An elementary student reads a book to himself during class.
Credit: Allison Shelley for American Education
California’s recent NAEP report card showing our fourth- and eighth-grade students performing below pre-pandemic levels in reading is an urgent wake-up call.
As California considers how best to support literacy improvement, one area we need to get right is approving curriculum materials based on evidence, not convenience.
Unfortunately, one of the main resources states rely on for this is EdReports, an independent nonprofit whose evaluations many states and districts turn to when choosing a commercial curriculum.
On the surface, this may seem like an efficient and convenient solution.
However, EdReports, which was launched in 2015 to help districts identify instructional materials aligned to the then-newly adopted Common Core State Standards (CCSS), has long been out of sync with the body of…
