Additional Curriculum Review Resources

Resources from the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education and other sites to support educators to make informed local decisions about curriculum.

What Is Curriculum?

• Curricular materials are resources teachers use to facilitate sequences of learning experiences (e.g., lesson and unit plans, texts); also called adopted or written curriculum, or instructional materials.
• A curriculum is a sequence of student learning experiences teachers facilitate using curricular materials as a foundation (not a script!); also called enacted or taught curriculum.

Quick Reference Guides (QRGs)

• Assessing your curriculum landscape

• Aligning curriculum to Massachusetts standards

• Ensuring curricular coherence

• High-quality materials for science

High-Quality Next Generation ESL Instructional Materials (HQIM-NGESL)

Tools and resources to support educators to engage in processes and make informed decisions about curricular materials for ESL instruction. The site includes materials review rubric, related professional learning modules, and HQIM-NGESL materials reviews!

Resources from Other Sites

Explore other sites and resources designed to support curriculum.

• Achieve the Core: collection of resources supporting the use of standards-aligned materials
• Adolescent Literacy Intervention Selection Tool (A-List): an online tool that provides information about literacy intervention programs for grades 4–12
• Council of the Great City Schools: framework for high-quality curriculum at the district level
• EdReports: comprehensive reviews of dozens of ELA/literacy, mathematics, and science programs
• English Learners Success Forum: focused on making materials work for English learners
• EQuIP (Educators Evaluating the Quality of Instructional Products): rubrics and much more
• Evidence for ESSA: searchable, curated collection of research on math and reading products
• Professional Learning Partner Guide (PLPG): an online, vetted list of organizations that provide effective professional development (PD) services aligned to high-quality instructional materials in ELA, mathematics, and science.
• Rubric for K–5 reading materials: from the federal government's Institute for Education Sciences (IES)
• What Works Clearinghouse: also from IES, curated research on education products and topics
• WIDA Prime: a tool to assist educators and publishers in analyzing their materials for the presence of key components of the WIDA Standards

Last Updated: February 19, 2025