From my experiences supporting districts to choose and use high-quality instructional materials (HQIM), I’ve seen that curriculum selection often breaks down where it matters the most: in classrooms. So I was fascinated to read educator Brian Wong’s firsthand account of his school’s math adoption. One section in particular stood out:
When my co-teacher and I first started teaching the curriculum, we received a two-hour Zoom training, and then we were sent on our way. The training is supplemented with coaches, but they are stretched thin among New York City’s many math teachers.
The good news is that Wong and his colleagues persisted with the curriculum, collaborating to figure out how to leverage it for the benefit of their students. The bad news is twofold. First, Wong recalls, “we made all kinds of preventable mistakes in those early days,” and it took a full school year before the curriculum “started to click.” While some growing pains are inevitable with new materials, better planning and stronger educator supports could have spared a whole student cohort from full exposure to a process of instructional trial and error.
Second, Wong’s limited access to professional learning is all too common, and may even be better than average. In a 2024 survey, only 48 percent of teachers reported receiving professional learning on using instructional materials.
The latest NAEP scores highlight the urgency of improving student outcomes, and quality materials are a key ingredient in this work. But curriculum alone is not enough. Districts must have a comprehensive, strategic adoption process to ensure every student benefits from excellent teaching and learning.
To better understand this challenge, EdReports partnered with The Decision Lab to conduct a nationally representative survey of over 250 district leaders and educators. Our new report, Beyond Selection: Rethinking How Districts Adopt Curriculum, uncovers why district intentions around HQIM often fail to translate into classroom impact—and what can be done about it.
Late-stage challenges often begin early
Our survey shows that districts face their greatest hurdles in the late stages of curriculum adoption. Nearly half of respondents reported challenges with consensus-building (49 percent) and implementation (48 percent), far higher than those who pointed to early-stage tasks like determining needs (13 percent) or narrowing options (14 percent).
This pattern reflects a broader confidence-implementation gap. While 72 percent of district leaders say they feel confident in selecting high-quality instructional materials, only 59 percent have systems to evaluate implementation effectiveness, and just 60 percent pilot curricula before adoption. Strong intentions too often falter without early investments in planning and process design, leading to fractured decision-making, limited buy-in, and stalled implementation later on.
Regulatory and technological pressures add to the strain. Districts identify incompatibility of existing infrastructure with new technology systems as their single greatest challenge, with regulatory compliance a close second. This reflects the ever-increasing complexity of the policy landscape, with 40 states passing “science of reading” laws since 2013.
Finally, we found that leaders are open to targeted support from external partners but prefer to maintain ownership of final adoption decisions. While only 14 percent welcome outside help in making curriculum choices, many seek assistance with data interpretation (55 percent), curriculum evaluation (41 percent), and implementation logistics (40 percent). Districts also value help with communication and process management—highlighting the importance of support that extends beyond curriculum expertise.
Moving toward a stronger adoption process
These findings should prompt state and district leaders to reassess their approach, ensuring coherence from start to finish in curriculum adoption and implementation. Our survey reveals clear opportunities to strengthen districts processes by addressing foundational barriers, designing comprehensive approaches, and strategically leveraging both internal expertise and external support.
1. Establish strong foundations. Given their reported challenges with technology compatibility and regulatory compliance, districts should prioritize mapping requirements, aligning timelines, and ensuring systems are ready before reviews even begin. Rhode Island’s approach—defining HQIM and providing statewide guidance and resources—shows how early clarity can lead to more consistent, successful decisions.
2. Design comprehensive processes. Adoption must be understood as a long-term process, not a single event. Confidence in choosing materials is meaningless if districts fail to plan for piloting, evaluation, and teacher support. Building a clear instructional vision, detailed roadmaps, and professional learning plans from the outset helps connect early choices to classroom impact.
3. Prioritize educator voice and stakeholder consensus. Teachers bring expertise no one else can, and their early involvement is critical for building ownership. At the same time, families and communities need structured opportunities to contribute and understand decisions. Louisiana’s experience illustrates the power of deep engagement: teacher enthusiasm has sustained HQIM use for over a decade.
4. Leverage external expertise strategically. In a resource-constrained environment, selective partnerships can free up district capacity, strengthen communication and stakeholder engagement, and support smoother implementation. Using free, trusted resources such as EdReports’ independent curriculum reviews and adoption resources can free up internal capacity. Further, the most effective external support helps to build local expertise over time, as Rhode Island’s district learning cohorts demonstrate.
When these four elements come together—strong foundations, comprehensive planning, authentic engagement, and strategic support—districts can move toward a curriculum adoption process that delivers on the promise of HQIM: better teaching and stronger outcomes for all students.
