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Karen Vaites Profile picture
@karenvaites
Nov 13, 2021 • 17 tweets • 12 min read • Read on X
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I spent my week in Massachusetts, which is Balanced Literacy Territory, meeting amazing educators shifting away from BL.

LOTS to say about that…

But let’s start with a look at the market share of the lowest-rated curricula for elementary ELA.

#CurriculumMattersMA Image
First, a fun fact:

Massachusetts is the only state to publish info on the curriculum used in each district. Find it here: google.com/maps/d/u/0/vie…

HT @MASchoolsK12. 👏

It’s such valuable info that you’d think every state would do this! The other 49 do not. Image
I spent time with the map, which shows the curricula used in 177 of 404 districts in MA. So, it’s a partial sample.

I found 55 districts that use Reading Workshop / Units of Study, including “top” districts like Brookline.

Summary:
docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d…
#CurriculumMattersMA Image
Another 21 districts in Massachusetts use Fountas & Pinnell, a curriculum with similar DNA. Image
So, based on this sample, that’s 31% of districts using the @TeachersCollege Reading Workshop approach alone.

43% of districts use either #tcrwp or @FountasPinnell.

These are the two lowest-rated curricula in K-2 English Language Arts.

#CurriculumMattersMA
When we met with @pentucketteach, I shared my analysis with him. His immediate reaction was that it underestimates the use of these programs. (Again, the heat map = a partial sample.)

He believes 60% of MA districts are using a Balanced Literacy program. (There are multiple.) Image
In any case, these curricula are very popular in Massachusetts... and the latest reviews of both put them at the bottom of the barrel.

Lowest-rated in K–2
Two of the three lowest-rated in grades 3-8

These aren't the first critiques of these programs...

edweek.org/teaching-learn…
In January, 2020, a review of Reading Workshop by seven literacy experts found the program "unlikely to lead to literacy success" for all students: eduvaites.org/2020/01/25/und…

@ehanford's journalism has been illuminating issues with the program since 2018:
The concerns are not new. Yet these curricula remain deeply popular.

The good news: pioneering districts are starting to break away from them.

Here's a thread from UP Academy Holland, which recently changed from F&P. Follow #KnowledgeMatters for more.
As in other regions, parents have caught onto the issues. In some cases, they have organized.

Parents have organized in Winchester (#TCRWP district). Hear their voices in this video from @UnitedLiteracy.

Follow leaders @Sarahabbottganz @amypoftak.

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I’d encourage hearing from the districts that have made the switch away from these curricula for unique perspective; the recent #KnowledgeMatters School Tour is a fantastic source of insight.

Also, search #CurriculumMattersMA for more.
Another interesting perspective on #MassLiteracy:
But mostly, listen to the educators who’ve figured out that these popular programs are not serving children.

Really, listen to @mandymholl.
I just learned that Rhode Island also has a new-ish curriculum map:
ride.ri.gov/InstructionAss…

HT @lkbivona.

One callout: “locally-developed and/or multiple” very often means that @FountasPinnell is somewhere in the mix, at least as the assessment. Image
These comments from a parent in a MA district listed as having “district-developed” curriculum (there are at least 15 districts like this in MA) are telling.

F&P is frequently used as part of the mix, as is the “workshop model” popularized by @TeachersCollege. ImageImage
In any case, while curriculum landscape is a bit different in RI, the main observation is same: most districts do not use high-quality curricula.

As of 2019, only 7% of districts nationally used high-quality, standards-aligned programs in K-5 ELA:
edweek.org/teaching-learn…
Another curriculum map!

Add Wisconsin to the list:
wimaterialsmatter.org

HT @sjbriggs. 3 states down, 47 to go.

As before, I didn’t need to scroll far to find #tcrwp.

#CurriculumMattersMA Image

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More from @karenvaites

Karen Vaites Profile picture
Apr 8
A key reminder in the Science of Learning conversation:

You can always find weak studies to support adult preferences about how kids should learn.

Here’s a good example. This was recently tweeted by a prominent teacher, in defense of choice reading (letting kids pick the books they read).

files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ116…Image
If you read the study, you realize:

The authors are fully bought into the theory, common in education, that enjoyment of a task improves your outcome with the task.

Just because it does. Image
.@C_Hendrick talked about this common misperception in his brilliant keynote at @researchED_US.

This was the segment:
Read 9 tweets
Karen Vaites Profile picture
Apr 7
.@C_Hendrick’s keynote at @researchED_US was astoundingly good.

I caught most of it on video…

Sorry that it’s in Tweetable chunks, but I promise that it’s worth the headache of pressing Play a few times.

What is learning, Carl asks?
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The problem is that learning is highly counterintuitive.

How we think we learn, and how we actually learn, are more often than not very far apart.

@C_Hendrick
@C_Hendrick As he outlines the six paradoxes of learning, @C_Hendrick speaks personally about #2, the difference between working memory and long-term memory.

“I had no idea about this for the first 5 years of my teaching.”
Read 16 tweets
Karen Vaites Profile picture
Apr 6
Are these educational beliefs familiar to you?

They were once familiar to, and believed by, @MrZachG.

“I’m not a contrarian. I believed what I was told” in teacher preparation.

At @researchED_US: Image
His learning journey brought him to more effective practices.

@MrZachG details Project Follow Through, a massive US study of instructional approaches that showed the relative effectiveness of explicit instruction vs more popular approaches. Image
@MrZachG In his podcast, @MrZachG goes into detail on Project Follow Through with some of the original participants, including Linda Carnine:

It’s a fascinating listen! podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/pro…
Image
Read 4 tweets
Karen Vaites Profile picture
Jan 13
Remarkably busy week on the state curriculum adoption front. A mixed bag of news, illustrating fragmented landscape.

Here’s a roundup thread.

The good:

MN short lists truly high-quality curriculum options. No weak basal programs on the list.

👍
The bad:

A mostly-grim list of options out of South Carolina.

Core Knowledge Language Arts is the only high-quality option on a list dominated by mediocre basal series.
“I’ll take Lunch On Site, please” has been the best running joke about South Carolina’s options.

😂😂
Read 8 tweets
Karen Vaites Profile picture
Aug 18, 2023
It’s the seventh school day in Sumner County, Tennessee.

Fourth graders are already writing “well-developed” essays about their interpretation of multiple nonfiction texts.

The kind of teaching that produces this work = what every child deserves.

@scottlangford72
Also, this is a curriculum story. Sumner Cty uses one of the six high-quality curricula designed for this type of work.

@jenni_copeland didn’t invent this lesson, it was part of her curriculum. She is clearly crushing it. 🙌

If this isn’t happening in your school…

Why not?
@jenni_copeland Hope you are following @jenni_copeland… her work knocks my socks off every year.

And this didn’t just happen, y’all… Jenni and her curriculum have been building to this, intentionally.

Earlier:
Read 7 tweets
Karen Vaites Profile picture
Jul 16, 2023
This article is pay walled, so people are mostly reacting to a tweet about it, I sense.

They might react more strongly if they were reading the contents.

Screenshots in tweets that follow.

bostonglobe.com/2023/07/14/met…
Read Superintendent Greer’s quote in all of this context.

Families with the option of leaving are bailing to give their kids access to accelerated math previously offered in Cambridge.

Yet she believes she’s producing greater equity with the watered-down approach.

🤯


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Oops we blew away algebra during COVID!

🤯

Does anyone understand this chart? @huffakingit


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Read 5 tweets

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