A Look Back: Every School District Staffperson In Charge Of Curriculum Adoption Should Read This Piece Explaining Why We Teachers Tend To Not Use The Materials

For the next several months, each week I’ll be republishing posts from the past that I think readers might still find useful.  This post first appeared in 2019.

Dylan Wiliam shared an incredibly important piece on Twitter explaining how Districts screw-up adopting materials, including technology:

Because they tend to be bad?

— Larry Ferlazzo (@Larryferlazzo) December 31, 2019

Why aren’t teachers using the resources companies sell to their districts? is the title of the report by Thomas Arnett. It’s from The American Enterprise Institute, which is not my favorite “think tank.”

But it nails how districts mess-up their district materials decisions (see excerpt at the top of this post).

It even pinpoints how surveys and typical teacher “input” doesn’t work, because then teachers tend to say what district staff wants to hear.

It’s definitely worth reading the entire report, including his recommendations about what districts should do, instead.

Here are some previous posts that are related to the points raised in the report, and support them:

Who Would Have Thought? Professional Development Focusing On Specific Instructional & Classroom Management Strategies Found To Be Effective

Is Any Teacher Surprised That New Study Finds Textbooks Not Key To Student Learning?

The Best Resources For Adapting Your Textbook So It Doesn’t Bore Students To Death

What Advice Would you Offer to Textbook Publishers? is from my Education Week Teacher column.

The Best Posts & Articles Highlighting Why We Need To Be Very Careful Around Ed Tech