Alabama – Instructional Materials

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In a study of 15 Southern Regional Education Board (SREB) states, researchers at SREB identified the degree to which the Alabama State Department of Education provided leadership and support for the statewide use of high-quality instructional materials that aligned to the state’s K-12 college- and career-readiness standards in English language arts (ELA) and math.

SREB developed a list of actions that demonstrate state leadership and support in each of the three areas listed below. These actions, or “look-fors,” guided data collection and the analysis of state efforts. Read about the look-fors in the full report, located to the right. State efforts in each area fell into one of three levels of implementation: minimal, essential or strong. In some cases, SREB researchers also designated a state action as notable. Below is a detailed description of this state’s efforts.

Table of Contents

Highlights Area 1 Area 2 Area 3 Moving Forward

Highlights from Alabama

  • Notable efforts to provide educators with online, on-demand instructional materials to meet the needs of teachers and students as they emerged. State Department of Education specialists worked with educators to develop, review and recommend items on a quarterly basis, for posting on the department’s Alabama Learning Exchange (ALEX). The department also annually reviewed all posted materials to verify their alignment and relevance.
  • Strong support for local efforts to align instructional materials. The department offered extensive guidance, such as the Guide for Professional Development/Transition Planning for Implementation of the College- and Career-Ready Standards, to help educators build their knowledge about the standards and instruction and strengthen their skills in curriculum alignment. ALEX offered an extensive and user-friendly online bank of instructional materials for educators to access on demand to help them fill gaps in local materials and implement instruction in the classroom. Offerings included model lesson and unit plans, and the Insight Tool, which enabled users to map out a full year of coordinated instruction and assessment. Based on the map, educators could select aligned units and lessons from the exchange. The department’s quarterly meetings for district leadership teams provided regular professional learning for all 136 districts. Regional support staff provided follow-up technical assistance to districts to support implementation of their new knowledge and skills. Additionally, the department’s quarterly meetings with curriculum and instruction directors in all districts helped the directors strengthen support for schools in aligning their curriculum.
  • Strong use of data to guide continuous improvement. The department regularly gathered multiple types of data including patterns in educator use of the guidance, instructional materials, professional learning and technical assistance the state offered. They gathered the data through tallies of participation in professional learning and technical assistance events; surveys of educator perceptions of quality of the department’s offerings; quarterly surveys of district leadership teams and teachers on emerging needs for guidance and support; and district site visits in which they gathered information on local curriculum selection practices. The department used the data in regular meetings of senior department leaders, regional support coordinators and staff at regional education centers; quarterly meetings of the department’s curriculum design team and college- and career-readiness standards design team, which included staff from regional education centers and teachers; and regular meetings with a teacher advisory group.

Area 1: Establishing Clear Conventions

Did the department establish clear criteria and a clear process for identifying high-quality instructional materials aligned to the state’s college- and career-readiness standards?

Alabama provided essential leadership and support in this area.

The department developed criteria to assess the quality of two types of instructional materials and their alignment to the Alabama College- & Career-Ready Standards (CCRS). The department developed one set of criteria to review and adopt textbooks, and another set, based on nationally recognized tools, to review online, on-demand instructional materials. The department established a clear process that involved educators to develop, review and recommend online, on-demand instructional materials. Notably, to ensure that its offerings met emerging needs in the field, the department developed and recommended new items on a quarterly basis and reviewed all posted items on an annual basis. 

Table 1: State Criteria and Processes for Reviewing Textbooks and Online, On-Demand Instructional Materials

    State authority and role in developing and selecting instructional materials Criteria the state used to develop and select materials Process the state used to develop and select materials
    Textbooks
    In accordance with state law:
    • The state board of education was required to adopt recommended textbooks.
    • Local boards of education were required to select textbooks from the board-adopted list, using a selection process similar to that of the state. However,  local boards could select books that were not on the state-adopted list, if those books had not been reviewed by the state.

    The department developed and provided textbook review forms to the State Textbook Committee. The forms provided look-fors and examples to help the committee identify evidence of alignment to the CCRS.

    The State Textbook Committee was responsible for reviewing and recommending items for adoption by the board. The committee was made up of board-appointed teachers, administrators, higher education representatives and governor-appointed subject area experts. The department provided training to the committee members. Items were adopted every six years. Math items were most recently adopted in 2011-12, followed by ELA items in 2012-13.

    Online, On-Demand Instructional Materials

    The department provided the Alabama Learning Exchange (ALEX) repository, which included a collection of model lesson and unit plans. Educators could use these items to inform their planning.

    The department developed checklists and the Alabama Insight Tool, based on Achieve’s Educators Evaluating the Quality of Instructional Products (EQuIP) rubrics and Student Achievement Partners’ Instructional Materials Evaluation Tool (IMET). The EQuIP rubrics (documents that outline expectations, guidelines and procedures) and the IMET are nationally recognized as clear, detailed and accurate tools to assess the quality and alignment of instructional materials to college- and career-readiness standards.

    Department content specialists and Alabama educators reviewed items developed by a curriculum design team made up of department staff and teachers, and items independently submitted by vendors, higher education faculty and K-12 educators. New items were developed and reviewed quarterly, and the department annually reviewed all posted items to verify alignment.

    Area 2: Supporting Local Efforts

    Did the department provide guidance, instructional materials, professional learning and technical assistance to build local knowledge and skills, and support educator use of aligned materials?

    Alabama provided strong leadership and support in this area.

    The department provided extensive guidance and instructional materials for on-demand access by educators. Guidance included information on how to use the nationally recognized criteria that informed the state’s development and selection of online, on-demand instructional materials (described above). SREB researchers found the department’s online resource repository to be particularly user-friendly. Additionally, the department offered multiple types of coordinated professional learning and technical assistance, reaching leadership teams from all districts in the state. Examples of the department’s efforts include the following.

    Guidance

    Guidance could include information about the standards and aligned teaching strategies, rubrics for gauging alignment of instructional materials, templates for designing aligned instruction, lists of adopted textbooks and online professional learning resources. Alabama provided the following guidance documents.

    • List of board-recommended textbooks rated for quality and alignment in three tiers
    • Explanations of standards content progressions across grade levels, and a curriculum scope and sequence developed by the Charles A. Dana Center
    • Guide for Professional Development/Transition Planning for Implementation of the College- and Career-Ready Standards that included information on developing and adopting aligned curriculum and assessments, and on using the EQuIP rubrics and IMET
    • Extensive archived training materials on curriculum review and alignment from the department’s quarterly district CCRS implementation team meetings, quarterly curriculum and instruction director meetings, summer teacher boot camps, and 2013 EQuIP academies  
    • Alabama Insight Tool with information and exemplars to help educators understand the CCRS, develop aligned lessons and assessments, and map out a full year of coordinated instruction and assessment
    • Online eLearning professional learning courses provided in partnership with Alabama Public Broadcasting, and developed by a 10-state collaborative funded by a Ready to Teach grant
    • Extensive guidance for planning differentiated instruction for diverse learners, including special education curriculum guides; a Response to Intervention manual and archived training materials; universal screening and progress monitoring guides; and a video library of differentiation strategies for gifted learners 

    Instructional Materials

    Instructional materials could include a variety of tools and resources that educators use to plan and deliver instruction, such as model lesson and unit plans, sample formative assessments, textbooks, student workbooks and manipulatives, recommended texts and videos, and multimedia learning tools. Alabama provided the following types of instructional materials.

    • ALEX and the CCRS website, included extensive collections of model lesson and unit plans, digital classroom activities in the form of videos and podcasts, and ELA and math co-teaching models to support the differentiation of instruction for students with disabilities
    • Online Scantron system with school and district access to standards-aligned formative assessments

    Professional Learning and Technical Assistance

    • Quarterly professional learning meetings for district CCRS implementation teams from all 136 districts. Regional support staff including representatives from the Alabama Reading Initiative, the Alabama Math, Science and Technology Initiative and Regional In-Service Centers provided coordinated, ongoing technical assistance to districts to support implementation of their new knowledge and skills. This initiative began in 2012-13. In 2015-16, meeting topics included developing aligned lessons and formative assessments, examining student work and differentiating instruction. See SREB’s May 2016 Alabama professional learning profile for a full description of the initiative.
    • Quarterly technical assistance meetings for district curriculum and instruction directors. Since 2013-14, all districts have participated. These meetings focused on aligning instructional materials, implementing aligned assessment systems and supporting the work of the district CCRS implementation teams.
    • Training on Literacy Design Collaborative and Mathematics Design Collaborative practices and tools for teachers at schools in need of improvement. This initiative began in 2014-15, in partnership with SREB. The department reported plans to scale the practices and tools statewide.  
    • Summer teaching academies for applicable content area educators on evaluating the alignment of instructional materials and classroom assessments. The academies began in 2013-14, and 450 teachers attended in 2015. The department also offered quarterly conferences for district special education coordinators, biannual meetings for special education teachers, and sessions during annual MEGA and Alabama Educator Technology conferences, to help teachers meet the needs of diverse learners.

    Area 3: Using Data to Continuously Improve State Efforts

    Did the department regularly gather and use multiple types of data in order to continuously improve its leadership and support for the statewide alignment of instructional materials to college- and career-readiness standards?

    Alabama provided strong leadership and support in this area.

    The department regularly gathered four of the five types of data that SREB deemed key for helping states continuously improve, including information on local curriculum alignment practices. Leaders and staff from across the agency, and educators and partners, participated in analysis and discussion of the data. The department used the data in three ways to inform its work.

    Table 2: Data the Department Gathered to Inform its Efforts

    Key types of data Data sources

    Educator use of state guidance and instructional materials, and educator participation in the professional learning and technical assistance the department offered

      • Tallies of participation in the professional learning and technical assistance the department offered
      • 2016 survey of 9,000 teachers

      Educator perceptions of the quality of the state’s offerings

      • Quarterly surveys of district CCRS implementation teams
      • 2016 survey of 9,000 teachers

      Educator emerging needs

        • Quarterly surveys of district CCRS implementation teams
        • 2014 survey of 14,000 teachers

        Impact of state offerings on measurable teacher or student outcomes

        • None reported

        Local curriculum alignment practices

          • Quarterly review of district CCRS implementation team professional development and CCRS transition plans
          • District site visits conducted randomly and periodically
          • Local board of education reporting of textbook selection. Most recent data showed that almost all local boards selected items from the state board-recommended list.

           The department used this data to improve three of its supports for local instructional materials alignment:

          • Guidance and instructional materials for educators
          • Professional learning and technical assistance for district CCRS implementation teams
          • Feedback to district leaders on their professional development and CCRS transition plans

          The department established the following routines to analyze data, discuss findings and determine actions to address identified needs:

          • The state superintendent and senior department leaders regularly met with department regional support coordinators and staff at regional education centers.
          • The department’s curriculum design team and CCRS design team, which both included staff from across the department and from regional education centers, as well as teachers, met quarterly.
          • The department met regularly with an advisory group of teachers from across the state.

          Moving Forward

          As Alabama strives to continuously improve, state leaders may consider the following recommendations.    

          • Enhance efforts to establish clear, rigorous and consistent conventions for identifying high-quality instructional materials aligned to state standards. Establish consistent criteria to develop, review and select both textbooks and online, on-demand instructional materials. As the department developed its textbook review criteria internally, take steps to verify that the criteria fully reflect the content and rigor of the state’s standards. For example, the department could submit its criteria to trusted, third-party experts for review, or could base its criteria on nationally recognized tools. See strong state efforts to establish conventions described in the Florida, Louisiana, Maryland and North Carolina profiles.
          • Continue and enhance the state’s strong use of data to drive improvement. For example, examine how the use of state materials and services impacts educator practice and student learning. See other strong state efforts to use data, including impact data, for continuous improvement described in the Arkansas, Delaware, Tennessee and West Virginia profiles.