In a study of 15 Southern Regional Education Board (SREB) states, researchers at SREB identified the degree to which the Virginia 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 Virginia

• The department offered a few types of professional learning, including:
  • Notable assistance for differentiating instruction for diverse learners. The department supported selected demonstration sites across the state that hosted classroom observations, and offered follow-up virtual coaching to interested schools.
  • Notable pilot program on aligning classroom formative assessments. In partnership with the Appalachia Regional Comprehensive Center, the department provided professional learning on aligning formative assessment practices for teams from volunteer schools. The pilot began in 2014-15 and included a statewide meeting, online modules and regular school-based meetings. The department reported plans to expand this effort statewide based on lessons from the pilot.

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?

Virginia provided essential leadership and support in this area.

The department established two sets of criteria for assessing the quality of instructional materials and their alignment to the state’s college- and career-readiness standards—the Standards of Learning (SOL), the revisions to which educators began implementing in 2016-17. One set of criteria was a rubric to review textbooks and to inform the development, review and selection of instructional materials for one of the department’s online resource repositories. For another one of its online repositories, the department only used the SOL to review and select items, with no additional alignment criteria. The department established a process that involved educators for developing, reviewing and selecting online, on-demand instructional materials for one of its repositories.

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 not required to select items from the board-adopted list, but were expected to conduct a review process similar to that of the state.	The department provided a rubric (a document that outlines expectations, guidelines and procedures) to the state textbook review committees to inform their reviews.	Textbook review committees, made up of department-appointed teachers and leaders of schools and divisions (districts), were responsible for reviewing and recommending items for adoption by the board. Adopted every seven years, math was most recently adopted in 2011, followed by ELA in 2012.
Online, On-Demand Instructional Materials
The department provided English, math and reading collections of model lesson plans, unit plans and practice assessments. Educators could use these items to inform their planning.	The department based its development and review of items on the SOL. The department did not use additional alignment criteria, such as those articulated in a rubric.	In 2012, the department collaborated with general, special and English learner education teachers to develop and review items.
The department provided the Learn24VA collection of digital instructional activities and multimedia items. Educators could use these items to inform their planning.	Materials for this repository may have been reviewed using the rubric developed for textbooks.	The department reviewed items developed by department content specialists and vendors.

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?

Virginia provided essential leadership and support in this area.

The department provided several types of guidance and instructional materials for online, on-demand access by educators. The department offered a few types of professional learning. 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. Virginia provided the following guidance documents.

• List of board-adopted textbooks
• Statewide digital textbook marketplace, enabling divisions and teachers to purchase portions of adopted textbook packages
• Math and English curriculum frameworks along with sample curriculum scope and sequence documents
• Lesson planning templates
• Archived training materials from the department’s annual math and ELA SOL institutes, including information on designing aligned instructional plans and formative assessments
• Online professional learning resources and the Virginia Tiered System of Supports Guide for School Divisions to support differentiated instruction for diverse leaners

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. Virginia provided the following types of instructional materials.

• English, math and reading model lesson plans and practice assessment items aligned to the annual statewide assessments  
• Learn24VA collection of digital instructional activities and multimedia items
• eMediaVA collections of free digital learning objects, videos and audio resources created by external providers, and classroom assessment resources created by Virginia educators
• Infinite Learning Lab collection of interactive, animated lessons developed in collaboration with the Professor Garfield Foundation
• iTunes U multimedia content for teachers, students and families

Professional Learning and Technical Assistance

• Annual SOL institutes for teachers of general and special education students and English learners, as well as school and division leaders. Offered since 2009 for math and 2012 for ELA, topics in 2015 and 2016 included designing and selecting aligned instructional materials. More than 7,000 educators had attended by 2014.
• Professional learning on aligned formative assessment practices, including a statewide meeting, online modules and regular site-based meetings for teams from volunteer schools, provided in 2014-15 in collaboration with the Appalachia Regional Comprehensive Center. The department reported plans to use lessons from this pilot to improve and expand the effort statewide.  
• Support for differentiating instruction for diverse learners, including summer co-teaching academies for general and special educators; trainings for general and English learner educators; and work with demonstration sites across the state that hosted classroom observations and offered follow-up virtual coaching to interested schools

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?

Virginia provided minimal support in this area.

The department regularly gathered one of the five types of data that SREB deemed key for state leadership. The department used the data it gathered to inform its efforts.

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	None reported
Educator perceptions of the quality of the state’s offerings	Annual SOL institute participant feedback
Educator emerging needs	None reported
Impact of state offerings on measurable teacher or student outcomes	None reported
Local curriculum alignment practices	None reported

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

• Professional development services

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

• Department staff met regularly.

Moving Forward

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

• Enhance efforts to establish clear, consistent and rigorous conventions for selecting instructional materials. Develop a rubric to guide the development and review of online instructional materials. Ensure that the rubric criteria align to the criteria in the department’s rubric for reviewing textbooks. Verify that the criteria in the rubrics fully reflect the content and rigor of the state’s standards—for example, by submitting the criteria to trusted, third-party experts for review, or basing them on nationally recognized tools. Use the criteria, in collaboration with educators, to develop and select online instructional materials at least annually, to provide educators with up-to-date items that they can access on demand to meet their needs. Clear, consistent, rigorous conventions will support the department’s efforts to provide educators with high-quality, current instructional tools for the revised SOL, which educators began implementing in 2016-17. See strong state efforts to establish clear and consistent criteria and rigorous review processes described in the Florida, Louisiana, Maryland and North Carolina profiles. 
• Continue to develop support for local efforts to design and deliver high quality instruction on the SOL.
  • See efforts to provide extensive online, on-demand guidance and instructional materials noted in the Alabama, Florida, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland and North Carolina profiles.
  • See professional learning and technical assistance initiatives that were intensive, integrated and sustained, and that reached large numbers of districts, schools or educators described in the Alabama, Louisiana and Kentucky profiles. 
• Enhance the department’s use of data for continuous improvement. Gather more types of data to inform state decision-making. For example, information on patterns of educator use of state services, and educator perceptions of the quality of the state’s offerings, will help the department design services and tools that address statewide needs and target schools and divisions that need the most support. Examining how the use of state materials and services impacts educator practice and student learning can help the department identify which of its efforts produce their desired effects and which need to be improved. See strong state efforts to use data for continuous improvement described in the Arkansas, Delaware, Tennessee and West Virginia profiles.