacher…

Several research summaries over the last few years have brought attention to the impact that high-quality instructional materials have on student learning. The U.S. Department of Education's What Works Clearinghouse, which produces summaries of rigorous research, has identified a number of effective curricula with large effect sizes on students'…

In the ongoing effort to improve instructional standards in our nation's urban public schools, the Council of the Great City Schools has released resources to help districts determine the quality and alignment of instructional materials at each grade level; to ensure that materials for English language learners are rigorous and aligned to district…

The present reflective article aims to describe some challenges that psychology programs in Colombia must face in the future, in order to let their students achieve an international professional profile and to improve their academic quality. First of all, psychology programs need to implement a bilingual curriculum, with many basic and…

Mainstreaming gender within pre-primary education is a priority in tackling gender-related inequalities from the early years. Such mainstreaming requires the commitment of a variety of stakeholders within the education system and beyond, including different units within education ministries, pre-service and in-service teacher training providers,…

Among the various agencies and activities within the Department of Defense, Department of Defense Education Activity (DoDEA) has the unique charge of providing an education for military connected students that is commensurate with U.S. public school systems. It is essential that DoDEA honors that position of trust by providing updates to all of…

We propose a theory of education curricula as horizontally differentiated by their paces. The pace of a curriculum and the preparedness of a student jointly determine the match quality of the curriculum for this student, so different students derive different benefits from learning under the same curriculum. Furthermore, a change in the curricular…