5 Facts about the CalCurriculum Math Adoption Cohort

Educators are dedicated to selecting quality curriculum

This March, we concluded our latest CalCurriculum Math Adoption Cohort, wrapping our sixth and final day together. It was an honor to work alongside educators from throughout California on best practices as districts prepare to select high quality math materials. 

Lacy Knight, a middle school math teacher on special assignment (TOSA) from Norwalk-La Mirada Unified School District (NLMUSD), summarized some of her team’s takeaways from the cohort:

“[NLMUSD] created a vision, developed a subcommittee, created goals, and are starting to refine our timeline (backwards planning). We made decisions on what high-quality instructional materials look like and began a communication process for all teachers to be part of the process.”

Lacy and the team at NLMUSD are doing the important adaptive change work that’s necessary to set up their adoption process for success.  

Below are some additional impacts, learnings, and highlights of our work in the cohort this year:

1. 16 California Local Education Agencies, including districts, charters, and county offices of education joined the cohort this year and demonstrated their commitment to ensuring all students have access to high quality math curriculum.
   
2. The majority of this year’s cohort districts and CMOs plan to adopt new math materials next year (2022–23).
   
3. Hybrid facilitation (on Zoom and in-person) — while presenting some logistical challenges — allowed for more equitable access to resources and best practices for educators.
   
4. The majority of cohort participants named equity — specifically for English Learners — as a top priority in their adoption. Collaborating with English Learners Success Forum (ELSF) allowed us to bring in experts from the field to facilitate our learning as we strive to support student subgroups disproportionately affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.
   
5. Resources from EdReports and Pivot Learning were well-received by participants, with CalCurriculum reviews of instructional materials a major highlight of our work together.

We are currently learning more about the impacts of this cohort through focus groups and are looking forward to continuing to grow and improve next year. If you or a district or charter management organization (CMO) you know would benefit from a free professional development opportunity through the 2022–23 Math Adoption Cohort, you can indicate your interest here. We’d love to have you!