Giving Compass' Take:

• Michael J. Petrilli at Education Next writes about how we need to do more than just invest in order to build successful curricula. 

• How can educators combine knowledge and data to create the most effective learning techniques? 

• Here's an article on why crafting flexible curriculum requires thinking beyond and out-of-the-box. 

In my last post, I described a demand-side approach to bringing evidence-based practices into schools by developing programs and processes that help educators ask the right questions and find new solutions that work for them. Now I’d like to tackle the supply side: the creation and marketing of tools, especially curriculum, that can help drive evidence-based change in the classroom.

While the Golden Age of Education Practice might still be a figment of my imagination, the Golden Age of High Quality Curriculum is here and now. That’s because a number of promising curricula have come onto the market in recent years, driven by the opportunity window opened by the Common Core. (And no, despite what you may have heard, that window has not yet closed. Most state standards are still very close to the Core.)

Here’s how Jared Myracle, Chief Academic Officer of the Jackson-Madison school district in Tennessee, puts it:

[A] few years ago, there weren’t many curricula aligned to the new standards. Fortunately, that has changed—education leaders describe a “curriculum renaissance.” I’ve seen that firsthand: All four curricula that we adopted in Jackson-Madison County became available in the last few years.

Read the full article about how to build great curricula by Michael J. Petrilli at Education Next