Questions to ask before you vote
On a new curriculum
- Did it pass the district's review rubric, including the gateway criteria?
- Has a version close to this one been tested for effects on student learning? What did the study find?
- What training and coaching come with it, and is that in the budget?
- How will we know in year one whether it's being taught as designed?
On professional development
- Which practices will teachers be trained in, and what is the evidence grade for each?
- Will anything we're paying for teach learning styles or other retired ideas?
- How will we see whether teachers are using it in classrooms?
On intervention and tutoring
- Is tutoring scheduled during the school day, at least three times a week?
- Who tracks attendance and progress, and how often are decisions made from the data?
On results
- What will we see before state test scores arrive: visit data, screening results, unit checks?
- Are results reported by student group, not just averages?
Plain-words glossary
| Term | Plain meaning |
|---|---|
| Science of learning | What research shows about how people learn and remember, and what that means for teaching |
| Explicit instruction | The teacher explains and shows clearly before students practice on their own |
| Retrieval practice | Pulling information from memory, such as a short quiz, to make it stick |
| Spaced practice | Coming back to material over days and weeks instead of all at once |
| Interleaving | Mixing different kinds of problems in one practice set |
| Worked example | A problem shown fully solved, step by step |
| Systematic phonics | Teaching letter-sound patterns in a planned order |
| Knowledge-building curriculum | Reading and lessons organized around connected topics in science, history, and the arts |
| Randomized trial | A study where chance decides who gets the program, the fairest test of whether it works |
| Effect size | How much a program moved scores, on a standard scale; 0.2 to 0.3 in a school trial is meaningful |
| Screener | A short test given to every student to find who needs extra help |
| Progress monitoring | Short weekly checks to see if a student in intervention is catching up |
Listening path
Parents
Practical, myth-busting, hopeful.