A RAND report last year found that virtually every teacher in America—99 percent of elementary teachers; 96 percent of secondary school—draws upon “materials I developed and/or selected myself” in teaching English language arts. And where are they finding said materials? Mostly Google (94 percent) and Pinterest (87 percent). Thus it is hard to be anything other that cheered by a new RAND report that explores the use of math and ELA materials on EngageNY, “one of the first efforts to create coherent, standards-aligned Open Educational Resource curriculum materials.” Created by New York State, the site features full sets of Common Core-aligned ELA and math curricula for use in K–12 classrooms, all of it available for free.
Looking at usage patterns during the 2014–15 and 2015–16 school years, as well as survey results from the nationally representative American Teacher Panel survey, the authors of this case study want to know who is using EngageNY, which elements are the most popular, how it supports teaching and learning, and what explains the site’s “high uptake.” Unsurprisingly, EngageNY sees heavy use in New York State, however its math and ELA materials were accessed in every state, with particularly high traffic states that have adopted Common Core or similar standards (equally unsurprising). The report reaffirms that math is the breakout hit. “EngageNY mathematics curriculum materials were used at about three times the rate of ELA curriculum materials across the United States,” the authors note. “However, our survey data suggests that ELA teachers may have used EngageNY materials more comprehensively than mathematics teachers.” One significant irritant: the report repeatedly—and mistakenly—refers to Core Knowledge Language Arts, the exceptional early elementary ELA curriculum offered on EngageNY, as the “Common Knowledge Language Arts” program.
The strong uptake of EngageNY is not a simple case of if you build it they will come. School district requirements and recommendations appear to be a prime reason why teachers use it. “Nearly one-half of teachers indicated that their district required use of EngageNY for their ELA and mathematics instruction, and between 80 and 90 percent indicated that their district either required or recommended its use.” Compared with other materials, math teachers were “more likely to indicate that EngageNY provided their students with opportunities to explain and justify their work,” while serving key instructional goals including conceptual understanding, procedural skills, and application to real-life contexts. ELA teachers indicated that EngageNY was more likely to provide students with non-fiction texts of sufficient grade-level complexity, and which use a range of vocabulary and connect literacy instruction to other content than other materials. In short, it beats the heck out of Pinterest.
“Given that state standards and districts appear to be such a large driver of EngageNY, OER providers—and any providers of online instructional materials—should ensure that their materials are clearly aligned with standards and provide explicit evidence in that regard,” the report concludes. Well, sure, but why stop there? The same can and should be said for all curriculum materials that finds its way into American classrooms and in front of children—not just OER, which is a delivery system, nothing more or less. Indeed, while the open nature of EngageNY resources “may encourage their use,” the authors note, “teachers did not cite ‘availability’ more often as an influence for their use of EngageNY compared with other instructional materials.” In other words, the medium is not the message. “Open educational resources (OER) could serve a key role in implementation of state standards by connecting educators with free, standards-aligned online curricula and lesson activities,” the report concludes. OER can also connect educators with free, easily accessible dreck. The key will be a sufficiently sophisticated view of curriculum that valorizes not just “alignment” to standards but quality. That’s not an OER thing, it’s a discernment thing.
SOURCE: By Julia H. Kaufman et al., “Use of Open Educational Resources in an Era of Common Standards: A Case Study on the Use of EngageNY,” RAND Corporation (2017).
