A Materials Review That Centers Equity for Multilingual Learners
Harnessing TNTP’s Curriculum Implementation Framework, Passaic leaders began by convening a task force to design a vision for standout ELA and math education that would guide the selection of new instructional materials. Then, content specialists began reviewing materials for ELA for grades K through 8 and math for grades 3 through 12.
Central to Passaic’s efforts was an unwavering commitment to finding vendors that offered the same curriculum in both English and Spanish, since 93% of Passaic’s families identify as Latinx. Leaders also wanted to ensure continuity across schools, since students often move between schools within the district.
Finding dual-language materials proved more challenging than expected. Content-area specialists and bilingual supervisors examined numerous options, discovering that because of inequities in the markets, materials that were offered in both English and Spanish often didn’t meet the standards that define high-quality instructional materials; conversely, high quality materials often were only offered in English.
Yet Passaic leaders weren’t willing to compromise on the materials’ quality, nor on offering them in both Spanish and English. Leaders also felt it was critical from an equity standpoint that all students in a grade learn same curriculum, so purchasing high quality materials in English and different ones in Spanish also was not an option.
Next, Passaic worked with TNTP to assemble a diverse group of stakeholders to conduct an in-depth review of the few materials that met the criteria. They assessed whether the materials were rich in content and driven by learning science, and examined whether the texts were aligned with college- and career-ready standards. They also looked closely at whether they were culturally responsive and equity centered. The task force also reviewed performance reports on the materials that other organizations had conducted and invited publishers to give presentations.
TNTP worked with Passaic to establish criteria on which to assess the materials and determine which options best meet their needs. The group held discussions and ultimately used the criteria to vote, selecting Amplify CKLA and Amplify Caminos as the ELA and SLA vendor, and Carnegie Learning and Illustrative Math for the math curricula.
Once these key decisions were made, with support from TNTP, the district immediately began creating their strategic implementation plan. From setting clear goals for implementation in alignment with their new content visions, to creating yearlong professional learning plans for key stakeholders including school leaders, coaches, and teachers, to aligning the district’s teacher development strategy to its new instructional priorities, to implementing a progress monitoring approach, each layer of the plan was strategic and intended to build the investment and skills for instructional staff at all levels that would be required to achieve their desired results.