Action Research
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- Date Submitted: 08/11/2014 10:03 AM
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April 2012
Instructional Materials, Teacher Effectiveness, and the Common Core
CHOOSING BLINDLY
Getty Images
Matthew M. Chingos and Grover J. “Russ” Whitehurst *
This report greatly benefited from the insights of a group of experts convened to discuss instructional materials. The authors take full responsibility for the content of this report, but gratefully acknowledge the contributions of the group members: Roberto Agodini, Jack Buckley, Thomas Cook, Cory Koedel, Beverlee Jobrack, Deborah Jonas, Paige Kowalski, Tom Loveless, and Mary Jane Tappen.
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E X E C U T I V E
S U M M A R Y
tudents learn principally through interactions with people (teachers and peers) and instructional materials (textbooks, workbooks, instructional software, web-based content, homework, projects, quizzes, and tests). But education policymakers focus primarily on factors removed from those interactions, such as academic standards, teacher evaluation systems, and school accountability policies. It’s as if the medical profession worried about the administration of hospitals and patient insurance but paid no attention to the treatments that doctors give their patients. There is strong evidence that the choice of instructional materials has large effects on student learning—effects that rival in size those that are associated with differences in teacher effectiveness. But whereas improving teacher quality through changes in the preparation and professional development of teachers and the human resources policies surrounding their employment is challenging, expensive, and time-consuming, making better choices among available instructional materials should be relatively easy, inexpensive, and quick. Administrators are prevented from making better choices of instructional materials by the lack of evidence on the effectiveness of the materials currently in use. For example, the vast majority of elementary school mathematics curricula examined by the Institute of...
Instructional Materials, Teacher Effectiveness, and the Common Core
CHOOSING BLINDLY
Getty Images
Matthew M. Chingos and Grover J. “Russ” Whitehurst *
This report greatly benefited from the insights of a group of experts convened to discuss instructional materials. The authors take full responsibility for the content of this report, but gratefully acknowledge the contributions of the group members: Roberto Agodini, Jack Buckley, Thomas Cook, Cory Koedel, Beverlee Jobrack, Deborah Jonas, Paige Kowalski, Tom Loveless, and Mary Jane Tappen.
*
S
E X E C U T I V E
S U M M A R Y
tudents learn principally through interactions with people (teachers and peers) and instructional materials (textbooks, workbooks, instructional software, web-based content, homework, projects, quizzes, and tests). But education policymakers focus primarily on factors removed from those interactions, such as academic standards, teacher evaluation systems, and school accountability policies. It’s as if the medical profession worried about the administration of hospitals and patient insurance but paid no attention to the treatments that doctors give their patients. There is strong evidence that the choice of instructional materials has large effects on student learning—effects that rival in size those that are associated with differences in teacher effectiveness. But whereas improving teacher quality through changes in the preparation and professional development of teachers and the human resources policies surrounding their employment is challenging, expensive, and time-consuming, making better choices among available instructional materials should be relatively easy, inexpensive, and quick. Administrators are prevented from making better choices of instructional materials by the lack of evidence on the effectiveness of the materials currently in use. For example, the vast majority of elementary school mathematics curricula examined by the Institute of...